Notifications
Get a notification on your computer or your iPhone when something needs you, and nothing when it does not.
CommSync can reach you when something needs you, even while the tab is in the background or closed. The same notification arrives on your computer, through your browser, and on your iPhone, through the CommSync app. One set of choices covers every device.
What notifies
| Event | What arrives |
|---|---|
| An agent needs you | A drafted reply waits for your approval, an agent handed a conversation to a person, or an alert you set on an agent fired. Owners and admins only. |
| New messages | A text or an email from a person, on a line in your inbox. |
| Calls and voicemail | A missed call or a new voicemail on a line in your inbox. A call someone answered does not notify. |
| Mentions | A teammate mentioned you in a comment. |
| Send failures | A message you sent did not go through. |
| Reminders | A reminder you set with Remind me on a card or on Home is due. |
| Bill alerts | A bill or an invoice in your inbox is due tomorrow. Bills on autopay never notify. |
| Daily Brief | Your Daily Brief is ready. iPhone only. |
Some things never notify, on purpose:
- A reply an agent sends by itself. The activity feed keeps that record.
- Newsletters, receipts, and automated mail.
- A message in a conversation you have open right now.
- A message in a conversation you muted or snoozed.
One-time codes still notify
A message with a one-time code notifies you, even when it is automated mail. You asked for the code, and a sign-in screen waits for it. A code in a message that CommSync filed as spam or promotions stays silent.
The one you want
If you run an agent in draft-first mode, turn on An agent needs you. A drafted reply that nobody hears about is a customer who waits. The notification opens the approval queue on the exact draft, and one click sends it.
The Daily Brief on your iPhone
CommSync writes the Daily Brief twice a day. When a brief has items, your iPhone gets one notification for it. Touch and hold the notification to see the top items. A tap on an item opens that conversation.
To turn it off, open Settings → Notifications in the iPhone app and turn off Daily Brief. The web settings page has no switch for it, because a browser does not get this notification. The brief can also arrive by email; see The daily brief.
Reminders
Press Remind me on a smart card or on a Coming up row on Home, and pick a time. At that time you get one notification, on your computer and on your iPhone. For example: "Reminder: Comcast bill due tomorrow" and "$84.20 due Sat, Oct 17". A reminder creates no to-do.
The notification has two buttons:
- Open opens the message with the card in view.
- Snooze 1 hour moves the reminder one hour later.
A reminder arrives at the time you picked, even in a conversation you muted or snoozed, and even during quiet hours. It does not arrive when you hid the card, or when you marked the bill paid.
When a reminder cannot reach you, its chip shows a small amber dot. This happens when no browser or iPhone of yours has notifications turned on, or when the Reminders switch is off.
To turn reminders off, open Settings → Notifications and turn off Reminders.
Bill alerts
CommSync reads bills and invoices in your mail as smart cards. At 9:00 on the day before a bill is due, you get one notification, on your computer and on your iPhone. For example: "Reminder: Northwind Power bill due tomorrow" and "$84.10 due Sat, Oct 17". A tap opens the message with the bill card in view. The card shows this alert as a reminder chip with the label Auto.
The notification names the payee and the amount. It never shows an account number.
You get one notification for each bill:
- If you set your own reminder on a bill, your reminder replaces the bill alert.
- To stop the alert for one bill, choose Turn off for this bill on its reminder chip.
Quiet hours still apply. If they hold the notification until the due day, it says that the bill is due today.
These bills never notify:
- A bill on autopay. The mail says that it pays itself.
- A bill that you marked paid, or that a receipt in your inbox already settled.
- A bill in a conversation you muted or snoozed.
To turn off every bill alert, open Settings → Notifications and turn off Bill alerts.
Turn on browser notifications
When you sign in, your browser asks whether CommSync may show notifications. Choose Allow, and this browser starts to receive them. The browser asks only while you have not answered. After an Allow or a Block, it does not ask again.
You can also turn them on later in Settings:
Open Settings → Notifications
The page shows this browser at the top, with its state.
Turn on the switch
Your browser asks once whether CommSync may show notifications. Choose Allow.
Send a test
The Send a test button shows a card the way a real one arrives. Switch to another window first; a tab that has focus shows a small toast instead of a card.
CommSync also offers the switch on the Review page of Agents while work waits. Turn on there does the same as the switch. It asks your browser for permission when it must. Then it turns on every kind of notification for this browser. Not now keeps that offer away for two weeks.
If the browser stops the setup, the offer and the Settings page both show the steps that fix it. CommSync keeps your choice, so when you come back after the fix, the setup finishes by itself.
Browsers
Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari 16.4 or newer on a computer all work.
On an iPhone or iPad, Safari delivers notifications only to a site on the Home Screen. Tap Share, then Add to Home Screen, and open CommSync from there. The CommSync app for iPhone is the better choice on a phone.
Blocked in the browser
If the page says Blocked, your browser holds a "no" for this site from an earlier visit. Open the site settings of your browser (the icon left of the address), set Notifications to Allow, and turn the switch on again.
