This guide walks you through setting up Instant Alerts and customizing your notification preferences so you stay connected with your clients and practice on your terms. Practice Better gives you complete control over when, where, and how you receive notifications — whether you're at your desk, on the go, or taking time away from your practice.
In this article:
- Instant Alerts Overview
- Enabling Instant Alerts
- Disabling Instant Alerts
- Managing Snooze Settings
- Customizing What Notifications You Receive
- Customizing Chat Notifications
- Managing Team Member Notifications
- Task and Fax Notifications
- Insurance and Account Notifications
- Privacy Settings
- Troubleshooting Notification Issues
Instant Alerts Overview
Instant Alerts keep you informed about important events in your Practice Better account, even when you're not actively using the portal. Think of them as your practice's way of tapping you on the shoulder when something needs your attention — a new client message, an appointment request, or an urgent communication that can't wait.
These alerts work seamlessly across your devices, including the mobile app for iOS and Android, Chrome and Firefox browsers on Windows, and Chrome on Mac. When an alert arrives, it appears as a popup notification similar to what you'd see from messaging apps like WhatsApp, complete with action buttons so you can respond quickly.
Instant Alerts are available on all Practice Better subscription plans, giving every practitioner access to this essential communication tool regardless of their plan tier.
📍 Please note: By default, browser alerts won't appear while you're actively logged into the portal to avoid interrupting your workflow. You can change this setting if you prefer to see alerts even when you're working in Practice Better.
Enabling Instant Alerts
Setting up Instant Alerts ensures you never miss an important communication from your clients. You'll need to enable alerts separately on each device where you want to receive them, and your notification preferences will sync across all devices once configured.
- Go to Settings > Notification Preferences.
- Click Enable to activate Instant Alerts on your current device.
- Click Save Changes near the top of the page to confirm your settings.
- On mobile devices, tap the hamburger menu in the top-left corner, then select Settings & Preferences > Notification Preferences. After enabling alerts, remember to save your changes.
- If you'd like to receive alerts even while actively using the portal, enable the option to display alerts while logged in, and Save Chagnes.
Troubleshooting tip: If you've enabled Instant Alerts but aren't receiving notifications, check your device's notification settings to ensure Practice Better has permission to send notifications. On mobile devices, also verify that Focus mode or Do Not Disturb isn't silencing your alerts.
💡 Tip: Want to test your notification settings? Since most notifications are triggered by client actions, you can set up a test client account and perform actions like booking appointments or completing forms to verify that your alerts are working properly.
Learn more about Setting up a Test Client →
Disabling Instant Alerts
If you need to turn off Instant Alerts temporarily or permanently, you can do so quickly from your Notification Preferences.
To disable alerts on your current device:
- Go to Settings > Notification Preferences.
- Click Disable next to instant alerts setting.
- Click Save Changes to apply your settings.
To disable alerts across all devices at once:
- From the Notification Preferences page, click the More Options menu (3 dots) > Disable all.
- Click the Disable all button in the pop-up to confirm your selection.
- Click Save Changes near the top-right to confirm.
Managing Snooze Settings
Snooze Periods give you the flexibility to step away from your practice without worrying about notifications. Whether you're protecting your evenings, enjoying weekends, or blocking out focused work time, snooze settings ensure your notifications respect your boundaries. Think of snooze periods as scheduled quiet time — perfect for regular lunch breaks (like weekdays from 12-1pm) or complete weekend unplugs.
The key difference between disabling alerts and using snooze periods is flexibility. Disabling alerts turns them off until you manually re-enable them, while snooze periods automatically silence notifications during specific recurring times, then resume when your scheduled quiet time ends.
Setting up a Snooze Period:
- Go to Settings > Notification Preferences.
- Click the Snooze icon.
- Select the weekday and time range when you want alerts paused (for example, disable alerts on Sundays from 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM).
- To add more snooze periods, click Add period in the bottom-left corner. You can create up to 5 different snooze schedules.
- Optionally enable the ability for clients to mark messages urgent, so you will be notified during your snooze period.
📍 Please note: You can select multiple days or create overnight snooze periods that span from one day to the next (for example, from 6 PM to 7 AM). Snooze periods disable Instant Alerts during your set times, but email notifications may still arrive depending on your email notification settings.
Allowing urgent messages during snooze periods:
Even during your scheduled downtime, some client communications truly can't wait. You can choose to allow clients to mark their messages as urgent and break through your snooze period when necessary.
- Within your Snooze Period settings, enable the option to Allow clients to notify me for urgent messages.
- When enabled, clients will see a prompt: "Wendy Smith may not respond to your message right away. Mark as urgent."
- If you prefer to provide your own message, you can override this default text by setting up an autoresponder. Your autoresponder message will replace the default urgent message prompt, giving you complete control over how you communicate your availability to clients. Learn more.
