# Notifications

VitalSentinel tells you about problems in two places: the in-app notification inbox and email. This page explains the **Notifications** inbox and the account **Notifications** settings, where you choose which emails you get.

## Before you start [#before-you-start]

- The bell icon at the top of the app opens a short list of your unread notifications. The full inbox is at `/dashboard/notifications`.
- To open the email settings, click your avatar at the top right, click **User settings**, and then click **Notifications** in the sidebar. You can also click **Email settings** in the inbox.
- Notification settings are personal. Each member of a workspace sets their own.
- Alerts come from alert rules on a domain. To create alert rules, see [Alerts](/domain/alerts).

## Notification channels [#notification-channels]

VitalSentinel can send a notification through these channels:

| Channel | What you get | Where you set it |
|---------|--------------|------------------|
| In-app inbox | Every alert, system message and announcement. | Always on. |
| Alert email | An email when an alert rule fires. | The alert rule and **Alert emails** on this page. |
| Change digest and weekly report | Summary emails about your sites. | **Change digest and weekly reports** on this page. |
| Slack and webhooks | Alerts in a Slack channel or at your own endpoint. | The workspace [Integrations](/workspace/integrations) page. See [Alert delivery](/domain/alerts/delivery). |

## Notification bell [#notification-bell]

The bell icon at the top of the app shows a badge with the number of unread notifications. The badge shows **9+** for more than nine. Click the bell to see your newest unread notifications. If you have none, the list says "You're all caught up".

## Notifications inbox [#notifications-inbox]

The **Notifications** inbox page lists your notifications in the **Inbox** card, with the newest at the top. Each row shows:

- A colored status dot and the title. An unread title is bold.
- The domain, or **Account** for a notification that is not about one domain.
- When you received it (**Received**).
- A **Resolved** chip if the problem went away. Hover over the time to see when it was fixed, for example "Fixed itself on Oct 17, 2026".
- A chip such as **×3** if the same alert fired more than once.

### Needs you and Good to know [#needs-you-and-good-to-know]

In the **Unread** view, the inbox splits your notifications into two sections:

- **Needs you**: unread notifications with the severity **Warning** or **Critical**. Read these first.
- **Good to know**: all other unread notifications, for example **Info** and **Success** messages.

In the **All** view, the inbox shows all notifications, read and unread, newest first, with no sections.

### Severity colors [#severity-colors]

The status dot of each notification shows its severity:

| Dot | Severity | Example |
|-----|----------|---------|
| Red | **Critical** | Your site is down, or a critical alert fired. |
| Amber | **Warning** | A metric crossed a warning threshold. |
| Purple | **Info** | A product announcement or a system message. |
| Green | **Success** or **Resolved** | A payment went through, or a problem fixed itself. |

## Open a notification [#open-a-notification]

Click a notification to open it in a panel on the side of the page. VitalSentinel marks it as read. The panel shows what happened and the facts, such as **Received** and the device. A button opens the page where you can act, for example **View issues** or **Open the page**.

Use the arrows in the panel to go to the previous or next notification.

## Manage notifications in the inbox [#manage-notifications-in-the-inbox]

Each row has a menu (three dots) with these actions:

- **Mark as read** or **Mark as unread**.
- **Delete**. You cannot get a deleted notification back.

For a repeated alert, the actions apply to all copies, for example **Mark all 3 as read** or **Delete all 3**. To mark every notification as read, click **Mark all read** at the top of the page.

### Filter the inbox [#filter-the-inbox]

The filter bar at the bottom of the inbox has these options:

- **Show**: **Unread** (the default) or **All**.
- **Domain**: show the notifications of one domain.
- **Severity**: show only one severity, for example **Critical**.
- **Kind**: show only one module, for example **Uptime Monitoring**, **RUM Monitoring** or **Account and system**.

### Empty inbox messages [#empty-inbox-messages]

- **No unread notifications** and "You are all caught up.": you read everything.
- **No notifications yet**: you have no notifications.
- **No notifications match these filters**: clear a filter to see more.

## Notification settings [#notification-settings]

The account **Notifications** settings page has five cards. Every switch saves immediately.

### Account and product emails [#account-and-product-emails]

The **Account and product emails** card controls emails about the product. VitalSentinel always sends account, security and billing emails.

