Notification settings: choosing what interrupts you

A trail crew that switches its notifications off misses the emergencies. A crew that leaves everything on ends up ignoring all of it. The right setting is in between, and it isn't the same for a coordinator as for a Saturday volunteer.

This page describes every switch, what it actually triggers, and the handful of rules that explain why you didn't get what you expected.

Where: on the web, the bell or the user menu at the top right → Notification settings. On mobile, Notifications → the ⋯ menu → Notification settings.

The three channels

Everything starts with three channels, set at the top of the screen.

These are master switches. Turn "Email" off and no email goes out at all, whatever is set below. That's the move when you're away for two weeks.

Push only exists on the phone, for a simple reason: it's your device that has to allow Sentinel to notify you. You are asked when the app starts, on the last step of the welcome flow described in the first launch, and the question comes back until you have answered it — including on a phone you have been using for a long time, where it then shows up on its own. If you'd rather not wait, turning the Push channel on here triggers the system prompt right away. And if you refused it once, the app can't ask again: you have to go through the phone's settings.

A consequence worth knowing: until some device has enabled push, no push notification goes out at all, even with the "Push" boxes ticked. The server needs a registered device to know where to send.

Your devices

Push is tied to the device, not just to your account. Three rules follow from that, and they answer most questions about "why that phone".

Several devices all get everything. Phone and tablet both allowed, both ring. There is nothing to set up: each device registers itself the first time you start the app while signed in.

Signing out stops notifications on that device. It takes effect immediately and leaves your other devices alone. Your settings are kept: sign back in and everything resumes. Signing out of the web app cuts nothing on your phone — the web doesn't send push anyway.

A phone belongs to one account at a time. If someone else signs in on your device, notifications follow their account, not yours. That's deliberate: a phone that was lent out or handed back must not keep showing activity from a network the person no longer has access to.

If you are leaving an organization for good, sign out rather than just closing the app: signing out is what removes the device, closing it isn't.

If you follow several places

You get notifications from every place you belong to, not just the one on screen. That's deliberate: a coordinator watching two networks shouldn't miss the second one because they were looking at the first.

To keep that readable, every notification starts with the name of the place.

The red badge on the app icon counts everything you haven't read, across all places. It doesn't reset when you switch places.

Two things happen when you allow push, and they don't follow the same rules:

• The phone's permission and the device registration are immediate. They don't go through Apply, and leaving the screen without saving doesn't undo them — a granted permission stays granted, because the system holds it, not the app.
• The "Push" setting itself is a preference like the others: it is only stored when you tap Apply.

Turning the Push channel off never asks for permission again: switching a preference off requires nothing from the system.

The detailed settings

Below the three channels sits a list of events. Each has one box per channel.

The rule is an and: you get something on a channel if the master channel is on and that event's box is ticked. Turning a master channel off greys out the whole column — the boxes keep their state, but they no longer do anything.

On mobile, the screen opens from Notifications → the ⋯ menu → Notification settings. On the web, from the bell or the user menu.

Either way, nothing is stored until you confirm: Apply on mobile, Save on the web. The button stays inactive until you've changed something, and the app catches you if you leave with unsaved changes.

If you answer "Don't save" to that prompt, the screen returns to exactly the settings that were in place when you opened it. The one exception, described above: the phone's push permission, which the app cannot take back.

What each line triggers

Invitation

The last two only matter to whoever does the inviting — an administrator. A volunteer can turn them off and lose nothing.

Tasks and projects

This is the section that decides whether your inbox is useful or saturated.

The first two are targeted; the last two look alike but are worlds apart in volume:

• "Update on my tasks" follows you. That's what most people want.
• "Update on all tasks" sends you every status change on the network. On an active place that's dozens a day. Save it for someone genuinely driving everything, and preferably on the Notification channel rather than by email.

Same warning for "New task": on a place where volunteers report a lot, it's noisy. It's also the only way to see reports arrive in real time — a coordinator's call.

Structures

The reminder is different: it only exists by email, and it has a frequency.

All three always include overdue reports. It's the only mechanism in Sentinel that chases you about work that hasn't been done — every other notification reacts to an event.

Weekly suits most networks. Daily is for an intensive inspection season; monthly for a network with few structures.

Checklists

Assignment tells you when you're set as responsible for a checklist, or assigned to one.

Careful: this section only exists on the web. The setting applies to both apps, but the mobile screen doesn't show it. To change it, go through the web app.

Conversations aren't here

The absence is what surprises people most: there is no setting for conversations, even though they generate the most notifications.

That's deliberate. Conversations work by subscribing to a thread, not by a global setting: you're notified about the threads you take part in, and you mute them thread by thread — inside the conversation, with Mute notifications.

One useful detail: the in-app notification is capped at one per conversation per hour while you haven't read the previous one. Ten messages in ten minutes don't make ten badges. Push isn't capped — muting the thread is what stops it.

Mentions also escape these settings: being named with an @ always notifies you, even in a thread you don't follow.

Why am I not getting anything?

In order, the real causes:

1. The master channel is off. That's cause number one. Look at the three cards at the top first.
2. You didn't confirm. Ticking a box isn't enough: you have to Apply or Save.
3. Push was never enabled on a device. No registered device, no push.
4. The phone refused permission. The app can't ask again; go through the system settings.
5. You're the author. Sentinel never notifies you about your own action.
6. It's a conversation. Check the thread's mute setting rather than this screen.
7. You're signed out on that device, or someone else signed in on it after you.

Why am I still getting something?

The opposite question, and it has fewer causes:

1. You're still signed in. Closing the app doesn't sign you out: as long as the session is open, the device stays registered. The Sign out button is what removes it.
2. The master channel stayed on. Unticking one line isn't enough if the channel at the top is active and another line triggers it.
3. It's another place. If you belong to several places, you get notifications from all of them, including the one you aren't looking at right now.
4. It's a conversation you're part of. That doesn't depend on this screen — mute the thread itself.

Three pieces of advice

Set by role, not by person. A coordinator wants "all tasks"; a volunteer wants "my tasks" and nothing else. Two settings, not ten.

Put the volume on the Notification channel and the important things on email. The bell absorbs noise without guilt; an email you ignore eventually becomes a file you ignore.

Keep the report reminder on. It's the only net that catches a forgotten inspection, and it costs one email a week.