How to Get New Mail Desktop Notifications for Gmail

It's possible to set up desktop notifications in Gmail so that you get alerts when you receive new emails. You'll even see notifications when you aren't actively using Gmail.

How to Turn on Desktop Alerts for New Gmail Messages

Enabling Gmail alerts requires a small tweak to your Gmail settings and then telling your browser to accept push alerts.

1. Select the gear in the upper-right corner of Gmail, then select Settings from the drop-down menu.

   

2. Select the General tab.

   

3. Scroll down to the Desktop Notifications section and select one of the options:

   • New mail notifications on: Gmail sends you notifications for all new messages arriving in your inbox folder. You won't receive notifications for messages that are filtered to trash, automatically marked as read, or identified as junk.
   • Important mail notifications on: Gmail only sends desktop notifications for emails that are identified as important by Gmail.
   • ​Mail notifications off: Gmail will not send email desktop alerts.

   If prompted to confirm that the browser should accept Gmail notifications, select Allow or Yes.

   

4. Scroll to the bottom and select Save Changes.

   

5. In Windows 10, you must enable notifications from Chrome in the Windows Action Center. Type Notifications & action settings into the Windows search bar and select that option from the pop-up menu.

   Mac and Linux users can skip to step 6.

   

6. Set notifications for your browser to On.

   

7. Refresh your browser. It may take a little while for the change to take effect.

New message alerts appear in your computer's notifications tab.

Gmail Desktop Notifications Not Working?

If Gmail desktop notifications aren't working in Chrome:

1. Select the padlock to the left of the Gmail address bar.

   

2. Select Site settings from the drop-down menu.

   

3. Make sure Notifications is set to Allow.