- **Product and onboarding emails**: getting-started emails after you sign up, plus some product guidance.
- **Newsletter**: product updates and technical SEO tips, two emails a month at most.
- **Count opens and clicks in onboarding and newsletter emails**: VitalSentinel sees when you open these emails and click their links. It is off by default. If you ticked the email box when you registered, it is on. You can turn it off at any time.

Each product email also has an unsubscribe link at the bottom.

### Alert emails [#alert-emails]

The **Alert emails** card has one switch for each module, for example **Uptime Monitoring**, **RUM Monitoring** and **Google Search Console**. A module switch controls if that module can send you alert emails. Alerts always show in the inbox, under the bell.

An alert email needs two settings: the email switch of the alert rule is on, and the module switch is on.

If you turn off **Site Health Monitoring**, **Page Monitoring** or **Sitemap Monitoring**, VitalSentinel also removes that module from your change digest and weekly report.

The switch **Email me when a critical alert fixes itself** sends one short email when a critical alert that VitalSentinel emailed closes by itself.

### Shared alerts [#shared-alerts]

The **Shared alerts** card lists alerts that an owner or admin shares with everyone in the workspace. Each alert shows its severity (**Critical**, **Warning** or **Info**), **Shared by** and the name of the person. Turn off the switch for a site to stop getting that alert yourself. A paused alert shows the chip **Paused**.

### Muted status dots [#muted-status-dots]

The **Muted status dots** card lists the problems that you muted with **Stop flagging this** on a status dot. Each row shows the site, the module, the problem and the mute date.

- Click **Unmute** to see the dot of that problem again.
- Click **Unmute all** and confirm to unmute every problem.

If you muted nothing, the card shows **Nothing is muted**. See [Dashboard](/workspace/dashboard#module-status-dots).

### Change digest [#change-digest]

The **Change digest and weekly reports** card has two settings and a table of your sites. The **Change digest** is an email about what changed on the pages you watch with [Page Monitoring](/page-monitoring/overview) and across your sites in [Site Health Monitoring](/site-health/overview). Select how often you get it:

| Option | What you get |
|--------|--------------|
| **Off** | No change digest emails. Sitemap Monitoring is also removed from your weekly report. Alerts and the change feed do not change. |
| **Daily** | One email at 7:00 AM UTC for all your sites, on days with new changes or issues. Quiet days send nothing. |
| **Weekly** | One email a week with the new changes and issues, in your weekly report. A quiet week sends nothing. |

[Sitemap Monitoring](/sitemap-monitoring/overview) is only in the email with the **Weekly** option.

### Weekly domain reports [#weekly-domain-reports]

The **Weekly domain reports** switch sends one email on Monday for all your sites. The email shows what needs action and what changed. A quiet week sends nothing. Urgent problems still reach you through alert rules.

Below the switches, a table lists your sites by workspace. Use the **Change digest** and **Weekly report** columns to turn each site on or off. The **?** of each column header shows a count, for example "On for 3 of 5 sites."

If the change digest is **Off** or the weekly reports are off, the site switches of that column are paused. The card then says, for example, "The change digest is off, so its site switches are paused."

## Troubleshooting [#troubleshooting]

### Why do I not get alert emails? [#why-do-i-not-get-alert-emails]

Check two settings. First, the alert rule must have its email switch on. See [Alerts](/domain/alerts). Second, the module switch must be on in **Alert emails**. Also look in your spam folder.

### Why does the inbox not show my read notifications? [#why-does-the-inbox-not-show-my-read-notifications]

The inbox opens with **Show** set to **Unread**. Set **Show** to **All** in the filter bar.

### How do I stop the product emails? [#how-do-i-stop-the-product-emails]

Turn off **Product and onboarding emails** and **Newsletter** in **Account and product emails**. You can also click the unsubscribe link in the email. Account, security and billing emails always arrive.

### Why did a status dot stop showing a problem? [#why-did-a-status-dot-stop-showing-a-problem]

You or somebody with your account muted the problem with **Stop flagging this**. Open **Muted status dots** and click **Unmute**.

## Related [#related]

- [Alerts](/domain/alerts) - create the alert rules that fill the inbox
- [Alert delivery](/domain/alerts/delivery) - send alerts to Slack or a webhook
- [Dashboard](/workspace/dashboard) - status dots and muted problems
- [Reports](/domain/reports) - the reports of a domain