# Understanding the notifications menu in Discourse

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/understanding-the-notifications-menu-in-discourse/3059
**Category:** Using Discourse
**Tags:** notifications, explanation, interface
**Created:** [February 14, 2013, 7:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/understanding-the-notifications-menu-in-discourse/3059 "2013-02-14T07:37:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Discourse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/discourse/32/148734_2.png) [@Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Discourse)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2013, 7:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/understanding-the-notifications-menu-in-discourse/3059/1 "2013-02-14T07:37:50Z")

</div>

> 🔖 This guide explains how the notifications menu works in Discourse, including the different types of notifications and where they appear in the interface.
> 
> 🙋 Required user level: All users

Notifications are an essential part of the Discourse experience, keeping you informed about activity relevant to you. This guide will walk you through the different types of notifications and how to interact with them.

## Types of notifications

Discourse uses various icons and colors to indicate different types of notifications:

1. **Personal messages** : A green envelope icon on your avatar indicates new personal messages.
2. **Other notifications** : A blue counter on your avatar shows other types of notifications (e.g., replies, mentions, likes).
3. **Chat notifications** :
  - A green counter on the chat icon indicates personal chat messages.
  - A blue counter on the chat icon shows unread messages in chat channels.

4. **Reviewable items** : For users with review permissions, a red flag icon appears on the avatar, indicating items to review (e.g., user registrations, posts to approve, flagged posts).

> **Note:** Only one indicator is shown on your avatar at a time, in priority order: personal messages, reviewable items, then other notifications.

## Accessing notifications

### Chat notifications

Click the chat icon to open the chat window, where you can see which users and channels the notifications are linked to.

 ![Chat notifications window](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/0/3/d/03d605512569b0c5c118c55e45378d7545e655e0.png)

### Other notifications

Click your avatar to remove the notification icon and display all unseen notifications in a menu with several tabs.

 ![Notifications menu](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/d/a/a/daa1068dcd4a0c3ea622eeaf17298c97712be778.png)

In this menu:

- Unread notifications appear with a highlighted background at the top of the list.
- Click the icons on the right to filter notifications by type.
- Use the “✔ Dismiss” button to mark all notifications in the current tab as read.

 ![Filtered notifications](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/3/2/1/3219b9e9400879a41313ca92d3af3b83fb9e4fe3.png)

## Notification types

Here’s a breakdown of the notification types you’ll find in the menu:

- ![All notifications](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/8/9/2/89289709958c0805d3441a95cbd2892715f7ca44.png) All notifications
- ![Replies](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/9/e/c/9ec9e94f5033e54195c9c5868e9dc4edc28baff0.png) Replies
- ![Likes](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/b/8/d/b8d755d9d070ec7f8c60f7b1aeb96aa03ab26a2d.png) Likes
- ![Private messages](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/e/1/c/e1c1da9cc170f72d0458593d9432678abbe0ebc6.png) Personal messages
- ![Bookmarks](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/1/6/6/1662c140d2d3004b24a0d3316a57e121dd8b971b.png) Bookmarks
- ![Chat](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/9/c/f/9cf40207768273c0c73c8f238ef9599686494e2b.png) Chat notifications
- ![Flags](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/9/6/9/96940b4e341019bc9bb20bcf42d0dd519cc97b75.png) Review queue (users with review permissions)
- ![Other](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/8/5/f/85fee48ec14b0fb91868e34bdaf2965aad639e72.png) Other notifications

## Additional resources

For developers interested in the technical details, you can find all the notification types defined in `app/models/notification.rb`.

> Last edited by @sam 2026-03-18T04:34:27Z
> 
> Last checked by @hugh 2024-06-28T01:59:33Z
> 
> > **Check document**
> >
> > Perform check on document: