How it works

Notifications and @mentions

The bell tells you when a ticket or task is assigned to you, when someone updates one that's yours, and when someone @mentions you or your team. Every update on one ticket or task stays together in one row.

The bell at the top of every page is how schoolOS tells you something needs you: a ticket or task is now yours, someone changed or answered one that's yours, or someone @mentioned you.

The bell#

A red number on the bell counts the tickets and tasks with something you haven't seen. Select the bell to open Notifications.

The Notifications panel, one row per ticket or task

One row per ticket or task. A ticket that was assigned to you and then got three replies is one row, not four. The row shows the latest update: who did it, what they did, when, and the start of their message.
+2 updates under a row opens every update on that ticket or task, oldest first, each with who did it and when. Select it again to close the list.
The center lists only what's unread. Select a row to open the ticket or task; that marks it read and it leaves the list.
The check mark at the top marks everything read.
The gear opens Notification settings, where you choose what shows up. See Choose what you're notified about.
Rows are sorted under Recent (the last hour), Earlier today, Yesterday and Earlier.

A row's updates opened under it, oldest first

The bell checks for new notifications about once a minute while schoolOS is open in front of you.

When you're notified#

You hear about a ticket or task when:

It's assigned to you. By a person, by a routing rule, by a team that picks the next person (round robin, fewest open, and so on), or by a workflow. A ticket opened straight to you counts too. This notice, and the email that goes with it, comes from the built-in workflow Tell the assignee when a ticket is assigned (or …a task is assigned). Your admin can change or turn it off in Built-in workflows. You're never told about assigning something to yourself.
Someone else updates one that's assigned to you. A reply, an internal note, a change of status, priority, tags, a custom field or another field, or a comment on a task. Several changes saved at once are one update. A workflow's changes count too.
Someone @mentions you, or a team you're on, in a reply, an internal note or a task comment.
A checklist step is yours to do. When a checklist is added to a task, each step that starts open tells its assignee. In a checklist that runs in order, the next step tells its assignee when the steps before it are done.
A workflow sends you a message. See From workflows and checklists.

You're never notified about your own changes. And you're only notified about tickets and tasks you can open: if your role, your reach or a private ticket keeps you out, a mention doesn't let you in and doesn't notify you. Internal notes notify only helpdesk staff (Work as helpdesk staff, tickets.staff), because only they can read notes.

If one change gives you two reasons, you get one notification: a reply that @mentions the assignee reads as a mention.

A notification about a private ticket never carries what was written: it says There's an update on a private ticket, with the ticket's number and subject, and opens it. The same goes for a workflow's message about one. See Privacy.

From workflows and checklists#

When a workflow or a checklist does something no person did, the notification is signed with its name and its icon in place of a picture: Workflow: Chromebook repairs assigned you a ticket, or Checklist: New staff onboarding assigned you a task. That covers a workflow assigning a ticket or task, changing a field or tag on one, adding an internal note to a ticket (only helpdesk staff hear about notes, as with people's notes), and creating a task for you with Create a task. It groups with everything else about that ticket or task, and pops up like any other.

A workflow can also send a message with its Notify in app step: to specific people, teams, the ticket's or task's assignee, or the ticket's requester. The row shows the workflow's name and its message. Only people who can open the ticket or task get it, so a requester gets it only when they're staff who can open the ticket. See Actions.

The person whose own action set it off is never notified. If you finish a checklist step and the next one is also yours, you don't get told about your own turn.

Choose what you're notified about#

Select the gear at the top of Notifications to open Notification settings. Each kind of notification has its own switch, and each switch saves as you flip it. Everything starts on.

The list shows only the kinds you could get, from your district's products and your role:

| Kind | What it covers | | --- | --- | | Assigned to you | A ticket or task is assigned to you | | @mentions | Someone @mentions you or a team you're on | | Replies and notes | A reply, internal note or comment on a ticket or task assigned to you | | Status and field changes | A status, priority or other field changes on one assigned to you | | Workflow messages | A workflow's Notify in app message to you | | SLA warnings | A ticket is about to miss, or has missed, its response or resolution time | | Handed to a person | schoolAgent hands a ticket it was handling to you or your team | | Outages | An outage is declared, updated or resolved, or a burst of tickets mentioning the same system suggests one | | Status page changes | A product on your status page changes status | | New suggested articles | A question no help article answered has been asked 3 times or more: an article worth writing. For people who see help center insights (more) | | Articles due for review | A help article you own, or any article if you can edit any article, comes due for review (more) | | Ready for pickup | A device you left for repair is ready to collect | | Safety escalations | A ticket is escalated for safety. Shown only to your district's safety contacts, and always on |

Turning a kind off stops it appearing in the bell and as a pop-up. It doesn't change any emails you get, or what you can see.

If one change gives you two reasons, the one that matters most decides: a reply that @mentions you is an @mention, so it still reaches you with Replies and notes off.

Pop-up notifications#

While you're in schoolOS, something new also pops up in the corner for a few seconds:

A reply shows who wrote it, the start of the message and Open.
A new assignment says New ticket assigned or New task assigned, with Open.
A mention says who mentioned you, with Reply, which opens the ticket or task with the reply box ready.

Point at a pop-up (or tab to it) to keep it open; × closes it. At most three show at once. Nothing you already had pops up again when you load a page, and there's no pop-up for the ticket or task you already have open. Everything is still in the bell.

Mention someone#

In a ticket's reply or internal note, or a task comment, type @ and start typing a name. The list shows people and teams in your account:

A person's picture (or initials), their name and a dot: green when they have schoolOS open now, hollow when they're away.
A team shows how many people are on it. Mentioning a team notifies everyone on it who can open the ticket or task.

Someone who can't open this ticket or task stays in the list, grayed out, with the reason: Can't see this ticket, Can't see this task, or in an internal note Can't see internal notes. You can't pick them, because a mention wouldn't reach them. To bring them in, change who the ticket or task is visible to first. People who can see it are listed first.

Screenshot coming soon

The mention list in a reply, with someone who can't see the ticket grayed out

A team where only some members can open it says how many, like 3 of 5 can see this. Mentioning it notifies those 3. A team where nobody can open it is grayed out.

Use ↑ and ↓ to move, Enter or Tab to pick, and Esc to close the list. The mention appears as a highlighted @Name in the message.

You see the people and teams you could find on People (View people, users.view), and only in your account. A mention points to the person, not to their name, so it still reaches them if their name changes. Typing @Jane without picking her from the list is just text and notifies no one.

In a reply to the requester, a mention reads as plain @Name for the requester, in the portal and in the email. Nothing else about the person goes with it.