Notifications
The notification centre, what triggers a notification, and how to change what reaches you.
The notification centre
The bell at the top of the sidebar opens your notifications. A badge shows the unread count.
The popover shows your most recent notifications, with View all notifications at the bottom for the rest. Unread ones carry a New tag and a tinted row, so you can tell them apart at a glance.
Select a notification to go to whatever it is about: a task opens on its board with its details already open, an invitation opens where you can accept it. Opening a notification marks it read. Mark all as read clears the badge in one go, and once everything is read the same control offers Mark all as unread.
If the task a notification points at has since been deleted, the notification says so rather than sending you to an empty board, and stays marked read.
The full page
Notifications in the sidebar, or View all notifications from the bell, opens the whole feed. It is grouped into Today, Yesterday and Earlier, and filters to All or Unread.
This is where notifications you have received live. What you receive is set in Settings → Notifications, which is a different place.
What you are notified about
- Task reminders before a task is due
- Assignments, when someone gives you a task or adds you to a project
- Task updates on work you are on: a due date that moved, a task reopened,
a task marked urgent
- Mentions, when someone @mentions you in a comment
- Comments on tasks you are involved with, and posts in a project's Team
Comments. If you were @mentioned in a post you get the mention instead, never both. See Comments and @mentions
- Invitations to a project or a workspace, and, when you are the one who
sent it, that someone accepted
You are never notified about your own actions. Assigning a task tells the person you assigned it to, not you.
Exactly which of these you see depends on what you are part of. A solo Free user sees far fewer than an agency admin.
Choosing what reaches you
Settings → Notifications groups every switch under Tasks, Collaboration and Productivity. Changes save as you make them, so there is nothing to submit.
| Notification | Plan |
|---|---|
| Task reminders | Every plan |
| Assignments | Every plan |
| Task updates | Every plan |
| Mentions, Comments, Invitations | Every plan |
| Custom reminder timing | Pro and Agency |
| Daily Briefing | Pro and Agency |
| Weekly Report | Pro and Agency |
The notifications you need for VA To-Do to work as a task manager are on every plan. Pro adds control over when reminders arrive, and the two scheduled summaries.
Task reminders
Switched on for everyone. You are reminded before a task is due, and the reminder opens the task.
Due dates in VA To-Do are a day, not a time, so a reminder needs to know what time of day a dated task counts as due. On Free that is 9:00 AM in your timezone, and the reminder arrives 30 minutes before it. A task placed on the calendar with a start time is reminded against that time instead.
On Pro and Agency, switching Task reminders on reveals the timing:
- Remind me: at the due time, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 1 day
before. Choose more than one and you get one reminder at each.
- Tasks with no set time are due at: the hour a dated task counts as due, in
your timezone.
- Notify me via: in-app always, plus browser and email if you want them.
A reminder is only sent if the task is still worth reminding you about. Complete it, delete it, archive it, or take its due date away and the reminder does not arrive. Move the due date and the reminder moves with it.
Browser notifications
Settings → Notifications → Browser notifications shows reminders and activity on your desktop while VA To-Do is open in a tab.
The row starts with an Enable browser notifications button. Nothing is requested until you select it: your browser then asks for permission, and only then does the setting switch on. Once permission is granted the button is replaced by a normal on/off switch.
If you decline, the row says your browser is blocking notifications and offers Learn how, which explains where to change it. VA To-Do does not ask again, because browsers ignore a repeated request after a refusal.
Email is off by default and opt-in per notification. Task reminders, the Daily Briefing and the Weekly Report each have their own Email checkbox, on Pro and Agency.
Every one of those emails carries a Manage notification preferences link straight back to this tab.
Invitations and account emails are sent regardless, because they carry something you need in order to act, and an invitation has to reach people who do not have an account yet. If an invitation email has not arrived, see Invitation problems.
Changing plan
Turning a notification off keeps its settings. Turn the Daily Briefing off and back on and your time, days and included sections are exactly as you left them.
The same is true across a plan change. Downgrading to Free stops the Daily Briefing and Weekly Report from being sent, but does not erase how you had them set up. Upgrading again brings the configuration back, still switched off until you switch it on. Upgrading never turns a summary on by itself.
Nothing appearing?
- Check you are in the right context. Workspace notifications are about that
workspace.
- Check the switch for that notification in Settings → Notifications.
- Check the invitation went to the address you signed in with.
- Refresh the page if you have had a tab open a long time.