Notification Preferences — Obvious Help Center

Control when and where Obvious notifies you — from browser alerts and in-app toasts to Slack, SMS, and Telegram messages.

Browser Notifications

Browser notifications appear as system-level alerts when an agent finishes work in a project you're not currently viewing. They only fire when the Obvious tab is in the background.

To enable them for a project:

Open the project you want notifications for.
Click the bell icon in the project header, next to the project name.
If your browser asks for permission, click Allow. The bell icon fills in to confirm notifications are active.

Obvious remembers this setting per project. Enable notifications for the projects that matter most and leave the rest quiet.

Note: If you've denied browser notification permission, reset it in your browser settings before the toggle will work.

In-App Toasts

In-app toasts are the small pop-up alerts that appear inside Obvious while you're using it. They show up when something happens in a different project — like an agent completing a task or a scheduled task starting or failing.

Toasts appear automatically when:

An agent finishes work in another project.
A scheduled task starts or fails.
You're added to a new workspace, team, or project.

Toasts dismiss on their own after a few seconds, or you can close them manually. Each one includes an Open button that takes you straight to the relevant project.

Muting a Project

If a project generates more activity than you want to see:

Open the project.
Click the ⋯ (more menu) in the project header.
Select Mute activity.

Muted projects won't trigger in-app toasts or task-run alerts. To unmute, open the same menu and select Unmute activity.

The Notification Bell

The bell icon inside a project (top-right toolbar) shows comment-related notifications — like when someone mentions you or replies to a comment thread. An accent dot appears on the bell when you have unread notifications.

Click the bell to open the notifications panel, then click any notification to jump to the relevant comment.

Notification Settings

Settings → Notifications is where you control all notification preferences outside the project headers. Access it by clicking your avatar in the bottom-left corner, selecting Settings, then opening the Notifications tab.

The page has two sections: Contact Methods at the top, where you connect external channels, and the notification controls below.

Global Toggle

At the top of the notification controls, a Notifications toggle acts as a master switch for all notifications site-wide. Turning it off silences every channel and every event type at once. Turn it back on to restore your previous per-event settings.

When the global toggle is off, all event rows dim and their individual controls are disabled.

Event Categories

Below the global toggle, notifications are grouped into categories — such as Agents and Assistant. Each category appears as a row with a toggle on the right.

Toggling a category row on or off enables or disables all notifications in that category across all channels at once.

To see per-channel controls for a category, click the row. It expands to show a toggle for each connected channel:

Desktop Notifications — always available
Email — always available
Slack DM — requires Slack to be connected (see below)
SMS — requires a phone number to be added (see below)
Telegram — requires Telegram to be linked (see below)

Each channel toggle works independently. You can, for example, receive Agents notifications by email but not by SMS.

Channels you haven't connected yet appear as + Add [channel] links that take you to the Contact Methods section.

Contact Methods

The Contact Methods section at the top of Settings → Notifications is where you connect the external channels that feed into your per-category toggles.

Slack

What you see depends on your workspace's Slack setup:

Slack isn't connected to the workspace. A workspace admin needs to connect Slack via the workspace connector settings before individual notifications can be enabled.
Slack is connected, but your account isn't linked. Click Connect via Slack to link your Slack identity. This is a one-time step.
Slack is connected and your account is linked. A Connected label appears. Click the × button to disconnect.

SMS

Enter your phone number in the Text Message field and enable the toggle to activate SMS notifications.

When you enable SMS, a consent notice appears below the phone number field:

By enabling Text Message notifications, you agree to receive SMS alerts from Obvious when your AI agent tasks are complete. Message frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to unsubscribe.

This language is required under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). You must have your phone number entered and the toggle switched on for the consent to take effect — the notice is always visible when the SMS field is active, so there's no separate confirmation step.

To opt out at any time, either reply STOP to any SMS from Obvious or remove your phone number from Settings → Notifications. The Privacy Policy and Terms of Service linked in the consent notice cover how your number is used.

Click Connect via Telegram to link your Telegram account. Once connected, a Connected ✓ label appears. Click the × button to disconnect.

Troubleshooting

Slack notifications aren't arriving. Confirm your workspace has Slack connected — a workspace admin can check this in Settings → Connectors. If the workspace is connected but messages aren't coming through, disconnect and reconnect your account via Connect via Slack in Settings → Notifications.

Browser notifications stopped working. Check your browser's notification permissions for app.obvious.ai. If permission is blocked, clear it and re-enable via the bell icon in your project header.

All notifications stopped suddenly. Check the global toggle in Settings → Notifications — it may have been turned off. If the toggle is already on, check that the relevant category row is also enabled and that at least one channel is turned on within it.

SMS or Telegram not delivering. Verify the phone number or Telegram account linked in Settings → Notifications. If the issue persists, contact help@obvious.ai.