The Inbox, notifications and pauses

The Inbox tab at the top of the rail counts the unread of every app, web and Windows. Open it to read, mark read or pause notifications in one place.

#The Inbox tab

The bell under Quick Search, at the top of the rail, shows the total unread of every app on the rail, web apps and Windows apps alike (99+ above 99). When new unread arrives, one ring of light plays behind it, also in Quiet mode and during a call; a pause silences it, and the bell is struck through while notifications are paused. The Inbox is free, and in Gaming View the bell takes no click.

#What the Inbox lists

A press on the bell opens the Inbox beside the rail. Its header says the total, such as 26 unread in 5 apps, or how long a pause has left. It lists every app with unread, newest first: the app whose unread grew last comes first. Under Notifications off it lists the apps whose notifications are off and have nothing unread. With nothing unread it reads All caught up.

• Each row shows the app's icon, its name, one status line and its unread count. A row with previews reads its newest message in that line, such as Ana: Are you there?
• Point at a row, or give it the keyboard focus, and its actions take the count's place: Mark read, Mute and Notifications off. A Windows app's row offers Mark read and Notifications off.
• Click a row to open the app on the account whose unread grew last. A Windows app comes forward.
• At the bottom, Mark all read clears every app's count, and Pause notifications pauses them.
• From the keyboard, Enter on the bell opens the Inbox on the first unread row. Up and Down move between the rows and the footer, Left and Right through a row's actions, and Esc closes it.

#Read messages in the Inbox

A row with previews ends in a control, such as Messages from WhatsApp, that shows the notifications behind its unread, newest first: who or what each is from (with the account, on a stacked tile), the time and two lines of its text. A long one has its own control that shows its whole text, as the site sent it.

• One sender's notifications on one account stack into one entry that says how many there are, such as 2 messages, with a control that opens the stack.
• Click an entry to open the conversation it came from. Side Whisper hands the click to the site's own notification, so the site's own click handler runs, as in a browser. A notification a site makes through its service worker, as WhatsApp Web does, opens the app on its tab instead.
• A Windows app's entry brings the app forward and marks it read, because Windows gives no way to open another app's notification itself.
• The Inbox keeps up to 20 previews per app and 100 in all, in memory only, and forgets them when Side Whisper quits. Unread with no preview, from before Side Whisper started or past the 20, is counted in one line, such as 9 more in Gmail.
• While Gaming is on, with Notifications while Gaming at Sender only or Badges only, entries keep who and when and read Message hidden while Gaming. While the Panic button is on there are none.

#Mark read, mute or turn notifications off

The same Notifications off is in each app's menu on the rail. The rail toast confirms it with the app's name, such as Notifications off for Gmail. Windows still shows a Windows app's own banners: the toast's In Windows, or Also turn off in Windows in the app's menu, opens the Windows Settings page where you turn them off.

#Pause notifications

A pause silences the notification toasts and the Inbox's ring, for web apps and Windows apps, mutes web apps' short message sounds and hides every red count. The Inbox keeps counting, its tab still shows the total, and the counts come back when the pause ends; Side Whisper's own toasts, such as an Undo, still show.

• In the Inbox, Pause notifications at the bottom lists For 1 hour, For 12 hours, For 24 hours, For 48 hours and For 7 days, then Custom time…: a whole number, Minutes, Hours or Days, and Pause, from 1 minute to 30 days.
• In Settings, Browser, then Privacy & performance, the Pause notifications row under Notifications and unread badges offers the same lengths and Until I resume.
• In Quick Search, the Pause notifications action pauses for 1 hour. Type pause and a length, such as pause 3h or pause 2 days, to choose another.
• While paused, the Inbox's header says how long is left, such as Paused · 43 min left · 26 waiting, and its footer reads Resume notifications. Settings shows Paused · 43 min left with Resume, and the tray's tooltip says Notifications paused.
• The rail toast confirms each pause and resume, such as Notifications paused for 12 hours or Notifications resumed.
• A pause holds when Side Whisper restarts, until its time is up.
• While a pause holds, the Inbox also offers Do not disturb in Windows, which opens Windows' notification settings: Windows keeps showing other apps' own banners until you turn its Do not disturb on.

#Quiet mode and calls

• Quiet mode, under Pause notifications in Settings or as a Quick Search action, hides site toasts until you turn it off, also after a restart. Unread keeps counting, and the tray's tooltip says Quiet.
• Pause toasts during calls, on by default, holds site toasts while a call window that asked for your camera or microphone, or whose page you share, is in front. It ends when that window loses the focus or closes. Unread keeps counting.

#Notifications while Gaming

Settings, then Gaming, Notifications while Gaming chooses what shows while Gaming is on: Toasts and badges (the default), Sender only (the toast names the site and who wrote, never the message, safe on a stream) or Badges only (no toast, and counts still grow). Toasts show on the sidebar's screen and let clicks pass through in Gaming View.

#The notification toast

Each site notification shows once: as a Windows notification, or as Side Whisper's own toast when Windows does not show it within 2.5 seconds. Side Whisper's toast sits at the bottom right of the sidebar's screen, in your theme, with the site, the sender and two lines of the message. It stays 4 seconds, and longer while the pointer rests on it or the keyboard focus is in it. A click opens the tab that sent it, without taking the focus from a game in Gaming View or Interact.

• A notification from the tab you are looking at still shows its toast, but adds no unread.
• Notifications and unread badges, under Settings, then Browser, then Privacy & performance, turns toasts and unread counts off for every site.

#Which sites notify

A web app notifies only while its page is loaded (opened after Side Whisper started, or kept loaded by Start with Side Whisper, Pro), and only once its site is allowed, in Side Whisper's permission prompt or in Site settings. A closed tab gets no background Web Push. Most sites also ask for their own permission, in a banner or a setting:

#Windows apps in the Inbox

In the Microsoft Store version, once you allow it (Settings, then General, then Windows apps, Notifications from Windows apps, then Allow; Windows asks you first), the notifications Windows shows for the apps on the rail come to the Inbox with their previews, one sender's stacked. Elsewhere a Windows app's row reads Windows app · No previews, and its count comes from its window title. See Windows apps on the sidebar.

Suggest an edit·Report an issue