AirWallet Notifications and token approvals
When AirWallet tells you a payment arrived, and how to find and remove old Ethereum token approvals, even from a wallet whose keys are on your offline device.
Payment notifications
AirWallet can tell you when a payment arrives. It shows a notification titled "Payment received", with the amount, the coin and the wallet's name (or the start of its address if it has no name).
What triggers one
AirWallet checks balances regularly while it's open. You get a notification when a coin's balance goes up in a wallet AirWallet had already seen, between one check and the next.
You don't get one:
- The first time AirWallet looks at a wallet. Adding or watching a wallet that already holds coins doesn't trigger a notification.
- For tokens that aren't on AirWallet's lists. Spam tokens are sent to people unasked, so a token that turns up out of nowhere stays quiet. The main coins and the tokens on AirWallet's built-in lists do notify.
- On the offline signer. It never connects, so it can't see payments arrive.
If you've hidden amounts (by tapping the balance), the notification leaves the amount out. Tokens you added yourself by their contract may not notify: AirWallet only notifies for coins and tokens whose price listing it knows.
Only while AirWallet runs
Notifications come from the app itself, not from a server. Nothing outside your device watches your wallets for you. So AirWallet only notices a payment while it's open, and the notification arrives at its next balance check. In the background, Bitcoin is checked at most every 2 minutes, so a Bitcoin payment can take a little longer to show. Monero and Zcash payments show once the wallet has synced.
Turn them on or off
Go to Settings and use Notify me of payments. In the desktop and Android apps, it's on unless you turn it off.
| Where | How notifications work |
|---|---|
| Mac | Notification Center. |
| Windows | A Windows notification. |
| Linux | The desktop's notifications. |
| Android | The everyday wallet app only. On Android 13 and newer, the app asks for permission the first time a payment arrives. That first notification isn't shown, but the next ones are. The notification's details are hidden on a locked screen. |
| AirWallet Online | While the page or the installed app is open. Turning the switch on asks your browser for permission. If your browser blocks notifications for the site, allow them in the browser's settings first. |
| Chrome extension | Not available. |
On Android, there are no payment notifications while a disguise look is on. A "Payment received" notification would give away that your calculator is a wallet. See App lock, duress PINs and disguises.
Ethereum token approvals
When you use an Ethereum app, such as an exchange or an NFT marketplace, it often asks for an approval: permission for its contract to spend a token from your wallet. Many apps ask for an unlimited amount, so they don't have to ask again. For NFTs, an approval can let a contract move every NFT you own in a collection.
These permissions don't expire. They stay after you've finished with the app, sometimes for years. If that contract is later hacked, or turns out to be malicious, it can take the approved tokens without asking you again. Old unlimited approvals are a common way wallets get drained.
AirWallet can find the approvals a wallet has given and remove the ones you no longer need.
Check a wallet's approvals
- Open the wallet. It needs an Ethereum address.
- Open the ⋯ menu and select Ethereum: token approvals….
AirWallet looks up the approvals the wallet has given on each Ethereum network, then asks each token's contract what's still allowed right now. You do this from your everyday wallet, because it has to ask the networks. It works for watched wallets too.
For each approval, the list shows:
- the token (or "All NFTs of" a collection) and the network,
- how much is allowed: an amount, Unlimited, or "can move them all" for NFTs,
- who it's allowed for (the spender), linked to the network's block explorer so you can see what it is.
If nothing is left, it says "No approvals left on the networks checked."
Remove an approval
Select Remove next to an approval. Removing it is a small transaction that sets the permission back to zero, so each one costs a small network fee.
- If the wallet's keys are on this device, AirWallet shows the usual review, and you send it.
- If it's a watched wallet, AirWallet shows a QR code for your offline signer. The signer shows "Remove approval", with the token or collection and the address that's losing its permission. Check it and sign it, then scan the signed code back and send it, the same as a payment.
Networks it couldn't check
AirWallet finds approvals through each network's block explorer. If an explorer doesn't answer, that network is listed under "Not checked here (their explorer didn't answer)", with a link to revoke.cash for your address on that network. You can check and remove those approvals there.
BNB Chain and Avalanche have no free explorer AirWallet can ask, so they show up in that list unless you add an explorer API key of your own: Settings → Bitcoin and Ethereum servers → Explorer API key (Etherscan or Blockscout). BNB Chain needs Etherscan's paid plan.
If a network has more approvals than one check can hold, AirWallet says so: some approvals may be missing from the list.
The offline signer still won't give approvals
Removing an approval only takes a permission away, and the signer can show you all of it, so it signs. Giving an approval is different. The offline signer refuses any transaction that lets another address spend your tokens, because it can't show you everything that address might do with them. The app's Help & FAQ lists what else the signer won't sign, under "What won't the signer sign?".