On Monday at 11:40, Marek returns after two meetings. Meanwhile, the team has added messages to tasks and posted in chat, but Marek doesn't yet know what needs a response. At the edge of Task Manager he sees a counter: 23. The Notification Centre lets him first see what's waiting, then move on to the matter he chooses.
Checking every five minutes doesn't give you a better picture of your day
Opening the app frequently doesn't show you which matters are waiting for your attention. It's better to start with the shared counter, then move into a chosen thread or reminder.
On Tuesday, Ola finishes a call with a client at 10:30. Meanwhile, the team has added comments to two tasks, someone mentioned her in chat, and a meeting is coming up in the calendar. If she checked each place separately, she'd have to reconstruct the sequence of events herself. The Notification Centre gathers these signals into a single panel; you don't, however, need to treat them all as equally urgent.
The counter alone won't solve the problem of arrangements that never made it into a task. If this sounds familiar, also read why teams lose track of arrangements.
Notification Centre: what does a dash mean, and what does a number mean?
A thin dash at the edge means you have nothing unread, and the island - a small, dark element at the window's edge - hides itself. A coloured, flowing dash signals pending notifications while the island is hidden. When the island is visible, the pill - the element with the counter - shows their total number.
Hover over the pill and you'll see the breakdown by category. A separate label expands when you hover over a category marker, so you don't have to guess what an icon means. Click the pill to enter the panel; bring back a hidden island by hovering over the edge or clicking the coloured dash.
The counter includes unread emails, tasks and chats with new messages - the same backlog you see next to inboxes and Workspaces in the left-hand column.
It also adds up the remaining notifications, including mentions, calendar events, notes or files shared with you by name, and AI Assistant suggestions. The Open Space and updates categories may also appear, though only an administrator sees updates.
Mail and Files belong to the Pro plan, and AI features are optional. The counter isn't bumped up by your own actions or by items shared with the whole Workspace.
From the summary you go straight to the right list
The panel's first rows group unread matters by type, instead of listing every thread as a separate entry. Clicking the mail summary opens the "All" inbox, while clicking the tasks or chats summary switches on the "New messages" filter.
Say that on Wednesday at 12:10, Ola sees "Tasks - 2 tasks with new messages". She selects that row and gets a narrowed-down list, without manually browsing the whole Workspace. A dot next to the Filters icon reminds her that a filter is active; "Reset" restores the full list.
Below the summaries are individual notifications with a timestamp. Clicking an item opens its source - for example a task thread, a chat, the calendar, a note or the AI Assistant window - and removes it from the unread list. The panel has an "All" tab plus category tabs for anything that's pending. Clicking a category marker on the pill opens the matching tab straight away.
"Mark as read" changes more than the panel's appearance
The "Mark as read" command clears the visible list: within a category tab it applies to that category, and within "All" it applies to the whole list. If it covers the mail, tasks or messages summary, Task Manager first asks for confirmation, because it will also mark the messages themselves as read.
After confirming, the messages become read, and the corresponding counters next to inboxes and Workspaces go down; "Cancel" changes nothing. If after Thursday's meeting you want to keep messages marked as things still to read, don't clear the bulk summary out of habit.
A thread's notification also disappears once you open it. A mail read in webmail or on your phone won't trigger a new notification, and an existing entry for a thread read elsewhere will fade the next time the Mail list refreshes. Notifications older than a week disappear when the app starts up; this doesn't mean an unresolved task is automatically marked as done.
The briefing and reminders speak up before the deadline
The morning briefing appears once a day, the first time you log in after 6am, provided you have items scheduled for today. The Notification Centre also shows a card 15 minutes before a calendar event and an hour before a task's due date.
On Friday at 8:05, Ola opens Task Manager. The "Good morning" card shows the number of today's deadlines and events, then lists the items below in order of time. Clicking a task opens its thread, and clicking an event opens the calendar. If the day is empty, she won't see the briefing at all.
Before an event, a countdown also appears next to the island, which disappears once the event starts. When the event begins, the card says "Now: …". A task without a set time gets a reminder at 4pm with the description "today · no time set". All these reminders also appear in the panel's list, even if you miss the brief card. You can read more about deadlines themselves in the article on how to keep track of task deadlines in a team.
