Help:Notifications



Welcome to the documentation page for the hub>Echo (Notifications)|Notifications tool! (formerly code-named Echo)

To customize which notifications you receive, go to the prefs>Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-echo|"" tab of your  on the site. Once you've tested Notifications, please join the discussion on talk>Talk:Notifications|this talk page.

Principle
The hub3>Echo (Notifications)|Notifications tool (formerly code-named Echo) gives users of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites quick updates about actions that affect them. These notifications can help users become more aware of events that relate to them and take quick action if they want to.

This software was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation's editor-engagement>m:w:Wikipedia:Editor engagement|editor engagement team and now the Collaboration team, to encourage people to participate more actively on Wikimedia sites. Notifications are designed to replace or augment existing notification systems on these sites, as well as provide significantly more control to users.

Before Notifications, the only notifications that the MediaWiki software provided were given through emailed notifications for changes to your watchlist>Special:Watchlist|watchlist, and an orange bar for changes to your user talk page. The watchlist is quite helpful, but its format is limited. It works well for changes related to pages, but not so well for changes related to users. At the same time, there's no granularity: if a page is watchlisted, you are informed about the next change that happens to it. If a page is not watchlisted, you receive none. Watchlists are useful, and they work well for the job they were designed for, but they don't encompass the whole scope of on-wiki activity. Notification's features, in conjunction with watchlists, can provide a better user experience. Users are able to learn about more events, more easily, and have greater control over what types of information they receive.

To learn more about Notifications, visit hub4>Echo (Notifications)|this project hub on MediaWiki.org.

Use
Notifications are for all registered users of Wikimedia sites. Unregistered users cannot get notifications (except for talk page notifications, which are still shown to anonymous users in an orange bar).

Alerts and messages warnings


When someone takes an action that affects you on a Wikimedia site, colored badges will appear next to your user name, in the top right corner of any page of that site (except for crosswiki>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Notifications/Cross-wiki|cross-wiki notifications). These badges are usually grey.

The first badge (red, "alerts") contains most notification types; the second badge (blue, "messages") contains notifications about your user talk page messages.

These badges will show the number of new notifications you've received. Clicking on the badges will display a flyout listing the most recent notifications (see screenshot) and set the badge color to grey again. The number will stay different from zero until you mark-as-read all your notifications for this badge (especially for messages).

You can click on the notification of your choice to find out more about it (see description below). To see all notifications received, you can click on "" to go to the spec-notifs>Special:Notifications|notifications archive.

Detailed notification layout
Here are the most common notifications you can receive. They are all designed with the same pattern:
 * an icon floated on the left (on the right for right-to-left languages)
 * Primary information: Notification title, in bold
 * Secondary information: Notification details (optional)
 * Details: at the bottom, with some useful information:
 * always the user who performs the action (with a link to their userpage) and date in a relative format
 * sometimes other information, like the targeted page
 * a three dots menu with some options, at the moment only "mark as unread"

The whole notifications is a link, usually to a diff that is related to the action you are notified about.

The different notifications
Some of these notifications are turned off by default. If you would like to enable any of these notifications (or disable them), you can do so in your preferences, as described further below.



Message (blue) notification, when a message is left on your user talk page.
 * Primary information: Message title
 * Secondary information:
 * in case of a new message: who left the message, and on which page. Links directly to the message.
 * in case of a reply: who replied to the message, and on which page. Links directly to the section title, or, with Flow, to the message itself.
 * in case of multiple new messages or multiples replies, messages may be grouped ("six new messages on [that page]")
 * Details: link to the user page of the last user who left you a message for that group

This notification replaces the orange bar that used to appear, but you can setup your preferences to have the orange bar.



Alert (red) notification, when a new link is made to a page you created.
 * Primary information: The page that you created, and where it was linked from. Links to the page that has the new link.
 * Details: link to "What links here" page for the targeted page.



Alert (red) notification, when your edits are undone or rolled back.
 * Primary information: Who reverted you, and where. Links to the diff.
 * Details: link to the user who reverted you.

As of Echo rev.5072e87 (2016-06-07), the notification is triggered by the  field in the submitted form.



Message (blue) notification, when someone mentions you on a talk page;
 * Primary information: Who mentioned you, where, and about what. Linked to the page, or to the message on flow>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Flow|Flow you are mentioned in.
 * Details: link to the user who mentioned you and the diff where you are mentioned.

Also known as a "ping" or "pinging" (ping).

To mention another editor and trigger this notification for them, you need to: Specific and additional technical details, are at Manual:Echo.
 * Link to their username - either link it directly, or with one of the templates that exist on your wiki (many use the ping or reply to templates).
 * Sign your comment.
 * Do not alter any text outside of your own comment
 * Do not exceed the limit on the number of mentions.



Alert (red) notification, when someone thanks you for your edit;
 * Primary information: Who thanked you, where, and about what. Linked to the diff or to the message on Flow that you are thanked for.
 * Details: link to the user who thanked you, and if it was on a Flow board to the page.

You can thank someone from any History page, from a diff comparison, in your watchlist, or directly on the page in Flow. Remember this thank is stored in a public log.



Alert (red) notification, when your user rights change.
 * Primary information: what has been changed, and by who. Links to Special:UserGroupRights page.
 * Details: link to the user who changed your rights.

Welcome


Alert (red) notification, when you have just created your account.
 * Primary information: Welcome! Links to a welcome page as defined on the wiki configuration (<tvar|msg>MediaWiki:Notification-welcome-link</>).



Alert (red) notification, when someone sent you an email trough the wiki.
 * Primary information: Who sent you an email. No link given for this information.
 * Details: link to the user who sent you this email

People can send you emails only if you have allowed this on your preferences.

Cross-wiki
Cross-wiki notifications are displayed on both panels, and regroup notifications from other Wikimedia Foundation hosted wikis. By this way, you can receive notifications about Commons when you are on Wikisource. Learn more about cross-wiki notifications.

See all notifications received
To find all your recent notifications, click on "<tvar|link></>" in the flyout to go to the spec-notifs2>Special:Notifications</>|notifications archive page. On that page, all notifications are grouped (alerts and messages), and displayed by date. Your most recent notifications are listed first on this archive page. To see older notifications, click on the "<tvar|more></>" button at the bottom of that page.

Access to preferences
You can control what kinds of notifications you get (and how often) by updating your prefs2>Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-echo</>|notifications preferences. To check your settings, click on "<tvar|pref></>" in the flyout (shown above) -- or in the "<tvar|link></>" archive page. (You can also click on "<tvar|pref></>" in the top right of any page, then select the "<tvar|echo></>" tab.)

Notifications by email or on wiki
To turn notifications on or off for any category, simply check (or uncheck) the box next to it. You can enable (or disable) notifications on the web or by email for most categories. (Some notifications cannot be disabled, such as changes to your user rights or new talk page messages: these notifications are too important to be dismissed.) You can also control how often to receive email notifications, from single emails for each event to daily or weekly digests. When you're done, be sure to click the "<tvar|save></>" button at the bottom of the page to update your preferences.

Feedback
We'd love to hear what you think of notifications. To discuss your suggestions with other users, visit talk>Talk:Notifications</>|this project talk page.

If you find a bug, you are welcome to report it bug>phabricator:tag/mediawiki-extensions-echo</>|here on Phabricator. However, we appreciate that Phabricator isn't exactly the easiest system to use; you can also drop the report on talk>Talk:Notifications</>|the project talkpage, with a screenshot and information on your browser and operating system :).