Notification Messages

Displays a list of in-app notification messages for the currently logged-in person. This is not a history of push notifications — these are persistent, actionable inbox messages stored in Rock and scoped to the person. Messages expire after 90 days and are ordered newest-first. Unauthenticated visitors see no messages.

Tap Behavior & Routing

When a person taps a message, Rock determines the destination server-side based on the notification type. There are three possible outcomes:

Navigate within the app — the most common outcome on mobile. The person is taken to a relevant page inside the app with context pre-loaded.

Open in the browser — occurs when the destination page only exists on a web site and has no mobile equivalent. Rock automatically falls back to opening the full URL in the device's browser.

Show an informational message — occurs when the destination cannot be resolved or a required configuration is missing. A dialog is shown instead of navigating.

Tapping a message marks it as read. Some types delete the message after it is tapped; others keep it in the list in a read state.

More Details

When a mention notification is created, Rock records which page the mention occurred on and what the page parameters were at that moment. When the notification is tapped, Rock tries to navigate back to context using that stored information.

In-app navigation works automatically when the notification was created from within the mobile app. Rock stores the originating page directly and navigates back to it. Route matching is only relevant in cross-site scenarios, where a notification was created on a web page and opened in a mobile app. In that case, Rock looks for a mobile page with a matching route name. If none exists, it falls back to opening the web URL in the browser.

Notification Types

TypeDescription
Note MentionsGenerated when someone @mentions the person in a note anywhere in Rock. Tapping navigates to the page where the note lives. If that page exists in the current mobile app, navigation stays in-app. If the page is web-only, it opens in the browser. Message is kept after reading.
Connection Request MentionsGenerated when someone @mentions the person in a connection request note. Follows the same routing behavior as Note Mention. Because connection request pages are typically web-only, this will most often open in the browser when tapped from mobile. Message is kept after reading.
SMS ConversationsGenerated when an unread SMS arrives on a system phone number the person monitors. Tapping opens the SMS Conversation page configured in the mobile site's settings. If that page has not been set up, the person sees an error message instead of navigating. The notification is deleted after it is tapped.