Notifications
How the platform notifies users of ticket, equipment, mobilization, maintenance, and parts events. Three channels — the in-app inbox, email, and opt-in SMS (text). No mobile push. Each user sets channels and scope per domain, per organization.
Notification behavior of the platform (app.gearflow.com) for Tickets, Equipment, Mobilizations, Maintenance, and Parts, as experienced by customers, as of November 2026. Parts Hub Pro has its own notification set; see Parts Hub Pro — Notifications.
#Terms
- notification — one item informing one user of one event.
- event — a recorded change to a record that may generate a notification (§2).
- channel — a means of delivery. The platform has three: the in-app inbox, email, and SMS (text messages, opt-in, to a verified mobile number — §7). It has no mobile push. The settings page labels them App, Email, and Text.
- in-app inbox — the bell in the top bar: the list of a user's notifications. See The inbox bell.
- recipient — a user to whom a notification is delivered.
- domain — one section of the settings page: Tickets, Equipment, Mobilizations, Maintenance, Parts, Direct messages, and Account configuration (§4).
- preference — a user's choice of channels for one category in one domain (§4).
- scope — a user's setting, per domain, that controls how widely that domain's events reach the user (§4).
- thread — the discussion attached to a record.
- participant — a user on a thread. Participants receive the thread's message notifications (§3).
- mention — naming a user in a message with "@". A mention adds that user to the thread.
- business unit — an account subdivision. Most recipients are filtered to their business unit.
- site — a job or a shop. Records and users belong to sites. A user covers a site when the user subscribes to it.
- routing group — a set of users that a user with the Admin role draws to receive a set of records.
- contact — a person named on a record, such as a mobilization's pickup contact or destination contact.
- owner — the user assigned to a record.
- subscriber — a user who follows one record (a ticket, request, mobilization, or maintenance record).
- Admin — a role in Settings > Users. A user with this role manages the account's users and routing groups.
#1. Channels
The platform delivers on three channels: the in-app inbox, email, and SMS (text).
A notification creates an in-app inbox entry when the recipient's preference for that category includes the inbox, or when delivery is forced (§5). An email is sent in addition when the preference includes email (§4). A text is sent in addition when the recipient has opted into SMS for that category and has a verified mobile number (§4, §7). SMS is off by default for every category.
The platform sends no mobile push. A recipient who does not open the in-app inbox, has no email address on file, and has not opted into SMS receives no notification.
How to read, dismiss, filter and mute rows in the bell: see The inbox bell. The messages themselves are on Messages.
#2. Events
Table 1 lists the main events and whether each generates a notification.
Table 1. Events.
| Event | Notification | Recipients (§3) | Channels |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record created — equipment, mobilization, maintenance, parts | Yes | by domain | in-app, email, SMS |
| Ticket created | Yes | by domain | in-app, SMS (no email) |
| Request submitted from a ticket | Yes | the ticket's recipients | in-app, email |
| Owner assigned or changed | Yes | the new owner, and the record's recipients for a ticket | in-app, email, SMS |
| Ticket escalated (owner changed and ticket marked urgent) | Yes | the new owner, and the ticket's recipients | in-app, email, SMS |
| Status change | Yes | by domain | in-app, email, SMS |
| Mobilization scheduled | Yes | pickup contact, destination contact | in-app, email |
| Driver assigned to or removed from a mobilization | Yes | the driver, and the move's recipients | in-app, email, SMS |
| Driver marks picked up or dropped off | Yes, as a status change | the move's recipients | in-app, email, SMS |
| Quote or rental agreement added — equipment | Yes | by domain, except the user in the Requester field | in-app, email, SMS |
| Quote added, order created — mobilization, maintenance | Yes | by domain | in-app, email, SMS |
| User added to a record as a subscriber | Yes | the added user | in-app, email |
| Message posted to a thread | Yes | thread participants | in-app, email, SMS |
| Mention in a message | Yes | the mentioned user | in-app, email, SMS |
| Direct message | Yes | everyone in the conversation | in-app, email, SMS |
| Vendor or customer reply on a record's thread | Yes | by domain (§3); a vendor's reply on a mobilization goes to its owner and creator only | in-app, email, SMS; parts requests: in-app, email |
Each channel in Table 1 is subject to the recipient's preferences (§4). A user who turns off a status in Advanced › Status changes gets no notification for that status.
#3. Recipients
Recipients are resolved per event, by domain. Each candidate is then filtered by that user's scope for the domain (§4). Most sets are filtered to the record's business unit; message recipients, routing-group members, and a shop's users are not.
- Equipment. The owner, the user in the Requester field, the job's subscribers, and the users in the record's business units.
- Tickets. The ticket's subscribers, the job's subscribers, the creator, and the users in the ticket's business units. The owner is a ticket subscriber: a new owner, by assignment or by escalation, is subscribed and notified. A ticket does not go to a shop's users: a ticket goes to the people who request work, not to the people who do it.
- Maintenance. The record's subscribers, the job's subscribers, the creator, and the users in the record's business units.
- Mobilizations. The move's subscribers, the owner, the creator, the job's subscribers, and the users in the move's business units. The assigned driver is a recipient only for assignment, removal, cancellation, and the start and end of transit.