Three notification channels work on different rules
Task Manager lets you set notifications separately in the app, by email and through the browser. For each channel, you choose Yes or No for six types of events: a new task, a chat, a message, a change in task status, a mention and a new email message from the Mail module.
| Channel | When it will catch your attention | What you need to know |
|---|---|---|
| In the app | When you have Task Manager open | You can turn the sound on separately; messages about your own actions, such as "Saved", don't increase the counter. |
| Browser | When the app is open, including in a background tab | HTTPS and browser permission are required; "Send test" checks the notification on the device. |
| When you enable this channel for a given event | An email about a new message goes out 5 minutes after the last reply, unless you open the thread before then. |
Channel settings are described in the notifications and mail guide.
On mobile, browser notifications work from version 2.2.328 onwards. On Android, permission is required, and on iPhone or iPad you first need to add the app to the home screen and open it from there. When the administrator enables the "Also when the app is closed" option and you turn it on for a given device, push notifications will arrive even after Task Manager is closed - currently for @ mentions only.
A closed app, however, will not automatically send a system notification for every deadline. For an event, you can tick "Also send notification by email"; sending such emails in the background is handled by an optional CRON, i.e. a recurring task set up by the administrator on the server. Without it, emails go out when someone is using the app.
The badge on the icon shows the last known state after closing
The red badge next to the installed Task Manager icon shows the same number as the island. Once the app is closed, the number stops updating and stays at its last known value until the app is launched again.
You'll see it next to the icon in the Dock on macOS or on the taskbar on Windows. There's no badge in a regular browser tab. If Marek closed the app on Thursday at 4pm, the next morning he'll see the last known number. It will only update once he opens the program.
The AI Assistant can point out a matter hidden in a conversation
AI suggestions in the Notification Centre are optional and need to be enabled by the administrator. When active, the AI Assistant can point out, for example, a request with a deadline that hasn't been answered, or a task that's blocking an upcoming deadline.
The suggestion appears as a card. You can open the related task or chat, or snooze the matter for 2 hours. AI only reviews threads you take part in, not other people's mail or other users' private replies.
The Notification Centre, briefing and reminders work without AI. If a company enables AI features, it uses its own key with a chosen model provider; the query with context goes to that provider. The limits of this flow are described in the article on what gets sent to the AI provider.
Set up the channels once, and start tomorrow with a single matter
Tomorrow, after your first log-in to Task Manager, start with the briefing if it appears. Pick one task from it for the morning before you open the rest of your notifications.
Start by turning off the categories you don't want to see, in Settings → Profile → In-app notifications. Then set the six types of events separately for each of the three channels; if you choose browser notifications, grant permission and use "Send test".
You can move the island using the position icon in the panel's footer: from the top to the right side, then to the bottom. On mobile, it stays at the top. The shortcut Ctrl+. brings it back or hides it when you're working on a computer.
You can check the layout of the island and panel in the Demo.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need Task Manager open to receive notifications?
No. In-app and browser notifications require the app to be open, even if it's on a background tab; reminder emails sent while the app is closed come from an optional CRON job, and without it they go out once someone is using the app. When an administrator enables the "Also when the app is closed" option and you turn it on for your device, @ mention notifications will reach you even when Task Manager is closed.
Why does the email about a new message arrive after five minutes?
The email goes out 5 minutes after the last addition, to capture the full content of a message built up from successive fragments. If you open the thread in the app before then, it won't be sent; a mention email arrives immediately.
Do Notification Centre notifications work on the phone?
Yes, you can use the Notification Centre on your phone, and browser notifications have worked on mobile since version 2.2.328. On iPhone and iPad, add the app to your home screen and open it from there; on Android, grant notification permission.
What happens when I click "Mark as read" on the mail summary?
Task Manager will ask for confirmation before marking messages as read and changing the counters on the inboxes. Choosing "Cancel" leaves them unchanged.
Do I need the AI Assistant for the Notification Centre?
No, the counter, morning briefing and reminders work without AI. AI Assistant suggestions in the panel are a separate feature that an administrator can enable.
Sources
The Task Manager Team - we write about teamwork, AI in business and keeping tasks organised, using examples from Task Manager, software installed on your own server. Task Manager has been developed by Blue Creation Group (Piotr Łącz) since 2013 and is used by organisations including Neonet, the Military University of Technology and Polpharma - read customer reviews. We check our articles against the user guide and the latest version of the software.
