How to pick up notifications on GooglePlus


I dislike unwanted notifications, probably more than the average user, it is all about value. The power of using social media for communication though is that it overcomes the inherent problems with systems like email which use a special token which a person must "know" before they can communicate.

I have who can send me notifications set to public.
If the idea that anyone can notify you is worrying it really shouldn't be: on other social systems like Twitter for example people can "mention" thus sending a notification . If a profile sends a notification with little or no value, which you'd consider spam, you can easily block and optionally report the profile so they cannot do it again. I get very little "noise" from private spam posts, if you are an internet celebrity that might be different.

Tune what notifications you get in GooglePlus settings. I have all email notifications set to off and use desktop and mobile notifications to facilitate easy communication.

Picking up notifications

When someone mentions you or sends a private post it will, if your settings allow, trigger a notification. 

Here's a screenshot of +Happening London's view of their home stream. 

There are two private posts in view, the one in the centre is the private post I sent to +Happening London. Note it says "Shared only with you", this shows only when a post is shared directly with one other person. If you use an "Only you" collection to keep your outgoing posts together messages will say "shared privately": the user can check to see exactly who else if anyone. The other private post shown in the screenshot, which I've blurred out, was not "sent" but shared with a limited, i.e. non-public audience. 

Click the notification bell to open the dropdown showing recent notifications. You can see how it says "Robert Wallis shared with you". 


Clicking the notification opens the post directly in the notification panel, where you can respond directly. 

I tend to click the timestamp to open the post page, as I find that more comfortable.


On ALL posts it will either say: Shared publicly, Shared privately, or Shared only with you.  Here it says "only with you as it was a direct private share.

In all cases clicking the audience text will provide more information about the post audience.


Write your "reply" as a comment and click "post".


Your comment will appear, along with a fleeting confirmation in the bottom left hand of the screen and the post owner will be sent a notification with your reply.

What's different about posts? 

Posts are a great way communicate with others. A few of the reasons I favour using GooglePlus posts for communication rather than email, or chat apps like WhatsApp are:

  • No secret token is required for communication: only a person's public profile.
  • They are a single adaptable unit of communication. 
  • If required other people can be "added" to the conversation. 
  • If not required the post can be "locked" to prevent others being added. 
  • The conversation can be linked to, though only those with permission can open the link. 
  • Comments on the post can be "closed" when the conversation is done. 
  • Messages are not "sent" and so remain under the posters control. 
  • They are secure. 
Hope you found this useful. Feedback welcome. 


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