The bell in the header is the whole notification surface. Its badge counts up to nine and then reads 9+. A bell reading 47 stops being a prompt and becomes an accusation.
The three kinds
| Kind | Fires when | Opens |
|---|---|---|
| Answer | A visitor answers a block you switched Notify me on for, or sends a Request | That visitor's timeline, scrolled to the answer |
| Lead | Somebody leaves their details through a Lead Capture Action | That visitor's timeline |
| Milestone | You pass a lifetime threshold | Stats |
There is no notification for a visit, a tap or a payment. Visits are what the Stats page is for, and a bell that rang on every visit would be unusable in a busy venue.
Choosing what notifies you
The control is per block, not per account. Rating, Custom Input and the other blocks that ask something carry a Notify me switch in the builder: turn it on for the question whose answer you would actually act on. A Request block asks How should requests reach you? instead, and Straight to me, the default, always notifies you and emails you a copy.
- 1
Open the block in the builder
A Rating, Custom Input or other question block on any Experience.
- 2
Switch on Notify me
From that point on, an answer to this block raises a notification and, if you have the app, a push.
- 3
Mute the noisy ones later
Account → Notifications → By Experience lists every Experience with a notifying block, so you can silence one without silencing them all.
- 4
Use the master switch as a last resort
The Push notifications switch on the same screen turns off delivery to your phone entirely. The bell and inbox keep filling either way, and leads and Requests set to Straight to me are still emailed to you. Muting an Experience under By Experience stops its emails too.
Milestones
Milestones are lifetime, not per period. They are counted over your whole history, they fire once, and acknowledging one syncs across the web and the app: dismiss it on a laptop and it is gone on the phone.
| Stage | Milestones |
|---|---|
| Firsts | First visit · first answer · first tap from a Marker · first visitor known by name |
| Getting going | Ten visits · first returning visitor · ten people known by name |
| Real traction | One hundred visits · one hundred answers · fifty people known by name |
| Scale | Five hundred visits · one thousand visits |
They exist because the first tap from a stranger is genuinely the hardest number to reach, and it is easy to miss the day it happens.
The inbox
Tapping the bell opens the inbox: a right-hand panel on a desktop browser, a bottom drawer on a phone and in the app. It groups by Today, Yesterday and then weekday dates, offers Mark all as read, and reads "Quiet for now" when there is nothing waiting.
Every entry deep-links. An answer or lead opens the visitor's drawer at the exact moment it refers to, so the question "who was that and what else have they told us" is one tap rather than a search.
Example
Cedar Hollow Zoo & Aquarium, the accessibility request
The zoo runs a Request block on its entrance Experience for step-free route help, set to Straight to me. Every other question on the page (favourite animal, first visit or returning) stays silent.
A request comes in at 10:20. The duty manager's phone shows one notification, taps it, and lands on the visitor's timeline with the request in front of them, and a copy is waiting in the zoo's inbox. The favourite-animal answers are all still there in Audience, waiting to be read at the end of the month.
Do I get notifications in a web browser?
The bell and inbox work everywhere. Push notifications go to the app on your phone, and the switch in Account controls delivery there.
I turned Notify me on and nothing arrives.
Check three things in order: the block is on a published Experience, the Experience is not muted under Account → Notifications, and the master push switch is on. On a phone, iOS permission is a fourth.
Can I send notifications to a colleague?
Not today. A NearField account is a single login with no seats or invites, so notifications reach whoever is signed in to it.