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.

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:

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:

Turn on notifications in Gmail

  1. On your computer, open Gmail.
  2. At the top right, click Settings and then See all settings.
  1. At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.

Go to Gmail settings for Chat

  1. Next to "Chat settings," click Manage chat settings.
  2. 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 and then See all settings.
  3. At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.

Go to Gmail settings for Chat

  1. Next to "Chat notifications settings," click Manage chat settings.
  2. Under "Desktop notifications," click Show an example.
  3. If an example notification doesn’t appear:
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 and then See all settings.
  3. At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.

Go to Gmail settings for Chat

  1. Next to "Chat settings," click Manage chat settings.
  2. 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 for spaces and direct messages

Customize notifications for a space by topic or mentions
  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 Down arrow icon or More options More and then Notifications.
  4. 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. 

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 Down Arrow and then Notifications.
  3. 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 and then 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.
  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 unless that space is muted. You can find 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 More and then Notifications.
  3. Select All or None.
  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 Google Chat notification sounds

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 and then See all settings.
  3. At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.

Go to Gmail settings for Chat

  1. Next to "Chat settings," click Manage chat settings.
  2. 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:

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 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.

Update device or browser notification settings

Update device notifications

Each 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.

Update browser notifications
To turn notifications on or off, you might need to update your browser notification settings. Learn how to allow Google Chat notifications.

Related resources


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