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Why do Slack reminders and bot messages arrive silently, and how do you make them notify?

Last updated 2026-08-17 · Confidence: documented — Slack’s help center and developer docs, read that day; the channel-reminder silence is inferred, underlined.

By default Slack only notifies for DMs, thread replies, mentions, and your keywords — a Slackbot channel reminder or plain bot post is none of these, so it lands silently unless the channel is set to “All new posts” or the message @mentions you.

What notifies by default

Section titled “What notifies by default”

Slack’s notifications guide lists the default triggers: “Someone sends you a direct message (DM)”, “Someone replies to a thread you’re following”, or “Someone mentions you, notifies a channel you’re in, or uses one of your keywords”. “These defaults apply to both desktop and mobile notifications unless you adjust your preferences.”

Bot and app messages pass through the same filter as human messages. Slack’s developer docs on message formatting say that when a user mention “is included in an app-published message, the mentioned user will also be notified”, and for @here/@channel, “Slack will notify each user in the group about the mention”. So a bot post pings you only if it mentions you (or a group containing you), or if your setting for that channel is “all new posts”.

Reminders split in two. A personal reminder delivers directly: “you’ll receive a notification and see a badge on the Later and Activity tabs”. A channel reminder (/remind #channel …) just posts a message to the channel — the help page doesn’t say members get notified, and under the default triggers a plain Slackbot channel post won’t ping anyone on “mentions only”.

Settings to check, in order

Section titled “Settings to check, in order”
  1. Paused notifications. Do Not Disturb: with a notification schedule, “outside of those times, notifications will be paused” — a reminder landing off-hours is silent. Reminders default to “9 a.m. in your time zone”.
  2. Default preference — Everything vs. “Mentions and direct messages”, plus keywords, in notification preferences.
  3. Per-channel setting — All new posts / Just mentions / mute; mobile can differ from desktop per channel.
  4. Mobile timing — the troubleshooting article says to set mobile to “As soon as I’m inactive”; in a browser, “you’ll only get notifications for workspaces that you have open”.
  5. OS level — macOS Focus/DND, Windows Focus Assist, browser site permissions.

Fixes for a silent weekly reminder

Section titled “Fixes for a silent weekly reminder”

Set that channel to “All new posts”; put your @username in the reminder text; or add a distinctive word from the reminder as a notification keyword — “whenever someone uses one of your keywords in a channel you’ve joined, you’ll get a notification” (threads excepted).

Sources

Section titled “Sources”