Brave
Brave turns off its push service by default. The site can show Allowed in the address bar, and the setup still fails. To turn on the push service:
Open Brave's privacy settings
Open a new tab and go to brave://settings/privacy. A web page cannot open
this address for you, so CommSync gives you a Copy button.
Turn on Use Google services for push messaging
Brave delivers web notifications through Google's push service, the same service Chrome uses.
Relaunch Brave
Open CommSync again. The setup finishes by itself.
No card appears
If the switch is on but Send a test shows no card, your computer can hold notifications back from the browser:
- Windows: open Settings → System → Notifications, and turn on notifications for your browser. Check that Do not disturb is off.
- macOS: open System Settings → Notifications, select your browser, and turn on Allow notifications. Check that a Focus is not on.
Choose what reaches you
Notify me about lists one switch per event. The choices apply to every device: a switch you turn off on your laptop stays off on your iPhone. The Daily Brief switch is in the iPhone app only.
Preview decides how much a notification shows before you open it. The web and the iPhone app use different names for the same three choices:
| On the web | In the iPhone app | What the notification shows |
|---|---|---|
| Full message | Message text | Who wrote, the subject, and the first line. |
| Sender only | Sender name | Who wrote, not what. |
| Private | Private | Only that something arrived. |
The server applies your choice before it sends the notification. So a Private notification never carries the sender or the text, on any device.
On an iPhone, the iPhone settings also decide when the lock screen shows a preview (Show Previews). Both choices apply. The iPhone app tells you when the iPhone choice hides something.
A one-time code shows on the notification only with Full message (Message text on the iPhone). See the iPhone app for the Copy button.
Quiet hours
Quiet hours hold notifications between two times each day, in the timezone you set. A notification that arrives in the window waits until the window ends. Nothing is dropped.
How loudly a notification arrives on iPhone
An iPhone lets an app say how much each notification can interrupt you. CommSync gives each notification for a new message or a call one of three levels:
| Level | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Time-sensitive | A message or call that cannot wait, such as an urgent call. It can reach you during a Focus. |
| Active | The normal notification: a sound, and a card on the lock screen. Most notifications use it. |
| Passive | A quiet notification, such as a likely robocall. It makes no sound and does not light the screen. |
CommSync keeps Time-sensitive for a small number of notifications. Quiet hours still hold a time-sensitive notification until the window ends.
Time-sensitive is not active yet
Today the iPhone delivers a time-sensitive notification from CommSync as an active one. It does not pass a Focus yet.
CommSync also tells the iPhone how important each notification is. The iPhone uses that to order your notification summary. Other notifications, such as mentions and send failures, arrive as Active. A browser shows every notification in the same way.
Your devices
The Your devices list shows every browser and every iPhone that receives your notifications, with the last time each one checked in. Remove retires one. It stops receiving now, and it stays off until someone turns notifications off and on again on that device.
A device marked Not receiving says why, and what to do:
- The browser or the iPhone ended its subscription. Someone blocked notifications, cleared the site data, or deleted the app. Turn notifications on again on that device.
- Nobody opened CommSync there for 270 days. CommSync retired it. Open CommSync on that device to register it again.
Sign out on a shared computer retires that browser's registration. A password change retires every device, so a lost phone or a forgotten library computer stops receiving. On the devices you hold, turn notifications off and on again to bring them back.
One account keeps at most 20 devices that receive notifications. When one more device registers, the device that checked in least recently stops receiving. It receives again when someone opens CommSync on it.
Email from CommSync
CommSync also sends email to the address you sign in with. That email is of two kinds. You can turn off only one kind.
| Kind | Examples | Can you turn it off? |
|---|---|---|
| Product tips and trial reminders | The trial welcome. The two reminders after a trial ends. A note from the founder. The reminder to connect a line after you connect an AI app. | Yes |
| Account and security email | A password reset. The verification code. Team invites and mentions. The notice that a trial ends soon or ended. The warnings before CommSync deletes a workspace. A full storage pool. The weekly agent report and the agent alerts that an owner or an admin turns on. | No |
To turn off product tips and trial reminders, do one of these:
- In Settings → Notifications, turn off Product tips and trial reminders by email. You can turn it on again at any time.
- At the bottom of one of these emails, select Unsubscribe. On the page that opens, select Unsubscribe again. That page also has Subscribe again.
Many mail apps also show their own Unsubscribe button next to the sender. That button does the same thing, with no page.
Account and security email always arrives
The choice never stops email about your account, your data, or your security. For example, if your trial ends with no card, the warnings before CommSync deletes the workspace still arrive. Your data is at stake, so you must get them.
The choice belongs to you, not to your workspace. A teammate who acts as you cannot change it. The Daily Brief email is a separate setting: see The daily brief.
Privacy
CommSync sends a notification through Firebase Cloud Messaging, which relays it to your browser or to Apple. The notification carries what the Preview level allows and the ids CommSync needs to open the right place. CommSync never stores a notification's text outside the conversation it came from.