Email digests
Summarize
Summary of Email digests
Email digests in ServiceNow provide a consolidated email summarizing the activity for selected notifications and their target records over a defined time interval. This feature helps users reduce the volume of individual email notifications when frequent updates occur within a short period. Email digests apply solely to email notifications and are not supported for SMS, push notifications, or activity streams.
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The Email digest plugin is activated by default in new and upgraded instances using the Core UI interface. Admins configure which notifications support digests, define the digest content, and set interval options (e.g., hourly, daily). Users then enable digests and select their preferred interval in their notification preferences.
How Email Digests Work
- The system stores digest configurations per notification and temporarily accumulates notification content for each user.
- An email digest job runs every 15 minutes to determine if digests are ready to send based on the user-selected interval starting from the first notification trigger.
- Once the interval elapses, the system sends a single digest email summarizing all notifications during that period.
For example, if a user sets an hourly digest and the first notification arrives at 08:15, a digest email will be sent approximately at 09:15.
Setup and Configuration
For Administrators
- Review and customize base digest intervals, which include one hour, four hours, one day (24 hours), and seven days (weekly).
- Determine which notifications can be delivered via digests and configure their digest content accordingly.
- Consider the urgency and content of notifications when selecting suitable digest intervals to provide an optimal user experience.
For Users
- Enable email digests for eligible notifications in the Notifications tab of System Settings.
- Select the preferred interval over which notifications should be accumulated and summarized.
Practical Guidance
- Admins can create or modify digest intervals to tailor how often digest emails are generated.
- Notification forms allow admins to configure or disable email digests for specific notifications, controlling availability in user preferences.
- Each digest email pertains to notifications for a single target record; digests for different records are sent separately.
Why It Matters
Enabling email digests helps ServiceNow customers reduce notification overload, improving user experience by consolidating frequent updates into manageable summary emails. This facilitates easier tracking of notification activity and reduces inbox clutter without losing important information.
An email digest is a single email that summarizes the activity for a selected notification and its target records during a specified time interval. You can enable an email digest to reduce the number of notifications received when frequent updates to the associated records 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.
Admins determine which notifications can be delivered in an email digest and configure the digest content for those notifications. They also set 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
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- 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
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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.