Notifications appear on the devices that you used most recently. If you’re not active in Chat, notifications appear on all devices that are signed in to your Google Account.
You’ll automatically get notifications when you create or respond to a message, or if you’re @mentioned.
You can turn off automatic notifications or customise your notifications by:
- Device
- Conversation
- Space
- Thread
You can customise notifications within the product that you use, such as Google Chat or Gmail. You can set up email reminders for messages that you haven’t read in more than 12 hours.
Tip: 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 the Google Chat app
- Open the Chat app .
- At the top left, tap Menu Settings .
- Under 'Notifications', turn 'Mobile notifications' on.
Tip: If you don’t get notifications, make sure that 'Do not disturb' is off and notifications in your mobile device settings are on.
Turn on Google Chat notifications in the Gmail app
- Open the Gmail app .
- At the top left, tap Menu Settings .
- Select your account.
- Under 'Notifications', tick the box next to 'Chat notifications'.
Tip: If you don’t get notifications, make sure that 'Do not disturb' is off and notifications in your mobile device settings are on.
Turn off notifications
Turn off notifications in the Google Chat app
- Open the Chat app .
- At the top left, tap Menu Settings .
- Under 'Notifications', turn 'Mobile notifications' off.
Tips:
- If you still get notifications, you can turn off Google Chat app notifications in your mobile device settings.
- To temporarily mute notifications, set your status to 'Do not disturb'.
Turn off Google Chat notifications in the Gmail app
- Open the Gmail app .
- At the top left, tap Menu Settings .
- Select your account.
- Under 'Notifications', untick the box next to 'Chat notifications'.
Tips:
- If you still get notifications, you can turn off Google Chat app notifications in your mobile device settings.
- To temporarily mute notifications, set your status to 'Do not disturb'.
Customise Google Chat notifications
Customise notifications for a space grouped by topic or group conversation
- Open the Chat app or Gmail app .
- At the bottom, tap Chat or Spaces .
- To open a conversation, tap the name of the space or the group direct message.
- At the top, next to the space or group direct message name, tap the right arrow .
- Tap Notifications.
- Select 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 thread that 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, tick 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 continue to get a notification dot.
Customise notifications for a space with in-line threading
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Chat app or Gmail app .
- In Gmail: At the bottom, tap Chat .
- Tap and hold a space Notification settings.
- 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, tap 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'.
- Tap Save.
Tip: When you follow a thread in a space, you're notified with a red dot whenever there's activity in that thread unless that space is muted. You can view the number of unread messages next to each thread in a space.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Chat app .
- Tap and hold a direct message.
- Tap Notification settings.
- 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'.
Set notification sounds in the Google Chat app
- Open the Chat app .
- At the top left, tap Menu Settings .
- Under 'Notifications', tap Notification sound.
- In the window that appears, tap Go to settings.
- Under 'Notification category', tap Advanced Sound.
- On the 'Phone ringtone' screen, pick the notification sound that you want to use.
Set Google Chat notification sounds in the Gmail app
- Open the Gmail app .
- At the top left, tap Menu Settings .
- Tap General settings Manage notifications Chat and spaces Sound.
- On the 'Sound' screen, pick the notification sound that you want to use.
- On some Android phones, to save your notification sound, tap Save at the top right.
Stop duplicate chat notifications
You may get extra chat notifications if you have multiple apps like Gmail and Google Chat on your mobile device. To avoid duplicate notifications, you can turn off notifications for the Chat app.
Important: Settings can vary by manufacturer. For more info, contact your device manufacturer.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open Settings.
- Tap Notifications App settings Chat.
- If you don't see 'Chat', you may need to update the list to show all apps. To update the list, at the top, tap the drop-down menu All apps.
- Turn All Chat notifications off.
Troubleshoot issues with Google Chat notifications
Prevent multiple notifications
To avoid duplicate mobile notifications from the Gmail and Chat apps, in your device’s settings, turn off Google Chat app notifications.
- On your device, open the Settings app.
- Tap Notifications App settings Chat.
- Turn 'All Chat notifications' off.
Not receiving notifications
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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