---
title: "Notifications overview"
description: "Talkspirit notifies you on two separate channels, desktop and email, each controlled by your own per-app preferences and, for email only, by an organisation-wide administrator switch."
category: getting-started
section: notifications-and-status
tags: [notifications]
type: Reference
lastUpdated: 2026-08-05
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/getting-started/notifications
---

# Notifications overview


## Notifications overview

Talkspirit uses two notification channels, **Desktop** and **Email**, and they are governed separately. Switching one off leaves the other running, which is why an event can reach your bell and never reach your inbox, or the reverse.

**Desktop** covers everything that stays inside Talkspirit: the item in your notification bell, and a pop-up from your operating system if you have allowed notifications in your browser. **Email** covers the message sent to your mailbox.

## Where notifications appear

The bell sits at the top right of every page. A red badge shows how many unread notifications you have, counting up to 9 and then showing "9+". Your browser tab title also carries the same count in front of the page name.

Click the bell to open the panel. It shows one list, newest first, merging notifications from **Structure**, **Goals**, **Projects** and **Meetings**, and each item carries the icon of the app it came from. Use the double-check button to mark everything as read, or the three-dot menu beside it to jump straight to **Notification settings**.

![The Talkspirit notification bell open at the top right of the app, showing a merged list of recent notifications with a red unread badge on the bell icon](/images/getting-started/notifications/01-notification-bell-panel.png)

## Choosing what you receive

Open the avatar menu at the top right, select **Profile & Preferences**, then **Notifications**.

The page has one tab per app: **Structure**, **Goals**, **Projects** and **Meetings**. You only see the tabs for the apps you have access to, so a member without Meetings sees three tabs.

Each tab works the same way. **Global Settings** carries two switches, **Enable email notifications** and **Enable desktop notifications**, and below them a table listing every event with its own **Email** and **Desktop** switch. The global switch wins: turn off **Enable email notifications** and every Email switch in that tab greys out. A few Project events are desktop only and show no Email switch at all.

![The Notifications page of a member's account, with tabs for Structure, Goals, Projects and Meetings, the two global switches, and a table of events with one Email switch and one Desktop switch per row](/images/getting-started/notifications/02-account-notification-preferences.png)

These preferences are per app. There is no per-circle or per-group setting here, and you are never notified about an action you performed yourself.

## What your administrator can switch off

Administrators have one organisation-wide control over email, at **Administration → Settings → Organisation**, in the **Notification emails** block: a single **Send notification emails** switch. Turned off, no notification email leaves the platform for anyone in the organisation, whatever each member has chosen in their own settings.

That switch never touches the desktop channel. The bell keeps filling normally, so a member who reports "I stopped getting emails but the app still notifies me" is usually looking at this setting rather than their own. It also does not cover everything Talkspirit sends: password resets and the classic Talkspirit apps send their mail by a different route.

> **Note:** Newsfeed, Chat, Calendar, Library, Drive and Groups still open in the classic Talkspirit app and keep their own notification settings there, separate from the four tabs above.

## Next steps

- [Configuring my notification settings](/getting-started/how-to-configure-my-notification-settings)
- [Enable do not disturb mode](/getting-started/enable-do-not-disturb-mode)
- [Project notifications](/getting-started/projects-notifications)
- [Setting up Drive notifications](/getting-started/drive-notifications)
- [Receiving notifications for new activities on the platform](/communication/receive-notifications-for-new-activities-on-the-platform)