You don’t always have your Android phone on you, but there will be times where you will get some sort of notification on your device, that you should really not miss. Whether it’s an important call you didn’t hear because your phone was in another room, or a storm of WhatsApp messages from your impatient friends… You are sitting there at your computer, browsing Reddit or doing anything else, without realizing that you need to pick up your phone.
Lucky for all of us, there is an amazing app out there, that allows you to get all your notifications from your Android phone or tablet straight on your Mac and/or PC. And this wonderful app is called Pushbullet.
Getting Android notification on your computer – how it works
If you own multiple Android (or for that matter even iOS) devices, and you have never heard of Pushbullet, prepare to get your mind blown.
Pushbullet is a service that allows you to send simple commands (like notifications) and even files between your devices. And the beauty of it is that it works cross-platform. You can install Pushbullet on Android, iOS, use it as a web-app in your favorite browser, as well as install native apps on your Mac or Windows machine.
1. Create a free Pushbullet account to set up your notifications
The signup process could not be easier. Simply sign up with your Google or Facebook account, and you’re good to go! Unfortunately, there is not way around this, so if you don’t have either one of those, you would need to create one.
2. Download the official app
Now, to get notifications from your Android device on your Mac or PC, download the Pushbullet Android app for free from the Play Store.
3. Install the native app for your OS or the browser extension
I, personally, prefer the look of native Mac notifications. For this simple reason I have chosen to go with the native app for Mac. Either way, you can get your notifications on your computer via the browser extension (your browser needs to be running to get them) or the desktop app.
Download the browser extensions here:
- Chrome
- Firefox
- Safari (direct download) – here is how to install Safari browser extensions
Download the native apps here:
4. Enable desktop notifications
Once you have done all the above, as well as logged in to your Pushbullet account inside the Andriod app and the desktop app, make sure that you have your desktop notifications enabled.
For that, go to your apps’s settings, and tick the following two boxes:
- Enable Pushbullet Notifications
- Show my phone’s notifications
5. The last step
Just kidding. That’s it actually. Now you can (and will) get all your Android notifications across all your desktop devices if you choose from.
I have Pushbullet running on my personal computer, at the office and on all of my other mobile devices.
You can do so much more
Pushbullet is so much more than a cross-platform notification service. It’s more like a channel connecting all your devices together. Below you will see, that it took me just 15 seconds (I have actually used a timer) from taking a screenshot on my Android device and sharing it to my Mac. Take a look yourself:
I chose to send this screenshot to my personal Mac, but I could have chosen any other of my seven devices to send it to. I could have even “pushed” the file to all of them at the same time! How awesome is that!
Awesome Pushbullet IFTTT recipes
The beauty of Pushbullet it its public API, that allows integrations with services like IFTTT. Read this if you don’t know what IFTTT is (and check out the best IFTTT recipes for Android).
There are so many amazing things you can let Pushbullet do! Go ahead and check out the best Pushbullet IFTT recipes out there. I’m sure that you will find at least one that you will find extremely useful.
With all of that being said, Pushbullet is probably one of my favorite apps that I have discovered for myself in the last year or so. Pushbullet, if you are reading this – keep on doing what you are doing!