💡 Tip: This feature strikes a balance between maintaining healthy boundaries and ensuring clients can reach you in genuine emergencies.
Customizing What Notifications You Receive
When you first create your Practice Better account, you're automatically subscribed to all notification types — from session requests to new chat messages. As your practice evolves, you'll likely want to tailor these notifications to match your workflow and communication preferences.
Practice Better offers notifications for a comprehensive range of client actions and practice events. Each notification type can be customized independently, giving you complete control over which events trigger alerts and how you receive them.
Adjusting your notification preferences:
- Go to Settings > Notification Preferences.
- Scroll to the section labeled "Notify me when clients..."
- Toggle notifications on or off for both email and Instant Alerts for each event type. Each notification type has a few controls:
- Bell icon: In-App Notifications
- Envelope icon: Email notifications
- Mobile device icon: Instant Alerts
- Additional icons: Some notification types offer extra options, like filtering by client tag, or notifications about team members.
📍 Please note: Grey or inactive icons indicate that notifications for that event are currently disabled.
Understanding the difference between email and Instant Alert content can help you decide which to enable. Instant Alerts function like subject lines, displaying brief information such as "M. Smith completed a form." Email notifications include more detail, such as the form title and a direct link to view it in the client's record.
Client action notifications you can customize:
Scheduling and sessions:
- Book, reschedule, confirm and cancel sessions
- Register for programs or auto-unregister/archive from programs
Forms and documentation:
- Complete forms, waivers, and quizzes
- Upload and share documents
Tasks and reminders:
- Complete reminders and tasks
Programs:
- Complete program modules (Instant Alerts only)
Payments:
- Pay invoices or when payments are processed
Communication:
- Post or comment on journal entries (Instant Alerts only; can be filtered by client tags)
- Request updates to their profile information (email only)
- Direct chat messages when you're online (Instant Alerts only)
- Direct chat messages when you're offline (email only)
Special filtering for journal notifications:
For journal entry notifications specifically, you can filter which clients trigger alerts based on their tags. This is the only notification type that currently supports tag-based filtering, allowing you to receive journal notifications only from clients with specific tags.
Understanding notification timing:
Email notifications for most client actions (like form submissions and appointment bookings) arrive almost instantly. However, email notifications for client messages follow a different pattern — they're delivered 5 minutes after the message is sent, and only if you haven't viewed your messages page during that time. This prevents notification fatigue when you're actively chatting with clients.
📍 Please note: Email notifications are sent to your Practice Better login email address and cannot be sent to a different address unless you update your account email. Additionally, Practice Better doesn't offer digest-style email notifications — each notification arrives individually as events occur.
This flexible system means you can choose to receive certain notifications only by email, only through Instant Alerts, both, or neither — whatever works best for how you run your practice.
Customizing Chat Notifications
Chat notifications can be set respectively for single-client chats or group chats. The way replies are defined also depends on your group chat style setting.
The information below is for practitioners. Learn more about
Single-client Chat Notifications
You can choose to receive:
- Instant alerts (when you’re online)
- Email notifications (when you’re offline)
We define “online” and “offline” as having viewed your messages page in Practice Better within the last 5 minutes.
💡 Tip: Not getting instant alerts for chats when you’re online? You might need to enable the option to display alerts while logged in.
Group Chat Notifications
You can choose to receive notifications for:
- All messages posted in group chats
- Only messages where you're specifically mentioned (for example, "@Wendy Smith")
- Replies to your posts
To adjust your group chat notification preferences, locate the "Group chat messages (Instant Alerts)" section in your Notification Preferences and use the dropdown menu to select "Replies to my messages." By default, you'll receive notifications for all group chat activity.
How replies work in group chats:
The system defines "replies" differently based on your group chat style. In feed-style group chats (similar to social media), replies appear as nested responses under the original post. In direct chat-style groups (similar to traditional messaging), replies are identified when someone uses the @ mention feature to respond to you directly.
Learn more about Understanding Group Chat Styles →
Mentioning participants in group chats:
To notify a specific participant that a message needs their attention, type the "@" symbol in the message text box, then select the participant's name from the list that appears. This mention will trigger a notification for that person based on their group chat notification settings.
These granular controls help prevent notification overload while ensuring you never miss conversations that require your direct attention. While you can customize your overall group chat notification preferences, Practice Better doesn't currently offer the ability to mute individual group chats without changing your global settings. However, group chat owners can lock a chat to prevent new messages from being posted.
Learn more about Using Group Chats and Shared Chats →
Managing Team Member Notifications
If you're part of a team practice, you can also customize notifications for actions taken by your team members on your behalf. These notifications help you stay informed about practice activities even when you're not the one directly interacting with clients.
Team member notifications you can customize:
Under the "Notify me when team members..." section, you can enable or disable notifications for:
- Schedule, update and reschedule sessions or events on your behalf
- Assign or share tasks with you, or complete assigned tasks
Each team member must manage their own notification preferences independently. The team owner and other team members cannot update notification settings on behalf of others, ensuring everyone maintains control over their own notification experience.
