Notifications

When a colleague mentions you, assigns you a task, comments on one you are watching, or a reminder comes due, it reaches you in three places: the bell in the top bar for a quick look, the Inbox window for working through them, and your email for the ones that matter most. This article covers all three, and the preferences under My Profile that shape them.

What you are notified about

Today notifications come from Tasks. The people on a task hear about what happens to it: its creator, its assignee, anyone who commented on it or was mentioned in it, and anyone who chose to watch it. See Watching in The Task Window for who is on a task and how to stop following one.

The Bell

The bell in the top bar is a peek at what is unread, newest first. It shows one row per task. A task with several notifications shows the one that needs you most, with and N more beside its label. The red badge counts the tasks that need you: a mention, an assignment, a reminder, a task that is no longer blocked, or a task you are on that was completed. A comment on a task you are merely watching is in the list without lighting the badge. Hover the bell to see what the number means.

Each row says who did what (the colleague's avatar with the kind of notification in its corner, or an alarm for a reminder), the task's number and name, the first line of the comment, when the task is due, and how long ago the task last had news.

Read a Notification

Clicking a row takes you to the task and marks its notifications read.

Steps:

1. Click the bell to open it.
2. Click a row. The task opens in its window. A row about a comment lands the thread on that comment.

Result: Every notification about that task is marked read at once: one task, one line of the queue. Mark all read clears the lot. Scrolling to the end of the list fetches earlier ones, as does Load older. Open inbox opens the window described next, and the cog opens your notification preferences.

The Inbox

The Inbox is where you work through notifications: a window you can bring to empty. Open it from the bell's Open inbox or the Inbox button on the Tasks page. It has three tabs. Unread and Snoozed show one row per task, each with its count. All is the last 90 days, one row per notification, including what you have read. Under the tabs is a row of type filters that combine. Click Mentions and Reminders to see only those.

On Unread and Snoozed, a task with several notifications is one row that says and N more. With a filter on, N counts only the kinds you chose. An action on the row applies to every notification about the task. Scrolling to the end of any tab loads what came before. Notifications are kept for 90 days after they arrive or wake. The task's own Activity thread is the permanent record.

Kinds of Notification

What each label means, which make a task count toward the bell's badge, and which are also emailed. A task shows under the label that needs you most: a mention followed by three comments is listed as Mentioned you, and 3 more.

Act on a Notification

Each row carries up to five actions. A snoozed row has no Mark read. Hover an action for its name. An action on a task's row applies to every notification about that task, including any not yet loaded.

Snooze a Notification

Make a notification disappear until you can deal with it.

Steps:

1. Click the alarm on a row.
2. Pick +1 hour, Tomorrow, +3 work days, Friday or Monday (resolved against your working hours), or enter a date and time and click Snooze. A snooze can be up to 30 days.

Result: The row leaves the bell and the Unread tab and waits on the Snoozed tab, soonest first, where Wake now brings it back early. When its time comes it returns to the top of your queue marked Snoozed until now, and lights the badge again if it did the first time.

Deal with Several at Once

Tick rows to act on them together.

Steps:

1. Tick the box on each row. A bar appears above the list saying how many rows are selected.
2. Click Mark read or Snooze to apply to all of them, or Clear to drop the selection. Nothing is ever deleted.

Find an Older Notification

Reach a mention or a comment from weeks ago without scrolling through everything since.

Steps:

1. Open the All tab.
2. Narrow it with a type filter, such as Mentions.
3. Pick a day in Jump to. The list starts on that day and runs back from it. Clear the date to return to the newest.

Result: Scrolling to the end of the list loads what came before it. Notifications older than 90 days are gone from here. The task's Activity thread still has them, and Search in the top bar finds comments by their words. See Searching.

Keyboard Shortcuts

With the Inbox window in front, the keyboard works through the list.

Notification Preferences

Under My Profile › Notifications, the Tasks section holds four settings. They are saved with the profile's Save changes button. The cog on the bell and in the Inbox is a shortcut to it. Times here are in your profile's time zone. Set that on the General tab.

Set Your Preferences

What each setting controls.

Related Topics

• Tasks
• The Task Window
• Tasks from a Conversation
• My Profile