diff --git a/NucleicRemote/NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift b/NucleicRemote/NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift
index fd39e6d..194eacf 100644
--- a/NucleicRemote/NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift
+++ b/NucleicRemote/NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift
@@ -209,9 +209,35 @@ final class LiveActivityManager {
             Date().timeIntervalSince($0) >= Self.churnRefreshInterval
         } ?? true
         guard signatureChanged || (state != lastState && churnRefreshDue) else { return }
+        // When a session newly needs the user while we're backgrounded, this update carries the alert
+        // (sound/haptic) — there's no banner then, we prefer the glance. Foreground, the app UI / a
+        // banner announces it, so the glance updates silently. Computed against the *previous* state
+        // before `lastState` is overwritten.
+        let alert = foreground ? nil : Self.alert(from: lastState, to: state)
         lastState = state
         lastPushAt = Date()
-        enqueue(state)
+        enqueue(state, alert: alert)
+    }
+
+    /// The alert an update should carry when backgrounded: a session newly needs the user. An approval
+    /// (its Allow/Deny live on the glance) outranks a needs-input for the wording; a rise in neither ⇒
+    /// nil (silent update). Reuses the same localized keys as the host's pushed alert so a local and a
+    /// pushed alert read identically. Approvals/inputs that merely persist (or resolve) don't re-alert.
+    private static func alert(
+        from previous: NucleicSessionAttributes.ContentState?,
+        to next: NucleicSessionAttributes.ContentState
+    ) -> AlertConfiguration? {
+        if next.approvalCount > (previous?.approvalCount ?? 0) {
+            return AlertConfiguration(
+                title: LocalizedStringResource("approval.title"),
+                body: LocalizedStringResource("approval.pending"), sound: .default)
+        }
+        if next.needsYouCount > (previous?.needsYouCount ?? 0) {
+            return AlertConfiguration(
+                title: LocalizedStringResource("input.title"),
+                body: LocalizedStringResource("input.pending"), sound: .default)
+        }
+        return nil
     }
 
     /// Start the process-lived observers that make push-to-start work: the device's push-to-start