Turn Google Chat notifications on or off

Notifications appear on the devices you used most recently. If you’re not active in Chat, notifications appear on all devices signed in to your Google Account.

Learn more about notifications in Chat

• You automatically receive notifications when you create or respond to a message or if someone @mentions you.
• You can turn off or customize notifications by:
  • Device
  • Product—Chat or Gmail
  • Conversation
  • Space
  • Threads in a space
• If you mute a specific conversation or set your Chat status to “Do not disturb,” you won’t receive notifications.

Tips:

• If email notifications are on, you get email reminders for Chat messages you haven’t read for more than 12 hours.
• If you have multiple Google Accounts, you can set different notification settings for each account.

Turn Google Chat notifications on or off 

Turn on notifications

Turn on notifications in Google Chat

1. On your computer, go to Google Chat.  
2. At the top right, click Settings .
3. To turn on notifications for Google Chat messages, under "Desktop notifications," check the box next to "Allow chat notifications."

Tip: To turn email notifications for unread messages on or off, under "Email notifications," select Only @mentions & direct messages or Off.

Check if notifications are on

1. On your computer, go to Google Chat.  
2. At the top right, click Settings . 
3. Under "Desktop notifications," click Show an example.
4. If an example notification doesn’t appear:
   • Your notifications may be muted because of your availability status. 
   • Turn on notifications for the device and browser you use with Google Chat.

Turn on notifications in Gmail

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings See all settings.
3. At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.
4. Under "Chat notifications settings," click Manage chat settings.
5. To turn on notifications for Google Chat messages, under "Desktop notifications," check the box next to "Allow chat notifications."

Check if notifications are on

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings   See all settings.
3. At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.
4. Next to "Chat notifications settings," click Manage chat settings.
5. Under "Desktop notifications," click Show an example.
6. If an example notification doesn’t appear:
   • Your notifications may be muted because of your availability status. 
   • Turn on notifications for the device and browser you use with Gmail.

Turn off notifications

Turn off notifications in Google Chat

1. On your computer, go to Google Chat.
2. At the top right, click Settings .
3. To turn off notifications for Google Chat messages, under "Desktop notifications," uncheck the box next to "Allow chat notifications."

Tip: To temporarily mute notifications, set your status to “do not disturb”.

Turn off Google Chat notifications in Gmail

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings   See all settings.
3. At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.
4. Next to "Chat notifications settings," click Manage chat settings.
5. To turn off notifications for Google Chat messages, under "Desktop notifications," uncheck the box next to "Allow chat notifications."

Tip: To temporarily mute notifications, set your status to “do not disturb”.

Customize Google Chat notifications 

Customize notifications for a space grouped by topic or group conversation

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail.
2. Select the conversation participants or space name.
3. At the top, next to the conversation participants or space name, click the Down arrow  or More options   Notifications.
4. Choose an option:
   • Notify always: Get push notifications and a notification dot for all new messages.
   • Notify less: Get push notifications and a notification dot when you’re @mentioned, a topic you follow gets a new message, or if someone in the conversation uses “@all.”
     • For spaces grouped by topic: To get a notification when someone starts a new topic, check the box next to “Also notify for the first message of new topics.”
   • Notifications off: You won’t get any push notifications, but @mentions and @all will continue to get a notification dot.

Tip: Even if you turn off notifications, you'll still get a red notification dot for @mentions and direct messages. 

Customize notifications for a space with in-line threading

1. On your computer, open Google Chat or Gmail.
   • In Gmail: On the left, click Chat.
2. Next to the space name, click More options Notification settings.
3. Select an option for notifications:
   • All: Notifications for new messages and replies to threads you follow.
   • Following: Notifications for replies and threads you follow and @mentions.
   • None: No notifications. If someone @mentions you, a dot appears next to the space name.
4. Optional: To prevent the conversation from being bolded and moved to the top of your conversation list, select the box next to "Mute conversation."
5. Click Save.

Tip: When you follow a thread in a space, you’re notified with a dot whenever there’s activity in that thread. You can view the number of unread messages next to each thread in a space.

Turn notifications on or off for a direct message

1. On your computer, open Google Chat.
2. Next to the direct message, click More options    Notification settings.
3. Click Turn off notifications or Turn on notifications.
4. Optional: To prevent the conversation from being bolded and moved to the top of your conversation list, select the box next to "Mute conversation."

Customize notification sounds in Google Chat

1. On your computer, go to Google Chat.
2. At the top right, click Settings .
3. Under "Notifications sounds," select the sound to use for notifications.

Customize Google Chat notification sounds in Gmail

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings   See all settings.
3. At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.
4. Next to "Chat notifications settings," click Manage chat settings.
5. Under "Notifications sounds," select the sound to use for notifications.

Customize notifications when idle on Gmail

If you’re idle on Gmail or Google Chat on your computer, Google Chat notifications are sent to your mobile device instead of your computer. By default, you’re considered idle on your computer if you’re inactive in Gmail or Google Chat on your computer for more than 30 seconds, even if you’re still active on your web browser.

If you use a Chrome browser, you can change this setting to only get chat notifications on your mobile device when you’re no longer active on Chrome.

A “Pause mobile notifications when you are active on this device” banner appears. To turn on idle notifications, click Continue.

Tip: If the banner doesn't appear, go to your Chrome settings and turn on idle detection:

1. Go to chrome://settings/content/idleDetection.
2. Check the box next to "Sites can ask to know when you're actively using your device."
3. Under "Customized behaviors," include mail.google.com or chat.google.com in the list of sites that you allow to know when you actively use your device.
   • To add the sites you want to allow, click Add.

Where notifications appear 

When the Google Chat mobile app is open, notifications appear there. Notifications don’t appear:

• Online at chat.google.com
• In the Chat desktop app
• In Chat in Gmail

While the Chat app is open, the message "You're receiving Chat notifications here" appears. Learn more about the Chat standalone app.

Important: Your profile picture may appear on the notifications of incoming chat messages from you if the receiver uses an iPhone or iPad. Learn more about how to change your profile picture.

Related resources

• Change your availability status in Google Chat
• I’m not getting Google Chat notifications
• Install the Google Chat standalone app

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