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.
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.
Turn on notifications in the Google Chat app
- Open the Chat app 👁 Image
. - At the top left, tap Menu 👁 Image
👁 and then
Settings 👁 Image
.
- Under “Notifications,” turn “Mobile notifications” on.
Tip: If you don’t get notifications, make sure “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 👁 Image
. - At the top left, tap Menu 👁 Image
👁 and then
Settings 👁 Image
. - Select your account.
- Under "Notifications," check the box next to “Chat notifications.”
Tip: If you don’t get notifications, make sure “Do not disturb” is off and notifications in your mobile device settings are on.
Turn off notifications in the Google Chat app
- Open the Chat app 👁 Image
. - At the top left, tap Menu 👁 Image
👁 and then
Settings 👁 Image
.
- 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.”
- 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 the Gmail app
- Open the Gmail app 👁 Image
. - At the top left, tap Menu 👁 Image
👁 and then
Settings 👁 Image
. - Select your account.
- Under "Notifications," uncheck 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.”
- 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
- Open the Chat app 👁 Image
. - At the top left, tap Menu 👁 Image
👁 and then
Settings 👁 Image
. - Under “Notifications,” turn on “Reaction notifications.”
Tip: For reaction notifications to work, turn on Allow chat notifications.
- Open the Chat app 👁 Image
. - At the top left, tap Menu 👁 Image
👁 and then
Settings 👁 Image
. - Under “Notifications,” turn off “Reaction notifications."
- This also turns off reaction notifications.
By 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 Android phone or tablet, open the Chat app 👁 Image
or Gmail app 👁 Image
.- In Gmail: At the bottom, tap Chat 👁 Image
.
- In Gmail: At the bottom, tap Chat 👁 Image
- Select the Spaces tab at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap and hold a space 👁 and then
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 👁 Image
👁 and then
Following.
- Tip: If you select “All,” it automatically follows all new threads for that space. To unfollow a thread, tap Active Threads 👁 Image
- 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."
Tip: When you follow a thread in a space, you’re notified with a blue dot whenever there’s activity in that thread unless that space is muted.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Chat app 👁 Image
. - 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."
- Open the Chat app 👁 Image
. - At the top left, tap Menu 👁 Image
👁 and then
Settings 👁 Image
.
- Under "Notifications," tap Notification sound.
- To update the notification sound or its volume, in the window that displays, tap Sound or See more for additional settings which include:
- Toggle to allow notifications
- Toggle to show notifications as pop-up
- Toggle to Vibrate
- Options for Lock screen
- Toggle for App icon badges
Tip: To turn off notification sounds, select None.
- Open the Gmail app 👁 Image
. - At the top left, tap Menu 👁 Image
👁 and then
Settings 👁 Image
. - Tap General settings 👁 and then
Manage notifications 👁 and then
Chat and spaces 👁 and then
Sound. - On the “Sound” screen, pick the notification sound you want to use.
- On some Android phones, to save your notification sound, at the top right, tap Save.
Troubleshoot issues with Google Chat 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 👁 and then
App settings 👁 and then
Chat.- If you don't find "Chat," update the list to show all apps:
- At the top, tap the Down arrow 👁 and then
All apps.
- At the top, tap the Down arrow 👁 and then
- If you don't find "Chat," update the list to show all apps:
- Turn “All Chat notifications” off.
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.
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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