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.
By default, you receive notifications when:
- Someone @ mentions you
- Someone reacts or responds to your message
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.
- Some Google Chat apps can ignore your “Do Not Disturb” status or notification settings, to send updates, including:
- @notify messages: These messages are for critical or time-sensitive information. They work like @all messages to get immediate attention and ignore your “Do Not Disturb” status, muted conversations, or notification settings.
- @silent messages: These messages are for low-priority updates. They minimize disruption by working like system messages.
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
Notifications
.
- To turn on notifications for Google Chat messages, under "Desktop notifications," check the box next to "Allow chat notifications."
Tips:
- If you don’t get Google Chat notifications after you turn it on, allow Google Chat notifications in your operating system and browser.
- To turn email notifications for unread messages on or off, under "Email notifications," select Only @mentions & direct messages or Off.
Manage combined notification permissions
Web users can grant browser notifications and idle detection permissions through a single flow. This occurs in two ways:
- Enabled but blocked: If "Allow chat notifications" is enabled but the browser blocks notifications, a "Turn on" button appears. Click it to trigger permission dialogs.
- Disabled toggle: If "Allow chat notifications" is disabled, turning on the toggle triggers permission dialogs.
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
- 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
- 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."
Tips:
- To temporarily mute notifications, set your status to “Do not disturb.” Learn how to change your availability status in Google Chat.
- When you mute a conversation or space, the threads you follow still appear in Home. If someone mentions you directly in a thread, you follow that thread automatically. Learn how to mute conversations in Google Chat.
Turn off Google Chat notifications in Gmail
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- At the top right, click 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."
Tips:
- To temporarily mute notifications, set your status to “Do not disturb.” Learn how to change your availability status in Google Chat.
- When you mute a conversation or space, the threads you follow still appear in Home. If someone mentions you directly in a thread, you follow that thread automatically. Learn how to mute conversations in Google Chat.
Turn Google Chat reaction notifications on or off
Turn on reaction notifications- On your computer, go to Google Chat.
- At the top right, click Settings
- Under "Desktop notifications," check the box next to "Reaction notifications."
Tips:
- For reaction notifications to work, turn on Allow chat notifications.
- The existing notification settings apply to the reaction notifications of a conversation.
- You can’t get reaction notifications in Announcement Spaces.
- On your computer, go to Google Chat.
- At the top right, click Settings
- Under "Desktop notifications," uncheck the box next to "Reaction notifications."
- This also turns off reaction notifications on mobile.
Customize Google Chat notifications for spaces & direct messages
Customize notifications for a space with in-line threadingBy default, only threads you follow are bolded and moved to the top of your conversation list. To control how thread updates show in Chat, customize your notification settings.
- On your computer, open Google Chat or Gmail.
- In Gmail: On the left, click Chat.
- Next to the space name, click More options
- 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
- Tip: If you select "All," it automatically follows all new threads for that space. To unfollow a thread, click Active Threads
- 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.
- On your computer, open Google Chat.
- Next to the direct message or group DM, click More options
- For group DMs, you can select to get notifications for:
- All: All new messages
- For you: Only @mentions
- None
- For group DMs, you can select to get notifications for:
- 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
- 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.
Grant idle detection permissions
Idle detection delivers notifications to your active device. Granting this permission helps reliably send notifications and pauses mobile alerts when you are active on desktop.
If you are idle on Gmail or Google Chat on your computer, notifications go to your mobile device. You are considered idle if you’re inactive for over 30 seconds, even if you still have a web browser open.
For Chrome users, you can adjust settings to receive chat notifications on mobile only when you’re inactive on Chrome.
Respond to the permission prompt
When you enable Chat notifications, a dialog may appear. This dialog asks you to "Pause mobile notifications when you are active on this device." Click Continue to grant idle detection permission.
Adjust Chrome settings manually
If the permission dialog doesn’t appear, you can manually enable idle detection in your Chrome settings.
- Go to
chrome://settings/content/idleDetection. - Check the box for "Sites can ask to know when you're actively using your device."
- Under "Customized behaviors," add
mail.google.comorchat.google.comto the allowed sites list. - To add a site, 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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