What happens when Chrome closes

This is the most important page in this documentation, and the one thing to understand before you rely on Latr for anything that matters.

Why this happens

Latr schedules reminders with the browser's own alarm system. That system is part of Chrome, and it only runs while Chrome runs. When you quit the browser, every pending alarm stops counting — not lost, just paused, because there is nothing left running to count them.

This is not a limitation of Latr specifically. It applies to every browser extension ever built, because an extension is code that lives inside a browser. The only way around it is a server that holds your reminders and pushes them to you — which means an account, your reminders leaving your machine, and a monthly bill to keep it running.

What happens instead

When Chrome starts, Latr immediately checks every reminder against the clock. Anything that came due while you were away is delivered right then.

• One reminder was due. You get it as a normal notification, and the message says how late it is — for example, that it was due three hours ago. Clicking it reopens the page as usual.
• Several were due. You get a single summary notification saying how many, rather than a stack of toasts firing at once.
• You missed the notification anyway. Latr writes a banner into the popup that stays until you dismiss it. A notification is gone the moment you look away; the banner is the durable record.

All of these are marked Missed in the Recent activity section of the popup, so there is always an answer to “did that actually go off?”.

For anything you cannot miss

Use the calendar handoff. When you save a reminder, turn on Also add to my calendar and Latr opens a pre-filled calendar entry in one click — Google Calendar, Outlook, or a downloadable .ics file for Apple Calendar and everything else.

This matters because a calendar entry reaches your phone, and no browser extension can. The two channels cover each other: Latr handles the reminder tied to the page you were on, and your calendar handles the case where the laptop stayed shut.

Letting Chrome run in the background

Chrome has a setting that keeps it running quietly after you close the last window, which means alarms keep firing. It is a Chrome setting, not a Latr one — an extension is not allowed to check it or change it for you.

Open chrome://settings/system and turn on Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed.

Whatever you choose, nothing is ever lost: reminders live in storage, not in the alarm. Alarms are rebuilt from scratch every time the browser starts, which is also why a crash, an update or a restart cannot drop one.