# Notifications

Control whether subscribers are notified when an event changes.

Source: https://statusdashboard.com/docs/events/notifications

Each event has a Notifications toggle that controls whether matching subscribers receive email, SMS, and other channels when the event changes. Delivery runs only while the event is published; draft work in the admin console never notifies anyone.

***

## What triggers a notification
Each event has a **Notifications** toggle on the **Notifications** tab. It controls whether subscribers are notified when the event changes **while the event is published**.

The toggle defaults to **on** when you create a new event. **Publish** defaults to **off**. Draft (unpublished) events never send notifications, even when **Notifications** is on. Turn **Publish** on when you are ready for the event to appear on status dashboards and for outbound delivery to run.

You can turn **Notifications** off per event at any time — for example, for a published maintenance window where you prefer subscribers only see updates on the status dashboard.

> The per-event notifications toggle is independent of your dashboard 
>   **Subscriptions**
>    settings. You can enable notifications on an event without changing how visitors sign up on your status dashboards. When a qualifying change occurs on a 
>   **published**
>    event with notifications on, StatusDashboard notifies 
>   **matching subscribers**
>    — see 
>   [Who receives notifications](/docs/notifications#who-receives-notifications)
>   .

When **Notifications** is **on** and the event is **published**, matching subscribers are notified after these actions:

| Action                     | When a notification is sent                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Create event**           | You save a new event with **Notifications** on **and** **Publish** on.                                                                                                                                                                      |
| **Update event**           | You save qualifying changes to an existing **published** event — see [Update event](#update-event) below.                                                                                                                                   |
| **Timeline update**        | You post a **new** timeline entry on a **published** event (incidents and maintenance only).                                                                                                                                                |
| **Reopen incident**        | You reopen a resolved **published** incident (includes the reopen timeline entry).                                                                                                                                                          |
| **Post-mortem**            | You **publish** a post-mortem, or **save changes while it is published**, on a **published** event (incidents and maintenance only). Unpublishing or private draft saves do not notify.                                                     |
| **Maintenance automation** | An advance reminder, automatic start, or automatic stop posts a timeline update — only when **both** **Publish** and **Notifications** are on. See [Workflows — Automatic start and stop](/docs/events/workflows#automatic-start-and-stop). |

### Update event
Saving an existing event notifies matching subscribers when **Notifications** is on, the event is **published**, and you change any of the following:

| Field or change                | When a notification is sent                                                                                                                            |
| ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Title**                      | You change the event title.                                                                                                                            |
| **Description**                | You change the event description.                                                                                                                      |
| **Impact Analysis**            | You set, change, or clear impact analysis (incidents and maintenance only).                                                                            |
| **Affected components**        | You add, remove, or reorder affected components.                                                                                                       |
| **Severity**                   | You change the severity (incidents only).                                                                                                              |
| **Coordinator**                | You set, change, or clear the coordinator.                                                                                                             |
| **Start time**                 | You change the expected or actual start time.                                                                                                          |
| **End time**                   | You change the expected or actual end time.                                                                                                            |
| **Public attributes**          | You add, edit, remove, or change visibility of a **public** attribute. Private-only changes do not notify — see [Attributes](/docs/events/attributes). |
| **Segment targeting**          | You enable, disable, or change segment include/exclude rules on the **Segments** tab.                                                                  |
| **Publish** turned **on**      | You turn **Publish** on for an event that was unpublished (with **Notifications** still on).                                                           |
| **Publish** turned **off**     | Does **not** notify — the event is removed from status dashboards and future fan-out stops without outbound delivery.                                  |
| **Notifications** toggle alone | Does **not** notify — only changes future eligibility.                                                                                                 |

Delivery is **asynchronous**. Saving the event succeeds even if delivery is temporarily delayed; failures are retried in the background.

For who receives notifications, dashboard visibility, and channel-specific formatting, see [Notifications overview](/docs/notifications).

## What does not trigger a notification
These changes do **not** notify subscribers, even when **Notifications** is enabled:

* Any save while the event is **unpublished** (draft), including create, edits, and timeline updates
* Adding or editing **internal notes**
* **Editing or deleting** an existing timeline entry (only **new** entries trigger a notification)
* Saving a post-mortem while it remains **unpublished**, or **unpublishing** a published post-mortem

## Notifications vs. publish
**Publish** controls status dashboard visibility **and** whether outbound notifications may run. **Notifications** controls whether fan-out is allowed once the event is published. Both must be on for subscribers to be notified:

| Notifications | Publish | Status dashboard | Subscriber notifications                                                            |
| ------------- | ------- | ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **On**        | **On**  | Event is visible | Matching subscribers are notified on qualifying changes                             |
| **On**        | **Off** | Event is hidden  | No outbound notifications — draft authoring only                                    |
| **Off**       | **On**  | Event is visible | No outbound notifications — visitors see the event only if they visit the dashboard |
| **Off**       | **Off** | Event is hidden  | No outbound notifications                                                           |

Turning **Publish** on (while notifications are on) is itself a qualifying change and can notify subscribers. Turning **Publish** off removes the event from status dashboards immediately and does **not** send a notification; further edits also do not notify until you publish again.

Maintenance **automatic start and stop** only send notifications when **both** publish and notifications are on. See [Workflows — Automatic start and stop](/docs/events/workflows#automatic-start-and-stop).

See [Publish](/docs/events/publish) for visibility details.

## Managing the toggle
### On create
**Notifications** defaults to **enabled**; **Publish** defaults to **off**. Saving a draft does not notify anyone. Turn **Publish** on when you are ready for public visibility and outbound delivery (with notifications still on).

### On edit
The toggle reflects the value stored on the event. Changing it and saving updates future behavior only — it does not retroactively send or unsend past notifications, and toggling notifications on or off by itself does not trigger a new delivery.

When both **Notifications** and **Publish** are on, qualifying event changes notify matching subscribers. When either is off, future qualifying changes are suppressed. Toggling either control by itself does not trigger a new delivery (except turning **Publish** on while notifications are already on).