Email digests
Summarize
Summary of Email digests
Email digests in ServiceNow provide a consolidated email summarizing notifications related to a specific record over a set time interval. This feature helps reduce the volume of email notifications users receive when frequent updates occur within a short period. Email digests apply only to email notifications and are not supported for SMS, push notifications, or activity streams.
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The Email digest plugin is enabled by default in new and upgraded instances using the Core UI interface, allowing users to set digest preferences in System Settings.
How email digests work
- Administrators configure which notifications support email digests, customize digest content, and define digest intervals (e.g., hourly, daily).
- Users enable email digests and select their preferred interval per notification in their notification preferences.
- The system collects notifications during the selected interval, stores them temporarily, and sends a single digest email after the interval ends.
- An email digest job runs every 15 minutes to determine when to send accumulated digests based on interval timing.
Administrator responsibilities
- Review and customize base digest intervals (default are hourly, 4 hours, daily, weekly) to suit organizational needs.
- Identify which email notifications should support digests, considering the urgency and suitable intervals for each notification type.
- Configure or disable email digests for specific notifications using the Notification form.
User responsibilities
- Enable email digests for notifications that support them via the Notifications tab in System Settings.
- Select the desired digest interval to accumulate notifications before receiving the summarized email.
Key benefits for ServiceNow customers
- Minimizes notification overload by consolidating multiple updates into a single email.
- Improves user experience by allowing customization of digest intervals based on notification urgency.
- Provides administrators with control over which notifications are digestible and the digest timing to align with business needs.
Next steps
- Admins should begin by reviewing and adjusting email digest intervals as needed.
- Configure email digests on notifications to enable users to benefit from consolidated notifications.
- Educate users on enabling and customizing their email digest preferences to reduce email volume effectively.
An email digest is a single email that summarizes the activity for a selected notification and its target record during a specified time interval. You can enable an email digest to reduce the number of notifications received when frequent updates to the associated record occur within a short time period.
How email digests work
In new and upgraded instances, the Email digest (com.glide.email_digest) plugin is activated by default. Your instance must use the Core UI interface, since the email digest feature involves setting user notification preferences in the System Settings window.
Admins determine which notifications can be delivered in an email digest and configure the digest content for those notifications. Admins can also control the intervals for digests. An interval is the length of time that notifications are collected for the digest, such as daily or hourly.
Users enable the digest and select the digest interval for a specific notification in their notification preferences. The system accumulates the notifications that normally would be sent during the specified interval and summarizes them in the email digest.
- Stores the digest configuration for the notification in the Notifications [sysevent_email_action] table.
- Temporarily stores the notification content accumulated for a user in the Email Digest Parts [sys_email_digest_part] table and the Email Digest Part Users [sys_email_digest_part_user] table.
- Runs an email digest job every 15 minutes to check when a digest is ready to be sent to a
user.
The system uses the digest interval to determine when the digest is ready to be sent. The digest interval begins when the first notification is triggered for the user and stops at the end of the interval time.
- Sends the email digest to the user soon after the selected digest interval ends.
For example, if a user selects an hourly digest interval and the first notification is triggered at 08:15, the interval starts at 08:15. When the digest interval ends, the system generates the email digest approximately one hour later, at about 09:15 or shortly after, depending on when the email digest job ran.
Set up email digests
- What to do — admins
- Review the base system digest intervals and if needed, create or modify
intervals.
The base system digest intervals are one day (24 hours), one hour, every four hours, and seven days (weekly).
- Determine the email notifications that can be delivered in a digest and configure the email
digest content for those notifications.
When determining which notifications are appropriate for an email digest, consider the notification content and intervals that your users can select. For example, digests that can be generated weekly might be better suited for notifications that are non-urgent.
- Review the base system digest intervals and if needed, create or modify
intervals.
- What to do — all users
For a notification that can be delivered in an email digest, enable the email digest in your notification preferences (Notifications tab in the System Settings window). You also specify the interval time that the notifications are accumulated.
- Next step
- If you are an admin, begin the digest setup process by reviewing the base system email digest intervals and create or modify the intervals.