# Watching a category does not cause push notifications

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-a-category-does-not-cause-push-notifications/282794>\
**Category:** Bug\
**Created:** [October 19, 2023, 1:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-a-category-does-not-cause-push-notifications/282794 "2023-10-19T13:27:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![RGJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/rgj/32/523185_2.png) [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2023, 1:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-a-category-does-not-cause-push-notifications/282794/1 "2023-10-19T13:27:33Z")

</div>

So when I have a category set to “watching first post” (“_You will be notified of the first post in each new topic in these categories_.”) I get push notifications on my phone when a topic is created in a category, and I get push notifications for subsequent replies too.

But when I have the category set to “watching” (“_You will be notified of all new posts and topics_”) I do not get push notifications.

Checking the [code](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blame/main/app/services/post_alerter.rb#L633) and I find a condition `NOTIFIABLE_TYPES.include?(type)`

`NOTIFIABLE_TYPES` does [include](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blame/main/app/services/post_alerter.rb#L385-L397) `watching_first_post` and `posted` but it does not include `watching_category_or_tag`.

Is this intentional? I’ve always thought that _watching_ was a superset of _watching first post_?

(Similar/related: [Watching First Post does not send push notifications](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-first-post-does-not-send-push-notifications/105124) and [this](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/aa3a9b6fea9190eadd4e0152f1b8e26cee3de0be) change)

EDIT I am currently running a few forums I’m using myself with a patched version that adds `watching_category_or_tag` and with `push notification time window mins` set to 0 my user experience went from ‘meh’ to ‘great’. So if this is not a bug, consider it a feature request 😉

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-a-category-does-not-cause-push-notifications/282794)._