Can users choose when they receive system notifications?

[KhoendibG]

Hi all 

I am working on configuring email notification preferences so that users can control when they receive project task notifications - specifically, allowing them to receive certain types of notifications at a scheduled time each week, rather than as the event occurs. 

My problem: 

When a user is assigned as "Responsible" for multiple project tasks in a short time (e.g., 10+ tasks within 10 minutes), they currently receive a flood of email notifications. To reduce this noise, I want to batch these notifications and send them during a user-defined time slot (e.g., every Monday at 9 AM).

Desired Outcome: 

Users can go to their notification preference and choose a slot to receive all project task email notifications (of a given type) for the week. 

I have set up a calendar in the sys_calendar table and am trying to use it as the window in which a user would receive a specific type of notification. 

My use case being assigned as "Responsible" for a project task. A user can be assigned as responsible to 10+ tasks in the space of 10 minutes - to avoid these notifications trickling in and 'spamming' the users, I am trying to set up a notification preference in which they would only receive all "Responsible" emails in a given time slot each week. 

The desired outcome is that users can go to their notification preference and choose a slot to receive all "Responsible" emails for the week. 

I've created the 'Test' calendar in the sys_calendar table to define the notification window - this is working fine and appears as a "schedule on the notification" (Screenshot below) 

I have made the notification "subscribable

But, despite trying the above, the email notifications are not being sent at all. There’s no indication of failure—nothing appears in the outbox, skipped logs, or error logs. It seems like the notification isn’t being triggered or queued.

Has anyone successfully implemented scheduled/batched notifications like this in ServiceNow? Am I missing a configuration step or using the wrong approach?

Thanks!! 

Kay

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@KhoendibG 

interesting use-case.

I believe you are on the right track.

did you check docs?

User Notification Settings 

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

[KhoendibG]

Hey @Ankur Bawiskar 

Yes mate, I have followed all the steps in the guide, but still no luck. 
ChatGPT (don't judge me) tells me that there should be a record of the notification preference visible in the sys_notif_subscription  or the sys_recipient_notif_preference table, but do not see anything on either of these tables when I impersonate a user and set the schedule as them. 

Thanks

Kay

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@KhoendibG 

the notification itself is not triggering?

You can try this approach if your one doesn't work

1) trigger the notification via eventQueueScheduled() method and trigger the event via business rule

Note: you can add 1 business day to current date/time and ensure email sends on that schedule time

Add Business Days 

2) the eventQueueScheduled() method will trigger the event but it will process based on the time you pass

The Power of System Events - Part 2 - gs.eventQueueScheduled 

How to trigger notification using gs.eventQueueScheduled based on a date/time field from incident fo... 

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

[KhoendibG]

Hell @Ankur Bawiskar 

Very useful information, thanks! 
The notification generates no problem - it is when the user applies a schedule through their individual notification preferences the notification does not send. 

It might be a stupid question, but is there a way to use eventQueueScheduled() WITH the user notification preferences? 

Thanks 

Khoendib