---
title: "New-mail alerts"
description: "A desktop alert and a chime when mail arrives while OpenEmail is open in a tab."
url: "https://openemail.uk/docs/knowledge/reading/notifications"
area: "Knowledge base"
category: "Reading & organising"
status: "live"
---

# New-mail alerts

A desktop alert and a chime when mail arrives while OpenEmail is open in a tab.

## Details

- Turn alerts on in Account → Notifications → Desktop, where Enable asks your browser for permission. An alert names the sender and the subject, with their picture, and clicking it opens the conversation. Only when this tab is hidden keeps them away while you are already looking.
- They come from the open tab, so they arrive only while OpenEmail is open somewhere: the tab checks for new mail about every ten seconds while it is in view and about every minute while it is hidden, and nothing reaches you once every tab is closed. They cover unread mail, at most three at a time, in the workspace and the addresses you are looking at.
- The Sound tab has three chimes, each with its own switch: new mail, the assistant finishing, and mail sent. They are short tones played by the page, at most one every second and a half.
- Which emails OpenEmail itself sends you is the Email tab: Account and Billing always, Activity and Product news only while their switches are on.