Notifications and announcements
Which community notifications members get by email and in the app, what is on by default, how members change it, and how you announce a post to everyone with Notify all members.
Members decide for themselves how much of the community reaches them, and you have one tool that reaches everyone: the announcement. This article lists what is sent, what is on by default, and how to announce a post.
What members are notified about
Every member has a Notifications tab in their own profile, with an Email and an In-app column. In-app notifications appear under the bell icon in the community header.
| Row | Email by default | In-app by default | Email subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comments on my posts | On | On | "New Comment in community [community name]" |
| Reply to my comments | On | On | "New reply to comment in community [community name]" |
| Mentions | On | On | "You were mentioned in community [community name]" |
| Direct messages | On | On | "New message from [sender] in community [community name]" |
| Reaction to my posts | Off | On | "New reaction to your post in community [community name]" |
| Reaction to my comments | Off | On | "New reaction to your comment in community [community name]" |
| Connection requests | On | On | "[name] wants to connect with you in [community name]" |
| Admin announcements | On | On | "New post in community [community name]" |
| Weekly digest | On | Email only | "Your week in [community name]" |
| New posts | Off | On | "New post in community [community name]" |
The New posts section has an Apply to all channels row and one row per channel, so a member can follow some channels by email and mute others. Each email carries a button that opens the post, the comment or the conversation.
The bell also reports things that have no switch: reaching a new level, an activity-streak milestone, an accepted connection request, and a moderator removing the member's content.
How a member changes their notifications
Open the profile
In the community, the member clicks their avatar in the top-right corner, chooses Profile and opens the Notifications tab. The heading reads Notifications settings.
Tick what they want
They tick or untick Email and In-app per row. The Enabled notifications switch at the top turns all community notifications on or off at once.
Save
Save confirms with Notifications settings updated successfully. The settings are kept per community, so a member of two of your communities sets each one separately.
Announce a post to everyone
An announcement notifies all members about one post, by email and in the app, including members who have new-post emails turned off. It is available to the owner, admins and custom roles with the Manage community permission.
Turn on Notify all members
For a new post, flip Notify all members under the composer toolbar and click Publish. For a post that is already published, open its ⋮ menu and choose Notify all members….
Confirm
The Notify all members? window explains that everyone is notified and that sending starts in 5 minutes. Click Schedule notification. You see Notification scheduled.
Use the five minutes
The post shows a banner Announcement sends in 4:59, counting down, with a Cancel button. Only people who can announce see the banner. Until the countdown ends you can still edit the post; the email carries the edited text.
Or cancel
Cancel on the banner shows Notification cancelled and nothing is sent. The Notify all members… item returns to the post's menu, so you can schedule it again.
Rules worth knowing
| Situation | Result |
|---|---|
| A member already got the regular new-post email for this post | They do not get a second email from the announcement. One email per person per post. |
| A member unticked Admin announcements | They get nothing from announcements in the unticked column; their other notifications keep working. |
| The announcement was already scheduled or sent | It cannot be sent again: "A notification for this post was already scheduled or sent". |
| The post is scheduled for later | Notify all members is disabled while scheduling. Announce the post after it publishes. |
Good to know
Announcements work best when they are rare. Members can switch them off on their own, and a member who does will also miss the announcement that really matters. The weekly summary email is a separate feature with its own switches: see Weekly digest.
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