Notifications
Summarize
Summary of Notifications
Notifications in ServiceNow enable applications to communicate important events and information to users via email, SMS, or push notifications. After defining your data model and enabling user interaction, configuring notifications helps keep users informed and engaged, supports knowledge sharing, and allows localization through translations.
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Notification Triggers
Notifications can be triggered in two primary ways:
- Event-driven notifications: Use these when notification conditions are complex or when notifications are triggered from workflows or Flow Designer flows. Creating specific events simplifies debugging.
- Table updates: Configure notifications to trigger based on changes in a database table for simpler use cases.
For straightforward scenarios, use the Notification activity in workflows or the Send an email action in Flow Designer. For critical or complex notifications, trigger an event and configure notifications to respond to it.
Notification Content
ServiceNow supports dynamic and static notification content through:
- Email templates: Create reusable subject lines and message bodies for multiple notifications.
- Email scripts and notification variables: Add dynamic field values from the base record or related records using dot-walking without scripting. Use the URIREF variable to link back to the originating record.
- Scripting: For advanced dynamic content or controlling recipient and sender details, use the mail script API and create email scripts outside the notification body for reliability.
Configuring Recipients
- Send notifications to individual users, groups, or specific email addresses.
- When sending to groups, enable the “Include members” option to notify all group members in addition to the group email address.
- Subscription-based notifications allow recipients to select which emails they receive by marking notifications as “Subscribable.” For mandatory notifications, enforce delivery regardless of preferences.
- Optionally include unsubscribe links in emails to let users opt out.
Email Watermarks and Troubleshooting
Email watermarks are included by default to help process user responses accurately. Only omit watermarks if no responses are expected.
For common notification issues and troubleshooting guidance, refer to the Outbound Email knowledge base article available through the ServiceNow HI portal.
After the data model is defined and users are able to interact with the application, determine how the application should communicate with users. Configure notifications to alert users to important application related events, share application information in the knowledge base, and add translations to allow users to interact with the application in their native language.
The ServiceNow AI Platform can notify users by email, SMS text message, or push notifications.
Triggers: Event Driven Notifications vs Table Updates
Configure notifications to trigger based on updates to a table or based on an event. Use event-based triggering when triggering requirements cannot be easily implemented in the notification conditions or when the notification is triggered from a Workflow. Creating specific events also enables easier notification debugging.
Use the Notification activity in a workflow or the Send an email action in Flow Designer for simple notification use cases. For complex or critical notifications, trigger an event from a workflow or a Flow Designer flow and configure a notification to fire off that event.
Notification Content
ServiceNow notifications support static and dynamic content using email templates, email scripts, and notification variables.
Notification variables add dynamic information to the body of a notification, such as field values from the base record. The variables also support dot-walking, which allows field values from any related records to be included in the content without scripting.
For example, use the URI_REF variable to point to the record that originated the email.
Use Scripting for email notifications or dot-walk from the base record to include dynamic content that is not available in the record. Use the mail script API to set notification details, such as the recipient and sender addresses, etc.
Create Email templates for content used in multiple notifications. Adding the content to an email template enables administrators to create reusable content for the subject line and message body of email notifications.
Configure recipients
ServiceNow emails can be sent to users, groups, or individual email addresses. When sending to groups, check the Include members field on the group record for the notification to be sent to all members of the group in addition to the group email.
Subscription-based notifications - Select the Subscribable option on the notification to allow recipients to pick and choose the emails they want to receive.
For a subscription-based notification, the Make a notification mandatory option can be set to true for the recipients to receive the notification regardless of their individual preferences. Optionally, configure Email unsubscribe links in the outgoing email to allow users to remove themselves from the notification.
ServiceNow uses email watermarks to correctly process user responses to notifications. Email notifications automatically include watermarks unless the Omit watermark option is selected in the notification. Omit watermarks only when no email response is expected from the recipients.
The Troubleshooting Outbound Email knowledge base article provides troubleshooting steps for the most common notification issues. Log in to the HI portal (https://hi.service-now.com) to access the article.