Lesson 9. Viewing and Managing Notifications
In this lesson, you learn how to view and manage notifications.
Understanding Google+ Notifications
Notifications alert you to important activities on Google+. You receive a notification whenever someone
• Adds you to one of their Google+ circles
• Tags you in a photo
• Shares a post with you directly
• Adds a comment to one of your posts
• Endorses one of your posts using the +1 button
• Mentions you in a post
• Invites you to a game or sends you a game gift
You can view your notifications on Google+, receive notifications via email, or receive notifications via text message (SMS).
Viewing Your Notifications on Google+
The Notifications button in the upper-right corner of Google+ tells you how many unread notifications you have by highlighting this number in red. Figure 9.1, for example, shows three unread notifications.
Figure 9.1. Your number of unread notifications is highlighted in red.
Note: Why Isn’t the Notifications Button Red?
If you don’t have any unread notifications, the button displays the number zero (0) and isn’t highlighted in red. You can still click the Notifications button to view previously read notifications.
To view and react to your notifications, follow these steps:
1. Click the Notifications button in the upper-right corner of any Google+ page (refer to Figure 9.1). Figure 9.2 shows some sample notifications. Google+ groups your notifications by type, such as notifications that let you know someone added you to a circle.
Figure 9.2. View your notifications by type.
2. Click the arrow to the right of a notification to view its detail menu, as shown in Figure 9.3. For example, you can view all the people who recently added you to a circle.
Figure 9.3. View the people associated with each notification type.
3. Take any of the following actions:
• Click someone’s name to open that person’s profile.
• Pause your mouse over someone’s name to view a pop-up box that includes this person’s headline, as shown in Figure 9.4.
Figure 9.4. View more information about someone in the pop-up box.
• Pause your mouse over the Add to Circles button below the name of a person you want to add to a circle. In the pop-up box that opens (see Figure 9.5), select the check box next to the circle to which you want to add this person. Optionally, click the Create New Circle link to add this person to a new circle. If you’ve already added someone to a circle, the Add to Circles button is replaced with a button that displays the name of the circle this person belongs to.
Figure 9.5. Quickly add people to circles.
• Click the Ignore link to ignore someone who appears on the Notifications menu. For example, you can ignore someone you don’t know and don’t plan to add to one of your circles. If you change your mind, click Undo. After clicking the Ignore link, Google+ enables you to click the Block link, which blocks someone from Google+. Blocking is a stronger action than hiding. When you block people on Google+, they will no longer be in any of your circles and they can’t comment on your posts. The people you block are not aware that you have blocked them. See Lesson 7, “Viewing Your Google+ Stream,” for more information about the ramifications of blocking people.
From the Notifications detail menu, you can also do the following:
• Click the Back link to return to the initial Notifications menu.
• Click the Older link or Newer link to move to older or newer notifications.
• Click the More Circle Notifications link to open the Notifications page, where you can view all your notifications in one place. Clicking the View All Notifications link on the initial Notifications menu also opens this page. See “Viewing the Notifications Page” for more information about this page.
To close the Notifications menu, click another part of the Google+ screen.
Viewing the Notifications Page
The Notifications page enables you to view all your notifications in one place. To access this page, click the View All Notifications link on the Notifications menu (refer to Figure 9.2). Figure 9.6 shows the Notifications page.
Figure 9.6. View all your notifications on one page.
On this page, you can:
• Interact with a notification by clicking one of the available links or buttons. The actions available depend on the type of notification and your connection with the people involved. For example, when someone who isn’t in one of your circles adds you, Google+ displays the Add to Circles button for this person. When someone tags you in a photo album, Google+ displays links to that person’s profile and the album.
• View notifications about people adding you to circles by clicking the Circle Adds button.
• Filter your notifications by clicking the More button at the top and selecting one of the following options from the drop-down menu: Your Posts, Mentions of You, Photos of You, Other Peoples’ Posts, and Games.
• Click the down arrow to the right of any notification to hide the notification or report abuse. Note that you can’t hide or report notifications about people who add you to circles, but you can choose to ignore or block individual people.
• Click the down arrow to the right of a game notification and select Mute All Game Notifications from the menu if you don’t want Google+ to notify you about your gaming activities.
Receiving Notifications via Email and Text Message
If you prefer, you can receive notifications by email or text message (SMS). Google+ enables you to filter the notifications you receive if you don’t want to receive every notification in this manner. For example, you could receive a notification by email whenever someone adds you to a circle or mentions your name, receive a notification by text message whenever someone starts a Messenger conversation with you, and read all other notifications directly on Google+.
To specify your notification delivery preferences, click the Home icon on the Google+ ribbon and select Settings from the drop-down menu in the upper-right corner of the page. For more information, see Lesson 5, “Managing Google+ Settings and Privacy.”
Specifying Who Can Send You Notifications
Google+ enables you to specify the people who can send you notifications. This is most useful for users with many people in circles who are very active on Google+. Using this feature you can control notifications when someone mentions you, shares content directly with you, tags you, or invites you to a hangout. For example, you can restrict this activity only to people in your circles, your extended circles, or a custom selection of circles.
To specify who can send you notifications, click the Home icon on the Google+ ribbon and select Settings from the drop-down menu in the upper-right corner of the page. For more information, see Lesson 5.
Summary
In this lesson, you learned how to view and manage Google+ notifications. Now it’s time to learn more about the many photo options Google+ provides.