What are motivation notifications?

The full answer

They ship switched off: the count starts at zero, and nothing is sent until you raise it and turn on at least one voice. Your phone draws the times and schedules them itself, so the feature makes no network call and no line about you leaves the device. Setting the count back to zero stops it.

It starts at zero

The whole of this feature is one page, Settings, then Notifications, then Motivation under Your reminders, and it does nothing until you go there. The count starts at 0, which is the off state, and the row reads Off. Nothing about it appears in setup or on the block screen picker, and that row is its only door, so every line this feature sends was asked for on purpose.

Two things beyond the count can stop it: emptying the pool by turning every voice off, and the master switch at the top of Settings, then Notifications. The page prints whichever one is true under the count, one line at a time, so you are never guessing why nothing is arriving.

The count, the window and the times

You set a count from 0 to 4 and a window inside 07:00 and 23:00, at least an hour wide. The two are related: the ceiling is one note plus one for every 90 minutes the window holds, so a narrow window offers fewer than four and the page prints the reason under the control rather than refusing the tap. The times themselves are drawn at random inside the window, never picked by you and never shown anywhere, with at least 45 minutes between any two. A note carries the line and no title, because a lock screen truncates a title and renders a body whole.

Once it is on it runs until you turn it off. The queue is topped up every time you open the app and again on the background wake the app already uses, so it does not run dry after a few days. The end of your protection does not stop it; four things do, and they are the count at zero, the pool emptied, the master switch off, and deleting your account.

The voices

The voices are the same ones that speak on the block screen, the ones the Block screen row in Preferences chooses between, and each speaking one carries 50 written lines. Roast me, Soft, No excuses, Make me laugh and Keep me honest are the five, and My own words is the sixth, holding only the sentences you write. Default has no lines and is not listed, because it exists to say the minimum and get out of the way. Turning a voice on adds it to the mix; the notes are drawn across everything you switched on rather than one voice per day.

Every voice row opens before it sends: tap the row and its page shows real lines under What it sends, with the switch, Send these, above them. The row itself carries no switch and only reads On or Off. While your request to end protection is open the mix narrows to Soft and your own words, at one a day, and the page says so.

What this does not do

Nothing here reaches a server. Motivation makes no network call at all: no line, no schedule and no count leaves the phone, and no keyholder or supporter is told anything about it. It asks for no permission of its own and inherits whatever delivery the app already has, so on a device that has not allowed alerts these arrive quietly in Notification Center rather than as banners. The lines never name a sport, an operator, an app, odds or a near miss, and they carry no streak and no day count. A tap on one opens Fold’em and goes nowhere in particular. And none of it touches your block: no note changes what is blocked, moves a deadline, or has any part in ending protection.