- Parts. The owner, the user in the Requester field, and the request's subscribers. A request with no owner yet goes to the wider set: the users in its business units, or its shop or routing group.
- Messages. The thread's participants, except the message's author. A mention adds the named user to the thread; that user then receives message notifications as a participant.
- Direct messages. Everyone in the conversation, except the message's author.
Shops and routing groups. When a maintenance or parts request names a shop, the shop's subscribed users who can fulfill that request type replace the business-unit set. Else, when a record names a routing group, the group's members replace the business-unit set. Either replacement applies only when at least one of those users will receive it; if none will, the business-unit set stands.
Accounts that notify the requesting user only. On a new account where Gearflow turns this on, an equipment, maintenance, or parts request notifies only the user in its Requester field, until a user with the Admin role creates a routing group.
The user who triggers an event is never a recipient of that event.
#4. Preferences
Each user sets preferences on the Your notifications page (tab Mine). Preferences are per organization: a user in two organizations has a separate set in each. Direct messages are the exception: they follow the user's home organization.
Domains and categories. The page has one section per domain: Tickets, Equipment, Mobilizations, Maintenance, Parts, Direct messages, and Account configuration. Account configuration shows only to a user who reviews imported jobs. Each section is a grid of categories by channel, with columns Email, Text, and App. The categories are New items, Updates, When you're added, About your own work, Records that are not yours, Messages, and some domain-specific rows, such as Check-ins & call-offs for Equipment and Daily move list for Mobilizations. Parts has New items, Updates, and Messages. A cell shows a toggle only where the platform sends on that channel.
Defaults. App and email are on for most categories. Updates in the four record domains (Tickets, Equipment, Mobilizations, Maintenance) defaults to App only. Records that are not yours — the email and text for a record you only follow through a site — defaults to off, so those records reach the inbox only. Text is off everywhere and stays greyed out until the user verifies a mobile number (§7).
Scope. Each user sets one scope per domain, under Advanced. The options are Your business units, Your sites, Your tickets (or Your equipment, or Your tickets/requests), and None. Your sites is the default for most users; it covers the jobs and shops the user subscribes to, and Advanced lists them with Add sites. Parts defaults to Your business units.
Advanced. The Advanced section also holds:
- Status changes — a choice per status change, per domain.
- Last 7 days — a count of what reached the user this week, by channel and domain.
- Would you get it? — recent events run through the settings on the page, so the user sees which ones would reach them. The answers update as the user changes a toggle.
- A digest setting, only where Gearflow turns on digests for the account. As of November 2026 it is off by default.
Tabs for the Admin role. A user with the Admin role sees two more tabs: My team and Routing. From My team, that user can open and change a teammate's settings. The change takes effect at once and goes on the account's activity log. That user cannot verify a teammate's phone number.
Mute and turn off. From a bell row, a user can mute the messages of one record, or turn off one notification type in the bell. A message email also carries a mute link. See The inbox bell §4 and §5.
#5. Forced delivery
The in-app inbox entry is delivered regardless of the user's preference in these cases:
- replies on a thread the user is part of;
- a denied check-in or call-off, to the user who submitted it;
- a vendor's message on a job the user subscribes to;
- a new ticket whose owner Gearflow AI picked, to that owner, where Gearflow turns on AI ticket routing for the account.
A mute (§4) stops the forced message entries of the muted record too, until someone mentions the user.
Email is never forced. Text is forced in one case: a person who opened a ticket by text gets the replies on that ticket by text, whatever their setting. A carrier STOP still stops those texts. Sign-in emails and sign-in codes are always sent.
#6. Limitations
- The platform has no mobile push. A phone-only field user — a driver or site superintendent with no email address — is reachable only if they verify a mobile number and opt into SMS (§7).
- A new ticket sends no email.
- Your sites covers nothing until the user subscribes to a site. A user with no business unit gets nothing from job coverage; shops are not affected.
#7. SMS (text messages)
SMS is a transactional, opt-in channel. Gearflow never sends marketing texts and never texts a number that has not opted in.
What texts exist. Two kinds, from separate numbers:
- Sign-in codes. A one-time code, sent only when you request one at login.
- Account notifications. The events in Table 1 (§2), but only for the categories you have switched on and only to a verified number. Message frequency varies with your activity.
Quiet hours. Notification texts go out only between 7:00 and 21:00 in the account's time zone. A text due outside that window waits until 7:00. Sign-in codes are not held.
How to verify a number. In Profile, add your mobile number and enter the one-time code we text you. Verifying proves the number can receive texts; until you do, every Text toggle in your notification settings stays greyed out.
How to turn texts on. In your notification settings, switch on Text for each category you want. Every toggle is off by default. The opt-in disclosure — message frequency, that message and data rates may apply, and the STOP/HELP instructions — shows at the point of opt-in. A one-time confirmation text follows.
How to stop them. Reply STOP to any Gearflow text to opt out of all texts; reply HELP for help. You can also turn Text off per category in your notification settings, or email support@gearflow.com. See the public SMS opt-in disclosure for the full terms.