Git & GitHub - Managing Notifications

How to manage notifications on GitHub

GitHub notifications keep you informed about activity in your repositories and projects. This guide covers how to manage your notifications effectively, ensuring you stay up-to-date without being overwhelmed by too many alerts.

Customizing Notification Settings

Access Notification Settings

To customize your notification settings, click on your profile picture in the top-right corner and select "Settings." Then click on "Notifications" in the left sidebar.

Notification Preferences

Under "Notification preferences," you can customize how you receive notifications:

• Web: Receive notifications on the GitHub website.
• Email: Get notifications via email.
• Mobile: Use the GitHub mobile app to receive notifications.

Managing Watching, Participating, and Unsubscribed States

GitHub allows you to manage your involvement in repository activities through three states:

• Watching: You will be notified of all conversations.
• Participating: You will be notified only of conversations you participate in or are @mentioned.
• Unsubscribed: You will not receive notifications.

To change your notification state for a repository:

• Go to the repository page.
• Click on the "Watch" button near the top-right corner.
• Select the appropriate option from the dropdown menu.

Filtering and Organizing Notifications

Inbox Filters

Use inbox filters to organize and prioritize your notifications:

• Unread: Shows only unread notifications.
• Participating: Shows notifications from conversations you are participating in.
• Assigned: Shows notifications for issues and pull requests assigned to you.
• All Notifications: Shows all notifications.

Custom Filters

Create custom filters to further organize your notifications:

• Click on "Manage filters" in the notifications inbox.
• Click "New filter" and specify the criteria for the filter.
• Save the filter and use it to quickly access specific notifications.

Marking Notifications as Read or Unread

You can mark notifications as read or unread to keep track of what you have and haven't addressed:

• To mark a notification as read, click on the notification to view it, and it will be marked as read automatically.
• To mark a notification as unread, click the checkbox next to it and select "Mark as unread" from the "..." dropdown menu.

Muting Conversations

If a conversation is no longer relevant, you can mute it to stop receiving notifications:

• Open the issue or pull request.
• Click the "Unsubscribe" button on the right sidebar.

Summary

This guide covered how to manage notifications on GitHub, including customizing notification settings, managing watching and participating states, filtering and organizing notifications, marking notifications as read or unread, and muting conversations. By managing your notifications effectively, you can stay informed about important updates without being overwhelmed.