Discover all of the features and functions of the new notification system. Compared to what we’re used to, it’s far more detailed and smart.
This guide is part of the Transition Tutorials.
Summary
In order to utilize the new notifications, you will need to get familiar with new concepts like watching, tracking, normal, and mute. This tutorial will show you how and where to configure and adjust the different kinds of notifications to suit your needs.
Before describing all of the notification settings, we need to first get familiar with the four notification intensity levels.
Notification intensity levels
When setting up notifications, you will need to select how often you will be alerted. The 4 intensity levels are described in the screenshot below. They are listed from high to low intensity.
The highest intensity level is called Watching. You will be notified about all new topics and replies. Use this level only if you are super interested or want a lot of notifications.
The second highest intensity level is Tracking. You will get fewer notifications; instead, you will see tiny red numbers in your topics feed. In the screenshot below you can se an example of the red tracking counters.
These numbers indicate how many unread replies you have under this particular topic.
The normal notification intensity level will also ensure you are informed when someone tags or replies to you. You get a lot fewer notifications compared to *watching" and tracking.
The fourth level is Muted and it means what it says! No notifications coming your way.
Please remember that watching is more intense than tracking, and you will be fine.
Selecting the notification intensity level can be done individually for topics, categories, tags, and in general. This allows you to customize your alerts much more precisely to your interests.
This tutorial covers the content of 3 menu items under Preferences. They are marked in the screenshot below.
There is a lot to cover, so this tutorial is relatively long. You may want to read only the parts that are of special interest to you. Or wait reading this until you feel a need to fine-tune your notification settings. Feel free to bookmark this tutorial.
Main notification preferences
Under Notifications in the Preferences menu, you can set the following
Likes notifications
This is where you decide if you want notifications when someone likes a reply or topic of yours.
Your options are:
- Always
- First time a post is liked and daily
- First time a post is liked
- Never
PS: The term post covers both topics and replies.
Live notifications
The new Connect is not an app, but your device may allow Connect to display system/native pop-up notifications like when you get chat or Facebook notifications.
Here is an example of what Connect notifications can look like on a desktop:
This setting can be difficult to get right, hence two screenshots:
When live notifications are turned OFF, you see this:
Hit Enable Notifications to get system/native pop-up notifications.
When live notifications are turned ON, you see this:
Hit Disable Notifications to stop system/native pop-up notifications.
Notification Schedule
Use this setting if you prefer not to be disturbed by notifications at night or on weekends.
This will block all types of notifications outside the times specified.
Follow settings
Here you can specify if other users are allowed to follow you and notifications related to followers.
Now we are moving on to the next item called *Emails on the Preferences menu.
Email notification preferences
Under Emails in the Preferences menu, you can set the following:
Personal message settings
Specify if you want an email when someone sends you a private message.
Here your options are:
- Always
- Only when away
- Never
When tagged etc
Specify if you want an email when someone tags you etc. on Connect.
Here your options are:
- Always
- Only when away
- Never
Include previous replies
Here your options are:
- Always
- Unless previously sent
- Never
With this setting, you can prevent emails from topics with many replies getting super long.
Activity summaries
You can specify how often and how detailed you want the summaries sent to your inbox when you are not online on Connect.
Now onto the settings found under Preferences | Tracking.
Overall Tracking settings
Under Tracking in the Preferences menu, you can specify with which intensity you want to get notified when it comes to topics, categories, and tags. Hit this link (coming soon) if you need a refresher on topics, categories, and tags. The settings are very detailed, so there is a lot to show and explain. Don’t forget to hit the blue Save changes button.
There are 3 parts: one for topics, one for categories, and one for tags.
Tracking topics
The 4 tracking topics fields are explained below.
Field 1: Lets you decide when new topics are no longer new. So if you don’t open a topic, older topics will not show with a blue dot.
Your options are:
Below you can see a blue dot indicating this topic is new. This will dissapear after the time you select in field 1 eventhough you haven’t read the topic.
Field 2: Can be used if you want Connect to automatically turn on watching, assuming you open topics you are interested in. This is an intelligent way to let Connect adapt to your interests.
Your options are:
Never, Immediately, After 30 seconds up to After 10 minutes.
Select a longer time to get fewer topics on your watch list.
Field 3: Can be used to set the default notification intensity level for new topics written by you.
Your options are Watching, Tracking, and Normal.
Field 4: This setting relates to topics that get closed by Google Moderators. This rarely happens, but the monthly intro topics do get closed at the of the month. I think leaving this unchecked will result in fewer notifications. However, the text “Consider topics read when closed” would make more sense.
Keep in mind, you can always change the notification intensity level for individual topics. There is a drop-down selector on a grey button for this under each topic you read. It looks like this:
Notice the grey help text explaining what the different intensity levels means.
Example
Recently, I was suddently getting notified about all replies in a thread. To stop this, I opned the topic and changed this setting:
to this:
And the problem imediately was solved.
On desktop, there is also a bell located to the right of topics, as shown here:
Setting the notification level for individual topics will overwrite the default settings.
Now we are moving on to the next section under Tracking.
Tracking categories
Here you can specify the notification intensity level for each category. This can be helpful if your more interested in some categories than others. As you may have noticed, a new notification level is available here. It is called Watching First Post. This allows you to avoid getting notifications for replies. This is the one I normally use.
Notice the grey buttons named Show. Use these to how the selected settings will affect your category feeds.
Decide which categories you want to watch, track, see new topics for, or mute. Then hit the plus sign to show the drop-down list to select the categories you want to add under each notification intensity level. Tap/click on selected categories you want to remove.
Don’t forget to hit Save changes.
Now, on to the last set of settings under Tracking.
Tracking tags
Notification intensity levels can be specified for tags you are interested in. The same 4 intensity levels are available here.
So if photography, reviews, or map-editing is your thing you can ensure to be notified about it. Again, I recommend using Watching first post to avoid replies. And if there are tags you dislike (maybe road-editing, lets-celebrate, or Street-View) these can be added under Muted.
You have reached the end of Overall Tracking settings. Next up is the bell feed.
The bell feed
Next to your profile picture there is a tiny bell-shaped icon. Hit it, and your bell notification feed will show up.
In the screenshot below, the bell is shown with a tiny red envelope indicating that a private message is waiting for you.
When you open the Bell feed, you will see 6 filter buttons at the top. The numbers indicate how many unread notifications you have of each type.
You can hit these to sort your notifications.
Unread notifications are marked with a tiny blue dot next to the profile picture. Click/tap on any notification you would like to open.
At the buttom, you see these two buttons named View all and Dismiss.
View all will open a new layout of the bell feed where unread items have a blue background rather than just the blue dot.
Dismiss is used to mark all notifications as read. Then the blue dots and backgrounds disappear. The numbers in the filter buttons at the top also disappear.
Next to each notification, you will see tiny icons that help you know the type of notification.
Types of notifications shown in this screenshot from the top: reply, like, tag, and message.
When you get quoted you will also automatically get notified:
Tap/Click on those notifications you would like to read.
This concludes the bell feed and the tutorial. Thanks for reading all the way to the end.
Credit: The oil painting shown at the top is Beach at Trouville by Eugène Boudin. Painted in 1864/5. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.