Google+ Gives Users Better Control Over Notifications

Tweet

Having a lot of friends on your social network can be great. That’s until you get a flood of emails and notifications. Google+ has recently opened to the public (without invitations) and early adopters are complaining about getting a deluge of updates. New notification settings will help minimize the clutter.

Google+ has introduced an option that will let users limit contacts that they get notifications from. With this, you can both customize the events that will trigger a notification, and the people or circles. You won’t have to be alerted every time someone from your extended circle  makes a comment, does a mention, sends an invite or shares something directly with you. You can customize these, such that you only get notified from the set of circles that you want. You can even turn off notifications, or limit these to just one circle or even just select individuals.

The new settings are an addition to the previous settings that let users customize which actions will trigger a notification and where these will be sent. Users have an option of receiving updates via email or via phone when these criteria are met:

• Someone shares with you individually;
• When you select “notify about this post” when sharing to a circle;
• When someone mentions your +Name;
• When someone invites you to a hangout;
• When someone invites you to play a game;
• When someone sends you a message from within a game.

These are accessible through http://plus.google.com/settings/plus. Google has set “Extended circles” as the default setting, although if you’re receiving email and mobile notifications, you might want to limit these to circles that include your close friends, and not just anyone.