Phone Notifications, missing new messages

@billgebhardt, I have the same problem with my smartphone, an iPhone 6S plus. When I need to make sure I want to know when a call or message comes in, I use a smart watch. It is paired with my phone and it puts the vibration on my wrist.
Tony in Michigan

My children bought me an Apple watch because they were always frustrated that I didn't hear my phone. It has solved the problem for me. The vibrating on the wrist is hard to ignore!

Hello, I also use the Apple Watch and it’s paired with my iPhone 7. I find very helpful for my alarms, and notifications.

Some fitness trackers, like Fitbit, can also be paired with your phone to vibrate for text messages. That might be more economical solution if you don't want to invest in a smart watch and already have a wrist fitness tracker. People who want to phone you could send a text message first.

Thanks to all. I just bought a smart phone for about $50.00. Will report on it end of June. Bill

How did you manage to get that wonderfully low price. Do we have to wait till the end of June to learn what kind of smartphone you got? 🙂

I have the same problem of not hearing the phone. What I have done so far is try to train myself to check for messages three times a day. after breakfast, after lunch and after dinner. Otherwise I might not look at my phone for a couple of days. The watch sound like a good idea though. Do they program a watch to your phone right at the store?

Sorry, I messed up. I meant to say"...bought a smart watch" not phone. I might not have recovered from cruising all the choices in watches from $30. to $300.

@billgebhardt What watch did you end up getting? I bought mine many years ago. It was called the Pebble, one of those crowd funded projects. At the time, I found a refurbished one and paid about $30 for it. The product is no longer available. Fit Bit bought them out and dropped all support of the product. Mine still works but there will never be any updates to the app. I may buy a new product eventually. That's why I'm curious what you bought.
Tony in Michigan

@judyca7 I do not know what a store may do to help set up a watch. The watch will need to be paired with the phone and an app will most likely need to be downloaded to the smartphone. The watch needs to be in range of the phone in order to work with the phone. It will still function as a regular watch and have other functionality, if not. The watch I had, let me read the text, email, or notification on the watch, but because the watch screen is so small, I pulled out the phone to respond to any messages. As @colleenyoung mentioned, a fitness tracker product should be considered. My watch was marketed as a smartwatch but added fitness tracking later, via the app.
Tony in Michigan