Unread indicators and notifications

Chat tells you about new messages in two ways: unread dots on room names in the sidebar, and notifications in the bell menu at the top of the screen.

Unread dots in the sidebar

When a room has new messages since you last opened it, a small dot appears on the room's icon in the sidebar. This works for both your personal rooms and for rooms listed under Team Chats.

Opening the room clears the dot. Chat marks the room as read automatically as soon as you view it.

The notification bell

The bell icon in the top bar shows a count when you have unread notifications. The count covers all Eigen apps, not Chat alone.

Click the bell to open the Notifications panel. Each notification shows the sender's avatar, a title, a short preview of the message, and how long ago it arrived. Unread notifications appear with a highlighted background.

From the panel you can:

• Click a notification to go straight to the message in Chat.
• Click Mark all read to clear the count at once.
• Click the ✕ button on an individual notification to dismiss it.

What triggers a notification

@mention: When someone types your email address in a message, you receive a notification titled "You were mentioned in …".

New message in a room: If you have previously sent a message in a room, or if you own it, you receive a "New message in …" notification when someone else posts there.

Whisper: If someone sends you a private whisper, you receive a notification the same way you would for a regular message.

You do not receive a notification for your own messages.

Toast pop-ups

When a notification arrives while you are using Eigen, a small pop-up appears in the bottom-right corner of the screen. It shows the title and a short preview. Click View to go directly to the message.

Browser tab title

When you have unread notifications, the page title in the browser tab starts with a count in brackets, for example (3) eigen|chat>. This lets you see new activity even when the tab is in the background.