What Do 8 PM Notifications Mean?

Learn all about the 8 PM notification trend and the self-help app that inspired it

Co-authored by Glenn Carreau

Last Updated: March 20, 2023

What does the 8 PM notification mean?

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Alternate Meanings

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What is the I Am Sober app?

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Managing I Am Sober Notifications

If you browse a lot of online video platforms like TikTok or Instagram, you might have seen clips referencing an 8 PM phone notification—but what are they really talking about? We’re here to explain everything. While many mobile apps send push notifications to your phone, this particular trend refers to a specific app. Keep reading for a complete explanation of the 8 PM notification meaning and to discover more about the mysterious app designed to send notifications to users every evening.

Warning: this topic references alcohol and substance abuse, self-harm, and different forms of addiction.

Things You Should Know

The 8 PM notification refers to a sobriety app (I Am Sober) that sends users a push notification every day at 8 in the morning and night.
This notification is for a self-assessment the app sends users, asking about their mood and whether they stayed sober that day.
Some video creators online post clips about the awkward moment someone else sees an 8 PM notification from I Am Sober on their phone and asks them what it means.

Section 1 of 4:

What does the 8 PM notification mean?

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The 8 PM notification usually refers to a popular sobriety app. I Am Sober is a sobriety app designed to help users track and manage their addictions. The app sends users notifications at 8 AM and 8 PM every day, encouraging them to keep track of their sobriety pledges for that day (and the foreseeable future).^{[1]
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- I Am Sober sends other notifications at different times, and notification timing is something that users can manage and customize in the app. Not every user gets a notification at 8 pm!
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Some people joke about this on TikTok and other social apps. While browsing TikTok, Instagram, or another popular platform, you might see a video about an “8 PM notification.” In those videos, creators often use dry (and dark) humor to describe the uncomfortable moment when someone who doesn’t know about their addiction sees the 8 PM notification on their phone.
- For example, someone might make a video with the caption, “When you’re showing a friend something and that 8 PM notification comes up,” with an awkward look on their face to get the message across.
- Videos like this can often connect social media users who also use the I Am Sober app and are dealing with similar issues.
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Other app subscribers post serious videos about getting notifications. It can be really tough to talk about sobriety and addiction, even to friends and family. That’s why some videos you might see online about the I Am Sober app have a serious or emotional tone. Users posting the videos might be upset at having to explain the notifications or scared that their friends won’t understand.
- You can usually tell a funny or ironic video from a serious video based on how the person in the video looks and what they’re doing.
- For example, if a video referencing 8 PM notifications features someone looking frustrated with slow and somber music playing over it, they’re probably expressing genuine discomfort rather than dry humor.

Section 2 of 4:

Alternate Meanings

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Many different apps send timed notifications to your phone. While an “8 PM notification” usually refers to the “I Am Sober” app online, many health-related apps (and beyond) are designed to send you push notifications. So, if you see a notification on your friend’s phone (even at 8 PM on the dot), it’s not necessarily from the I Am Sober app. Popular apps that send notifications include:
- Other wellness tracking apps. Many sobriety-tracking apps send notifications, such as Try Dry and Saying When. Wellness apps, from Headspace to Noom, do the same.
- Astrology and horoscope apps. An app like Co-Star might send daily updates to your phone via push notification.
- Entertainment apps with regular updates. Streaming apps like Netflix sometimes send notifications to subscribers when a show they might like is released.
- Timed apps like BeReal. You might see someone get a push notification if they have BeReal on their phone, which encourages users to take and share authentic photos at any time in a random 2-minute period.
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Some apps allow users to set their own notification timers. In many cases, especially with timers or health and wellness apps, users can tell the app when they need to be notified about something. The notification might not be the product of a particular app that pings users at a preset time, but rather users deciding when they want to get a notification.
- For example, apps designed to help users stay on task or remember to do things on time could send a push notification at any time (including 8 pm, if that’s the user’s deadline).
- Popular time management apps include MyLifeOrganized, TickTick, and FocusMe.

Section 3 of 4:

What is the I Am Sober app?

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I Am Sober helps users track different kinds of sobriety. Abstaining from alcohol is one of the more obvious forms of sobriety, but I Am Sober (and other sobriety apps) are for people who want to overcome all kinds of addictions and bad habits, from alcohol or drug use to self-harm, smoking, eating disorders, and more.^{[2]
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- Different hashtags on TikTok and other social sites may tell you what kind of addiction the video is about. For example, a video tagged #sh is about self-harm.
- In fact, many videos tagged #iamsober are from young people struggling with self-harm and using the I Am Sober app to track their progress.
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The app notifies users at 8 PM to review their daily progress. Essentially, the app sends a daily self-assessment where users are asked about their mood, whether they're staying sober, and what they did that day. It’s a way to help users identify (and break) unhealthy patterns related to their addiction.^{[3]
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- The app’s tracking features can pinpoint how long a user has been sober to the year, month, day, and minute, so they can get a broader sense of their progress.
- The app also has community boards for every user to connect with others with the same struggles.

Section 4 of 4:

Managing I Am Sober Notifications

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Go to your device's Settings app to enable or disable notifications. Whether you want to ensure you get notifications from the app on your phone or stop it from sending you an 8 PM notification, navigate to the Settings app and scroll down until you see the I Am Sober app. Click on “I Am Sober” in the Settings app and toggle notifications on or off as needed.^{[4]
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- These instructions should work for both iPhone and Android users! Both phones should have a “Settings” app with a list of the other apps with customizable settings.
- You can also do this with any app that sends push notifications. Navigate to that app in your phone’s Settings and disable or enable notifications as you see fit.
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Turn the Do Not Disturb setting on to silence notifications. If you want to disable notifications temporarily, you could enable the “Do Not Disturb” function on your phone. Or, if you aren’t getting notifications, check to ensure that Do Not Disturb is turned off before troubleshooting further. iPhones and Android phones have a Do Not Disturb function that turns off all notifications.^{[5]
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- iPhone: Go to the Settings app and select Focus. Then, turn Do Not Disturb on or off as needed.
- Android: Open your phone’s Settings app and navigate to Sound & Vibration. Then, tap Do Not Disturb on and off as needed.