Notification preferences
Each member chooses which notifications they get and how — per notification type, per channel — from two tabs in Settings:
| Tab | Channels it controls |
|---|---|
| Email Notification | |
| In-app Notification | In-app and push |
They are split because members think about them separately. Someone who wants nothing in their inbox usually still wants the bell, and someone turning off their phone’s buzzing is not asking to stop being told. Put both tabs in the Settings feature, or only one if your app sends on only one of them.
What a member sees
Section titled “What a member sees”The same grouping you see in the template manager: one section per plugin, one row per notification type, and a switch per channel that tab controls.
The section headings are yours to rewrite. By default they name the plugin — “Ultimate Member - Friends” — which is not what a member is looking for; rename each one under Memberside → Notifications and this screen follows. See Renaming a section.
| Channel | What switching it off means |
|---|---|
| In-app | It does not appear in their notification list at all, and the badge does not count it |
| No email. It still appears in the app | |
| Push | No push. It still appears in the app |
Switching In-app off switches the whole notification off for that member. There is nothing left for the email or the push to point at, so neither is sent.
A channel you have switched off site-wide does not appear as a row at all, rather than appearing as a switch that changes nothing.
Locking a type
Section titled “Locking a type”Some notifications should not be optional. In Memberside → Notifications, lock a channel and members see it as on and cannot change it.
Use it sparingly. A member who cannot turn off something they do not want uninstalls the app instead, and on iOS they can silence every notification you send in one tap from their own settings — which costs you the ones they did want.
Defaults, and what happens when you change them
Section titled “Defaults, and what happens when you change them”A member who has never touched a switch follows your default. If you later change that default, they move with it.
A member who has changed a switch keeps their answer, and a later change to the default does not override it. Only their explicit choices are stored, so the distinction survives.
Members who already opted out
Section titled “Members who already opted out”If your site ran Ultimate Member - Real-time Notifications, members who had turned a notification off there stay turned off. Their choice is read across rather than reset.
The same goes for BuddyPress. A member who answered “No, do not send email” on BuddyPress’s own settings screen keeps that answer for the event Memberside has taken over, so handing an event over does not start emailing people who already said no.
It is read for email only, because that is the only thing BuddyPress ever asked. Its screen labels every row “Yes, send email” / “No, do not send email”, and BuddyPress goes on showing the notification in its own list whatever the member answered — so reading it as “they want nothing” would take away something they still see today. The In-app Notification tab is where that second answer is given, and a member who sets a switch there overrules the BuddyPress value for good.
Unsubscribing from an email
Section titled “Unsubscribing from an email”Every notification email carries a one-click unsubscribe, which mail clients surface as their own button. It switches off that one notification type for that one member — not every email your site sends.
The link is signed and scoped to a single member, so a forwarded email cannot change anyone else’s settings.
When it does not work
Section titled “When it does not work”| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A notification tab is empty | Every type is switched off site-wide for that tab’s channels | Switch something on in Memberside → Notifications |
| A member cannot find the email switches | Only the In-app Notification tab is placed | Add the Email Notification tab to the Settings feature |
| A switch is greyed out | You locked that channel | Turn the lock off for that channel if that was not intended |
| A member’s change does not stick | Their app is out of date and is writing a locked channel | The screen refuses it; rebuild the app |
| Turning off email stopped push too | They turned off In-app, not Email | In-app off switches the whole notification off |
| Everything is off for one member | They unsubscribed from an email, or declined push at the OS level | Their settings screen shows which; OS-level push is re-enabled in their phone’s settings |