Task and Fax Notifications
Beyond client-focused notifications, Practice Better also keeps you informed about practice management tasks and communications.
Task Notifications
Stay on top of your to-do list by enabling notifications for upcoming tasks. You can receive both Instant Alerts and email notifications when tasks are due, helping you manage your practice workflow efficiently.
Fax Notifications
If you've connected a fax number to Practice Better, you can receive notifications when faxes are delivered or received. This ensures you never miss important faxed documents from clients, insurance companies, or other healthcare providers.
📍 Please note: Notifications for sent faxes are only delivered via Instant Alerts, not email.
Insurance and Account Notifications
You can receive notificaiotns for insurance claims submitted through the Practice Better x Claim.MD integration.
Learn more about Setting up your Claim.MD Integration →
Insurance Notifications
For practices that work with insurance billing, you can enable notifications to alert you when claims are updated. This notification is currently available as a web-only alert, helping you stay on top of your claims management process.
Activation and Export Notifications
Practice Better can notify you about important account activities:
- When clients are created or activate their accounts (available via Instant Alerts, email, and can open records in new tabs)
- When exports are completed or clients are deleted (email notifications and new tab options available)
Account and Billing Notifications
Stay informed about your Practice Better account with notifications for when billing statements are available. You can receive both Instant Alerts and email notifications to ensure you never miss important billing information.
Privacy Settings
Practice Better takes the security of your client communications seriously, which is why certain sensitive information is protected by default in your notifications.
Default privacy protections
By default, secure messages and completed task notes are not included in notification emails. This ensures confidential information doesn't appear in your inbox where it might be visible to others.
The Privacy Settings section at the bottom of your Notification Preferences page allows you to control what sensitive information appears in your notifications:
- Send my clients' completed task notes via email — Check this box if you want the content of completed task notes included in your email notifications.
- Send and receive chat message content via email and Instant Alerts — Check this box to include the actual message content in your notifications.
If you enable these options, it's important to understand that email and Instant Alerts are not secure channels for communicating sensitive information. For example, if you enable chat message content in notifications, an email to you might read: "Hey Wendy, I'm recommending you take supplements A, B, C for illness Z." This information would be visible in the email preview or notification.
⚠️ Important: Be mindful that notification content may be visible on lock screens or in notification previews. Device-level privacy controls and lock screen behavior are your responsibility to manage through your device settings. Consider this when deciding whether to include sensitive information in your notifications.
Customizing client name display
You can also control how client names appear in your emails and Instant Alerts for added privacy. In the "Client name style" dropdown menu at the bottom of the Privacy Settings section, choose from the following display options:
- First and last initial (for example, M. S.)
- Full name (for example, Mary Smith)
- First name and last initial (for example, Mary S.)
- Last name and first initial (for example, Smith, M.)
- First name only (for example, Mary)
This feature is particularly useful if you work in shared spaces or prefer additional discretion when notifications appear on your devices.
Announcements, Product Updates, and Offers
Practice Better occasionally sends email updates about new features and special offers from our partners to help you get the most from the platform. You can opt out of these communications at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the email footer.
📍 Please note: Important emails regarding account security and billing — such as password updates or subscription changes — will always be sent regardless of your communication preferences.
Troubleshooting Notification Issues
If you're experiencing problems with notifications, here are some common solutions that can help restore your alerts quickly.
Not receiving Instant Alerts after enabling them:
- Verify you clicked Save Changes after enabling notifications in your Notification Preferences.
- Check your device's notification settings to ensure Practice Better (or your browser) has permission to send notifications.
- On mobile devices, confirm that Focus mode, Do Not Disturb, or similar features aren't silencing your notifications.
- For browser-based alerts, check your browser's notification permissions for the Practice Better site.
Alerts not appearing while logged into the portal:
By default, browser alerts are suppressed while you're actively using the portal. If you want to receive alerts even while logged in, check the box next to "Display Instant Alerts on desktop while I'm using the web portal" in your Notification Preferences. If you've already enabled this option but still aren't seeing alerts, check your browser's notification permissions and your device's Focus or Do Not Disturb settings.
Testing your notification setup:
The most reliable way to confirm your notifications are working is to test them with real actions. Set up a test client account and perform actions that typically trigger notifications (like booking an appointment or completing a form). This will help you verify that both your settings and device permissions are configured correctly.
Understanding notification behavior across devices:
Remember that notification preferences sync across all your devices, but Instant Alerts must be enabled separately on each device where you want to receive them. If you enable alerts on multiple devices, you may see the same notification appear in multiple places until you mark it as read on any device.
Need additional support? Our team is here to help you configure your notifications perfectly for your practice. Don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions about any of these settings.