Activity streams
Summarize
Summary of Activity streams
Activity streams in ServiceNow provide a consolidated view of entries such as journal fields, comments, and work notes within task records and Sidebar conversations. These streams are available in the Core UI and help users track live activity and collaboration efficiently.
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Key Features
- Three Types of Activity Streams:
- List Activity Stream: Displays live activity for all records in the current list and allows opening a record's activity stream directly.
- Record Activity Stream: Appears on forms with the activity formatter and is customizable. It syncs with Connect Chat conversations, updating in real time as comments are entered.
- Visual Task Board Stream: Shows live activity for all task cards on the current board, enabling direct access to task card details and their activity streams.
- Attachments and Images: Users can paste images into journal fields, preview attachments directly from the stream, download files, and benefit from automatic antivirus scanning to prevent infections.
- @ Mentions: Users can mention others with @ to draw attention to records. Mentions trigger email notifications by default, which can be managed through notification preferences. Mentions work in multiple areas including forms, lists, Visual Task Board cards, and Connect record conversations.
- Notification Behavior: Email notifications for @Mentions are sent via the livenotification table and are not added to record journals. Notification delivery varies depending on whether a user follows the record in Connect, with options to customize preferences accordingly.
- Activity Stream Filtering: Users can filter out certain post types, such as auto-generated or correspondence emails, to customize the visibility of items in their activity stream.
- Display Name Configuration: The user name shown in activity streams depends on the system property
glide.ui.activity.displayname. Historical entries may display different user identifiers if changes occurred.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
Activity streams enhance collaboration and transparency by consolidating all relevant record interactions in one place. They enable quick access to ongoing discussions, streamline notifications for mentions, and support real-time updates across lists, forms, and task boards. The inclusion of attachments with virus scanning ensures security, while flexible notification and display settings allow customization to fit organizational workflows and user preferences.
An activity stream is a list of entries in records and conversations, such as journal fields, comments, and work notes that display in task records and Sidebar conversations. Activity streams are available Core UI.
The three types of activity streams are as follows:
- List activity stream
- Streams live activity information for all records on the current list. For more information, see Activity streams in list view. You can click an item to open the record activity stream without opening the record.
- Record activity stream
- Appears in forms that are configured with the
activity formatter
. You can customize the activities to
include in this type of stream.
When you follow a record to view it in the Connect Chat interface, the conversation contains the same information as the record activity stream. Comments that are entered in the Connect Chat window update the record activity stream.
- Visual Task Board
- Streams live activity information for all task cards in the current task board. You can click an item in the activity stream to open the task card and view the activity stream of the record.
Attachments and images
- Paste an image into a journal field and enter the inline text.
- Click an attachment to preview it. Use the download option to download the attachment locally.
- Use antivirus scanning to protect against virus infections that can be introduced by file attachments. After being uploaded, the system automatically scans all files for viruses. If a file is infected, you can't view or download the file.
@ Mentions
- On a form, in the activity formatter (Core UI only).
- In a list, in the activity stream for a record.
- On a Visual Task Board card, in the card details.
- In a Connect record conversation.
To mention someone, enter the @ character in a supported activity stream. Next, select a user from the suggestion list to select any user in the instance. You can see which users have access to the record and, if presence is enabled, who is online. Enter any other text and post to the activity stream. The following example shows an #Mention on a form.
By default, you receive an email notification when someone mentions you. You can disable this behavior by unsubscribing from the Activity Stream @Mention Email notification on your notification preferences.
If Connect is enabled, you can receive additional notifications, depending on whether you follow the record in Connect. When someone mentions you in a record that you do not follow in Connect, you receive whichever Connect notifications you enabled globally, as well as the Activity Stream @Mention Email notification. If you do follow the record in Connect, you only receive notifications according to your notification preferences for the record conversation. In this case, you do not receive the Activity Stream @Mention Email notification.
You can filter out emails in the activity stream, for example, auto-generated and
correspondence emails, by selecting the 
. Select Post types to check or clear the boxes of the types
of emails and posts that display in your activity stream.