BloomzSet a Critical Contact so urgent notices always reach you
Critical Contact is real, and it does what the name says — it makes sure SMS and voice-call notices reach a specific person immediately, skipping Bloomz's normal cost-saving delay. But it isn't a setting you turn on for yourself: it lives on your school's side, as something a teacher or school staff member sets for a parent or student, not something you pick from your own Notifications screen.
Where it actually lives
Open your own Account > Notifications and you won't find it — that screen has Quiet Hours, the delivery-channel icons, and (on Premium) Group-Specific Notification Settings and Advanced Settings, nothing else. Critical Contact instead appears on a school staff member's Manage Parents or Manage Students screen, on the detail page for a specific family. There, next to that person's notification-channel icons, is a single Critical Contact switch, with the description "Always sends SMS and voice-call immediately for this person, skipping cost-saving delays."
What this means for you
If you're a parent or student, you can't self-serve this one — asking your school's office to mark you as a Critical Contact is the only way to turn it on. It's worth asking for if you're the primary contact for a child with a medical condition, or you simply cannot risk missing a closure notice and don't want to rely on remembering to keep your own Quiet Hours off.
If you're school staff, you'll find the switch on the parent's or student's own detail page inside Manage Parents / Manage Students — there's no separate "Critical Contacts" list to maintain elsewhere.
Watch out: regular emergency alerts already reach every family on every channel regardless of this setting — Critical Contact only matters for the narrower case of this specific person's own mute or Quiet Hours settings needing to be overridden.
Related
- Choose which notifications you receive
- Update your phone number
- Change the language Bloomz shows you