Helping your girls set up alerts
One step in this whole product can fail quietly, and this is it. A girl can look completely set up and receive nothing. Here is how to know the difference.
Why iPhones need an extra step
On an iPhone, alerts only work once the app has been added to the Home Screen from Safari's share menu. An ordinary browser tab cannot receive them at all — this is Apple's rule, not ours, and there is no way around it.
So a girl who opened your link, looked at the schedule, and closed the tab is not set up, even though everything she saw worked fine. This is the single most common reason a contestant misses a room change.
Android is simpler: she gets an install prompt and a permission box, and that is it.
The app walks her through it, and then proves it worked
She is shown the steps for her own phone — iPhone instructions on an iPhone, Android on Android — never a menu of platforms.
Then the important part: we send her a real alert and ask if she saw it. Nobody is counted as set up on a promise. If that alert never arrives, she is not marked ready, and your list will say so.
The green line is the whole check
Her home screen always shows one line: green alerts are active, or red you will not receive pageant alerts. There is a button next to it to send herself a test at any time.
That line is the check. Not whether the icon is on her phone — an installed app with notifications switched off looks perfectly healthy and delivers nothing.
When it says red
The app works out why and gives her one instruction. Usually it is one of three things:
- She is still in the browser. The fix is opening the app from the Home Screen icon. She is shown how again.
- Notifications were declined. On an iPhone the prompt cannot be shown again, so she is given the exact path: Settings, Pageant Alert, Notifications, Allow.
- Her connection went stale — a new phone, a restore from backup. It reconnects automatically and sends a fresh test.
She never sees "something went wrong." One problem, one instruction.
It re-checks itself, so your list stays honest
Alerts break silently in the real world — a phone restored from backup, a permission switched off in Settings, an app deleted from the Home Screen.
Every time she opens the app we check that it still works, and if it does not, she goes back to signed up but not set up on your list. You are looking at what is true today, not what was true in March.
Never make it a wall
A mother on a laptop is a perfectly legitimate user. So is a girl whose school phone will not install anything.
Everything is still readable in the app, and she still gets your messages by email. She is simply shown on your list as not set up for alerts, which is the truth and lets you decide whether to phone her.
Questions directors ask
Why has a contestant not received any alerts?
Almost always one of three things: she is opening it in a browser instead of from the Home Screen icon, she declined the notification prompt, or her phone was replaced or restored. The status line in her app tells her which, and gives her the matching fix.
Can I check whether a contestant is set up?
Yes. Your list shows three states for every girl: invited, signed up, and set up for alerts. Only the last one will receive a pageant-day message on her lock screen.
What if a girl refuses to install anything?
She still gets your messages by email and can still read everything in the browser. She shows on your list as signed up but not set up, so you know to phone her if something urgent happens.
Last updated 2026-08-23.