A system and method for propagating device settings to a data communications client from a host on a mobile device, the system having at least one host application adapted to operate on the mobile device host and further adapted to change device settings on the mobile device; a notification means adapted to notify the data communications client of device settings changes on the mobile device; a mode setting at the data communications client, the mode setting adapted to indicate whether client applications on the data communications client should use device settings from the host; and a client settings application adapted to receive a notification from the notification means and change device settings for the client applications if the mode setting indicates the client applications should use device settings from the host.