Help:Notifications

Welcome to the frequently asked questions (FAQ) page for the Notifications tool! (formerly code-named Echo)

This new notification system has been released on the English Wikipedia, Meta-Wiki and  MediaWiki.org, where we encourage you to try it out.

To customize which notifications you receive, go to the Notifications tab of your preferences on this site. For tips on how to test this tool, see this testing page. Once you've tested Notifications, please take this quick survey, then join the discussion on this talk page.

What is this notifications tool?
The Notifications tool (formerly code-named Echo), gives MediaWiki and Wikipedia users 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 team, to encourage people to participate more actively on MediaWiki and Wikipedia sites. Notifications were designed to replace and/or augment existing notification systems on these sites, as well as provide significantly more control to users.

To learn more about Notifications, visit this project hub on MediaWiki.org -- or this portal on the English Wikipedia.

How do notifications work?
When someone takes an action that affects you on a MediaWiki or Wikipedia site, a red badge will appear next to your user name, in the top right corner of any page. This badge will show the number of new notifications you've received. Clicking on the badge will display a flyout listing the most recent notifications (see screenshot). You can then click on the notification of your choice to find out more about it. To see more, can click on 'All notifications' to go to the notifications archive.

What kinds of notifications can I get?
Here are the first categories of notifications for this tool:
 * Talk page messages: when a message is left on your user talk page;
 * Mentions: when your user name is mentioned on a talk page;
 * Page links: when a page you created is linked;
 * Edit reverts: when your edits are undone or rolled back;
 * Thanks: when someone thanks you for your edit;
 * User rights: when your user rights change;
 * Welcome: when you create a new account;
 * Getting started: when you have confirmed your email address.
 * Page reviews: when a page you created is reviewed; (only on English-Wikipedia)

For the first release of this product, some of these notifications will be turned off by default for both current and new users. If you would like to enable any of these notifications (or disable them), you can do so in your preferences, as described below.

How can I change my notifications?
You can control what kinds of notifications you get (and how often) by updating your notifications preferences. To check your settings, click on 'Preferences' in the flyout (shown above) -- or in the 'All notifications' archive page. (You can also click on 'Preferences' in the top right of any page, then select the Notifications tab.)

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 'Save' button at the bottom of the page to update your preferences.

How can I view earlier notifications?
To find all your recent notifications, click on 'All notifications' in the flyout to go to the notifications archive page. Your last notifications are listed first on this archive page. To see previous notifications, click on the 'More' button at the bottom of that page.

Who is this for?
Notifications are for all registered users of Wikipedia and other MediaWiki sites. Special notifications are sent to new users right after they sign up, and to all registered users when their rights change. Unregistered users cannot get notifications (except for talk page notifications, which are still shown to anonymous users in an orange bar).

When will this be released on my site?
Notifications are already enabled on the English Wikipedia, Meta-Wiki and MediaWiki.org. Once this first release has been tested on these sites, we will make this tool available to other projects as well, starting with the French and Polish Wikipedias and a few other wikis, for further testing. We expect to make Notifications available to all MediaWiki projects in the fall of 2013. If you are interested in getting Notifications for your project sooner, please contact our product manager to discuss. For now, if you would like to help test this software, please visit this testing page for instructions.

Why are you building this?
At the moment, the only notifications that MediaWiki provides are given through the watchlist. 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 every change that happens to it. If a change 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. Our hope is that this new notifications feature, in conjunction with watchlists, can provide a better user experience. Users will be able to learn about more events, far more easily, and have greater control over what kind of information they receive.

How can I give feedback?
We'd love to hear what you think of notifications. We invite you to take this quick survey to help us improve this product based on your feedback. To discuss your suggestions with other users, visit this project talk page: it is hosted on the English Wikipedia for now, so we keep conversations all in one place, and our team regularly monitors the page.

If you find a bug, you are welcome to report it here on Bugzilla. However, we appreciate that Bugzilla isn't exactly the easiest system to use; you can also drop the report on the project talkpage, with a screenshot and information on your browser and operating system :).

What other features are being planned?
Feature development is now over for this year's first release. We are considering more features for future releases, based on community feedback. If you have any suggestions for improving this tool, please let us know :).

Enjoy!