# Group notification settings
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-notification-settings/126948
**Category:** UX
**Created:** [August 27, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-notification-settings/126948 "2019-08-27T16:15:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mila\_Ferrer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mila_Ferrer)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-notification-settings/126948/1 "2019-08-27T16:15:48Z")
Hello!
I need to create a group for the research project, and I need for ALL the members to receive notifications of new posts and replies.
Is this possible?
Thank you!
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2019, 4:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-notification-settings/126948/2 "2019-08-27T16:28:57Z")
For messages: You can set the default notification level for groups to `watching`. But you can’t prevent people from changing that later after they join the group.
For topics it is already set to `normal` by default, which means that when you @ mention groups they will be notified.
But maybe you are talking about category settings. You can set this for new users in `/admin/site_settings/category/user_preferences`.
There is a plugin for enforcing this for users later to prevent them from unwatching a category.
> [@Make members of a group watch a category by default](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-members-of-a-group-watch-a-category-by-default/22127/31):
>
> I just noticed this discourse plugin: [https://github.com/discourse/discourse-watch-category-mcneel](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-watch-category-mcneel) It appears to be by @techAPJ - can you confirm this works and can you give any guidance on configuration? If so it solves my problems!
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### Author:  [@Mila\_Ferrer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mila_Ferrer)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2019, 4:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-notification-settings/126948/3 "2019-08-27T16:41:49Z")
Thanks, I will try that!
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-notification-settings/126948/4 "2019-08-27T16:50:22Z")
If your site is hosted by us, we can help you set the notification level for specific categories on your site for existing users. For _new_ users, you can add the group’s categories to you site’s `default categories watching` or `default categories tracking` settings.
If you use PMs instead of a protected category for group communication, setting the group’s default notification level should accomplish what you are looking for.
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### Author:  [@Grayden\_Shand](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Grayden_Shand)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2020, 11:50am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-notification-settings/126948/5 "2020-09-03T11:50:05Z")
> [@tobiaseigen](#):
>
> But you can’t prevent people from changing that later after they join the group.
@tobiaseigen, can you help me understand how a user can update their personal notification level for groups? I don’t see any settings for this in User Preferences or anywhere in the the group portal.
Thanks
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2020, 5:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-notification-settings/126948/6 "2020-09-03T17:53:54Z")
> [@Grayden\_Shand](#):
>
> how a user can update their personal notification level for groups?
The notification level for group messages can be set from a users Messages page. After selecting the inbox that you want to configure, a notification level button will appear:
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### Author:  [@Grayden\_Shand](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Grayden_Shand)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-notification-settings/126948/8 "2020-09-04T17:21:04Z")
Thanks @simon,
Something interesting to note that I stumbled upon while trying to understand why this wasn’t showing up on my messages page. _A group inbox only appears on a user’s Messages page if that user has permission to view the group’s members._
E.g. If I set a group’s _Who can see this group’s members?_ setting to **Group Owners** , then a regular group member will not have this inbox on their messages page.
An implication of this is that I can be in a group for which I’m unable to change my notification level for group messages… is that desired?
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2020, 5:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-notification-settings/126948/9 "2020-09-04T17:25:30Z")
> [@Grayden\_Shand](#):
>
> An implication of this is that I can be in a group for which I’m unable to change my notification level for group messages… is that desired?
That doesn’t sound like the desired behaviour. I can’t think of any other places in Discourse where a user is not able to control their notification level. I’ll test this out myself and report back here.
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2020, 6:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-notification-settings/126948/10 "2020-09-09T18:49:19Z")
I’ve had a look at setting the notification level for group messages when the group’s “Who can see this group’s members?” setting is set to Group owners (or Group owners and staff.) When a group is configured in this way, there is no inbox displayed for the group on the messages tab for members who are not group owners.
When I test this on my development site, the other thing that stood out was that the member who is not an owner receives notifications about group messages, but the message is not displayed in the user’s inbox. The message _exists_ in the inbox, but no link is displayed to access it. The user can access the group’s message from their inbox by going to `/u//messages/group/`, but no link to that path is displayed for them. The user can also see the group’s messages from the group’s Messages tab.
If the views the PM and clicks on its PM icon, they will be taken to `/u//messages/group/`. On that page they can set their notification level for each group PM, but can not set a default status for all PMs sent from the group:
There is an issue with the notification button in the screenshot. Unless someone knows what is causing the issue, I’ll test all this again on a production site.