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.
You automatically receive notifications when you create or respond to a message or if someone @mentions you.
If you mute a specific conversation or set your Chat status to “Do not disturb,” you won’t receive notifications.
In this article, learn how to:
- Turn notifications on or off.
- Customize notifications for specific conversations & spaces.
- Customize notification sounds.
- Get notifications in the Chat mobile app.
- Update device or browser notification settings for Chat on a computer.
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.
Google Chat: Manage your settings
Turn Google Chat notifications on or off
Turn on notificationsTurn on notifications in Google Chat
- On your computer, go to Google Chat.
- At the top right, click Settings .
- To turn on notifications for Google Chat messages, under "Desktop notifications," check the box next to "Allow chat notifications."
Check if notifications are on
- On your computer, go to Google Chat.
- At the top right, click Settings .
- Under "Desktop notifications," click Show an example.
- If an example notification doesn’t appear:
Turn on notifications in Gmail
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- At the top right, click Settings See all settings.
- At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.
- Next to "Chat settings," click Manage chat settings.
- To turn on notifications for Google Chat messages, under "Desktop notifications," check the box next to "Allow chat notifications."
Check if notifications are on
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- At the top right, click Settings See all settings.
- At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.
- Next to "Chat notifications settings," click Manage chat settings.
- Under "Desktop notifications," click Show an example.
- If an example notification doesn’t appear:
Turn off notifications in Google Chat
- On your computer, go to Google Chat.
- At the top right, click Settings .
- To turn off notifications for Google Chat messages, under "Desktop notifications," uncheck the box next to "Allow chat notifications."
Turn off Google Chat notifications in Gmail
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- At the top right, click Settings See all settings.
- At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.
- Next to "Chat settings," click Manage chat settings.
- To turn off notifications for Google Chat messages, under "Desktop notifications," uncheck the box next to "Allow chat notifications."
Customize Google Chat notifications for spaces and direct messages
Customize notifications for a space by topic or mentions- Go to Google Chat or your Gmail.
- Select the conversation participants or space name.
- At the top, next to the conversation participants or space name, click the Down arrow or More options Notifications.
- Choose an option:
- All: Get push notifications and a notification dot for all new messages.
- Main conversations: Get push notifications from main conversations, and replies to threads you follow .
- For you: Get push notifications and a notification dot when you’re @mentioned, a topic you follow gets a new message, or someone in the conversation uses “@all.”
- None: You don’t get any push notifications, but @mentions and @all continue to get a notification dot.
- Mute conversation: Muted conversations are italicized and show at the bottom of your conversation list. They don’t show in Home.
Tip: Even if you turn off notifications, you'll still get a red notification dot for @mentions and direct messages.
- On your computer, open Google Chat or Gmail.
- In Gmail: On the left, click Chat.
- Next to the space name, click More options Notifications.
- Select an option for notifications:
- All: Notifications for all new messages and replies to threads.
- Tip: If you select "All," it automatically follows all new threads for that space. To unfollow a thread, click Active Threads Following.
- Main conversations: Notifications for all new main conversations, @mentions, and replies to threads you follow.
- For you: Notifications for @mentions and replies to threads you follow.
- None: No notifications, just an indicator for @mentions.
- All: Notifications for all new messages and replies to threads.
- Optional: To prevent the conversation from being bolded and moved to the top of your conversation list, select the box next to "Mute conversation."
- Click Save.
Tip: When you follow a thread in a space, you’re notified with a dot whenever there’s activity in that thread unless that space is muted. You can find the number of unread messages next to each thread in a space.
- On your computer, open Google Chat.
- Next to the direct message, click More options Notifications.
- Select All or None.
- 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 Google Chat notification sounds
Customize notification sounds in Google Chat- On your computer, go to Google Chat.
- At the top right, click Settings .
- Under "Notifications sounds," select the sound to use for notifications.
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- At the top right, click Settings See all settings.
- At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.
- Next to "Chat settings," click Manage chat settings.
- Under "Notifications sounds," select the sound to use for notifications.
Get notifications in the Google Chat mobile app
When the Google Chat mobile app is open, you get notifications in the app.
You won’t get notifications:
- Online at chat.google.com
- In the Chat desktop app
- In Chat in Gmail
When the Chat app is open, you get the message "You're receiving Chat notifications here." Learn more about the Chat standalone app.
Important: When iPhone or iPad users get messages from you, your profile picture could also appear on the notifications. Learn how to change your profile picture.
Customize notifications when idle on GmailTip: If the banner doesn't appear, go to your Chrome settings and turn on idle detection:
- Go to chrome://settings/content/idleDetection.
- Check the box next to "Sites can ask to know when you're actively using your device."
- 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.
Update device or browser notification settings
Update device notificationsEach computer operating system has different steps to turn on notifications. For more info, go to your operating system’s online help.
Some computer operating systems have settings that mute notifications. If you don’t get the notifications, make sure notifications aren’t muted.
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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