System and custom notification and delivery channel preferences in Next Experience

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of System and custom notification and delivery channel preferences in Next Experience

    This content explains how ServiceNow customers can manage notification preferences and delivery channels in the Next Experience, starting from the Zurich release. It enables users to control both system and custom notifications, apply conditions for delivery, and choose preferred channels such as email, SMS, push, or messaging apps. The standardized forms for notification preferences have been available since the Yokohama release and can be enabled via a system property.

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    Key Features

    • Notification Preferences: Users can search and filter system and custom notifications by name, category, delivery channel, and status. Notifications can be enabled or disabled globally or individually, with schedules configurable per notification or channel.
    • AI Search for Notifications: An advanced search feature that extends beyond notification names to search within notification record fields. Requires installation of the AI Search for Notifications plugin and indexing of specific notification sources.
    • System Notifications: Alerts triggered by record changes, configurable with delivery options including email, SMS, push, or messaging apps. Preferences can be managed globally or by individual notification, with advanced filtering and scheduling available.
    • Custom Notifications: User-subscription notifications customizable with conditions and schedules. They support enabling/disabling channels and global preference settings. Note that custom notifications do not support notifications requiring a related affected record—those must be managed in the Core UI.
    • Delivery Channels: Users can create, edit, enable, or disable channels such as email, SMS, instant message, and voice for receiving notifications. Scheduling delivery times per channel is also supported. Only admins can delete channels.
    • Notification Filter Configuration: Admins can customize which notifications appear to users in the advanced preferences page, helping users focus on relevant notifications.

    Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers

    • Set and customize notification preferences to receive only relevant alerts, improving efficiency and reducing noise.
    • Leverage AI Search to quickly locate notifications by attributes beyond names, streamlining management.
    • Use delivery channel management to tailor how and when notifications reach users, enhancing communication effectiveness.
    • Create and manage custom notifications with specific conditions to monitor critical events tailored to your business needs.
    • Administrators can control notification visibility and channel availability, ensuring a consistent and user-friendly notification experience across the organization.

    You can manage and set your own notification preferences, including customized notifications and channels for receiving them.

    With notification preferences, you can control the system notifications and custom notifications that you receive and apply conditions to restrict notification delivery and choose how the notifications are delivered to you.

    Note:
    Standardized forms across custom notification preferences and delivery channels have been enabled from Yokohama onwards. To use standardized forms, set the property glide.notification.preference.sn_form_enabled to true.

    Search notifications

    You can also search for notifications under both system and custom notifications. There are 2 types of searches, search on preferences that only searches if it matches the notification name and AI search.

    With AI search, the search functionality now goes beyond just looking for notification names. It can also search within fields of notification records, offering a broader and more accurate search experience. To use the AI search, the AI Search for Notifications plugin must be installed and index sources Platform Notifications V1 and Platform Notifications V2, for more information see Activate AI Search for Notifications and Index AI Search for notifications.

    System notifications

    System notifications alert you of record changes that might concern or interest you. You can be notified via email, SMS text messages, push notifications, or messaging applications.

    With system notifications, you can:
    • Set your preferences for specific notifications by searching in the list of your notifications or by filtering them by category.
    • Set preferences at a global level.
    • Easily enable or disable all notifications or individual notifications.
    • Use advanced filter options based on categories, delivery channels, active or inactive notifications, email digest, and subscribable notifications.
    • Add or modify a notification schedule for individual delivery channels for each system notification.
    • Set a schedule for all notifications, individual system notifications, or delivery channels.

      For more information, see Apply notification conditions

    Custom notifications

    A custom notification is a system notification that you can subscribe to and customize by adding conditions.

    With custom notifications, you can:
    • Search for a specific notification in the list of your notifications to be able to set your preferences for that notification.
    • Use advanced filter options based on categories, delivery channels, active or inactive subscriptions, and email digest.
    • Create and modify custom notifications, which are subscriptions to notifications that are important to you.
    • Set preferences at a global level.
    • Easily enable or disable all notifications or individual notifications.
    • Enable or disable notification channels.
    • Add or modify a notification schedule for individual delivery channels for each system notification.
    • Set a schedule for all notifications, individual system notifications, or delivery channels.

      For more information, see Apply notification conditions

    Note:

    Custom notifications for Next Experience do not support notifications that require a related affected record. For these notifications, you have to set the preference in the Core UI. For more information, see Setting notification preferences in Core UI.

    Note:
    Subscription-based notifications are not domain aware and cannot support domain-specific settings.

    Delivery Channels

    Delivery channels is a list of your chosen channels such as email, SMS, instant message and voice channels for receiving notifications.

    With Delivery Channels, you can:
    • Enable or disable a particular channel for receiving notifications.
    • Create, edit, or delete notification channels for instant messages, email, SMS, and voice.
      Note:
      Only admins can delete channels from the cmn_notif_device table.
    • Choose how notifications are delivered.
    • Set a schedule for the record in the channel and apply to the notifications you want to receive.