---
url: https://talkjs.com/docs/Features/Notifications
---

# Notifications

Send email, SMS, browser, and mobile push notifications.

Ask a question Copy for LLM [View as Markdown](/docs/Features/Notifications.md)
With TalkJS you can send [email notifications](/docs/Features/Notifications/Email_Notifications/), [SMS notifications](/docs/Features/Notifications/SMS_Notifications/), [browser notifications](/docs/Features/Notifications/Browser_Notifications/) and [mobile push notifications](/docs/Features/Notifications/Mobile_Push_Notifications/) out of the box. All you need to do is supply the relevant information and enable your chosen notification settings.

## Modify notification settings

You can modify the notification settings from the **Notifications** page of your [dashboard](/dashboard).

If you would like different user groups to receive different types of notifications, create a separate [role](/docs/Concepts/Roles/) for each user group and adjust the notification settings per role.

## When are notifications sent?

TalkJS sends notifications as fast as possible, while not giving your users the feeling that they're getting spammed. To get this right, TalkJS sends a notification in the following cases:

- The user is offline.
- The user is online, but has a different conversation selected in the UI.
- The user is online, and has the current conversation selected in the UI, but the browser tab or window doesn't have focus.
For example, when a user has the current conversation selected in the UI and has the browser tab or window with the conversation focused, then TalkJS won't send a notification.

[System messages](/docs/Concepts/System_Messages/) don't trigger notifications.

To keep the notification count low, TalkJS groups subsequent messages together in a notification. When a user has sent a message, TalkJS checks whether any user continues to type. Only after all users have stopped typing for some seconds, TalkJS sends a notification with all the messages that users have sent since the first user started typing.

You can specify the period of inactivity after which TalkJS should send a notification in your dashboard.

You can learn more about changing a user's notification settings for a conversation in [Participants](/docs/Concepts/Participants/).

## Reply by email

TalkJS also supports reply by email, which allows users to continue a conversation when they have their chat closed. When a user receives a notification email about messages they missed, they can reply directly to that email, and their reply automatically shows up in the conversation.

In the email notification, you can also [link back to your app](/docs/Features/Notifications/Email_Notifications/#link-back-to-your-app) so that the user can easily rejoin the conversation.

Users who only have `Read` [access](/docs/Concepts/Participants/#access) to a conversation can receive email notifications, but replies they send to a notification email won't show up in the conversation.

## Troubleshooting

To receive email, SMS, or push notifications, notifications must be enabled for a user's [role](/docs/Concepts/Roles/).

Are your users not receiving notifications? Try the following:

- Check that the user has a role assigned. You can check whether you assign the user a role in the code where you create the user, or get the user's current details with the [REST API](/docs/REST_API/Users/#get-created-users).
- Check that the user's role is valid. Make sure that the name of the user's role matches the exact name of the role listed in the **Roles** overview on your TalkJS [dashboard](/dashboard/roles/).
- Check that email or SMS notifications, or both, are enabled for the user's role. You can do so from the **Roles** overview in your TalkJS [dashboard](/dashboard/roles/). In the **User roles** section, find the role that the user is assigned, and select the **Edit notifications** option next to that role. To enable email notifications, confirm that the toggle **Enable email** is set to active. To enable SMS notifications, confirm that the toggle **Enable SMS** is set to active.

## Related topics

- [Webhooks for notification triggered and sent events](/docs/Webhooks/)
- [Re-triggering notifications via the REST API](/docs/REST_API/Notifications/#programmatically-re-triggering-notifications)
- [Changing participants' notification settings](/docs/Concepts/Participants/#notify)