Greetings, everyone! Early access is almost here, and you've probably been keeping track of all the different news and announcements we've been posting.

With that in mind, we'd like to introduce the "News Alerts" Feature for the FINAL FANTASY XIV Companion App!

Before we dive in, I'd like to talk about the FINAL FANTASY XIV Companion App for those of you that may not know about it.

1. The app is available for free!
2. You can keep in touch with friends on the go, trade and sell items, and purchase items from the Market Board, all via the app!
3. By simply using the app, you can register one additional Aetheryte as a favorite destination in-game!
4. You can unlock the "Tomestone" emote in-game!

There are many other useful features besides the ones I mentioned, so please be sure to check out the app.

Well then, onto the main subject, the "News Alerts" feature!

The "News Alerts" feature will allow you to easily view various news and topics published on the Lodestone as well as enable push notifications for them on your smartphone.

This will allow you to stay up-to-date with maintenance announcements, events, and other important information about the game.

Since we want everyone to be able to customize their notifications from the app, the default push notification setting is "Off." Therefore, be sure to turn push notifications "On" if you'd like to receive them.

You can change news notification settings from the "App Settings" menu.

There are 5 different types of notifications - Topics, Notices, Maintenance, Updates, and Status.

Let's take a look at each feature!

● Topics
Topics highlight patch notes, information about various events and campaigns, and other important news about FINAL FANTASY XIV.

● Notices
Notices include information regarding the operation of various services for FINAL FANTASY XIV, as well as information on congested/preferred worlds, character creation changes and any issues that the game may be experiencing.

● Maintenance
Maintenance posts include information regarding maintenance for the game, the Mog Station, the Companion App, and various other features.

● Updates
Update posts notify version updates for the game, the Companion App, the Lodestone, and various other features.

● Status
Check out the Status section to find information regarding the network status of the game and various other features.

The idea behind the "News Alerts" feature is to instantly update your smartphone with all of these announcements.

Until now, we've mainly posted these announcements through Twitter, the Lodestone, and the Letter from the Producer LIVE. Since this new feature will be especially useful for keeping up-to-date with the latest information on Shadowbringers, please review your notification settings!

We plan to continue updating the FINAL FANTASY XIV Companion App in the future, so please look forward to it!

- Zhexos
Community team