Pausing mobile and web push notifications

Key concepts

To understand how pausing notifications work, you need to know a couple of key concepts.

Pause notifications state

An agent’s pause notifications state refers to whether they currently receive notifications or not.

If their pause notifications state is ON, they don’t receive any web push or mobile notifications. They still receive email notifications as well as toasts in the Agent Desk. Unblu also continues to send webhook notifications related to the agent.
If their pause notifications state is OFF, they receive all notifications intended for them.

Pause notifications mode

The pause notifications mode defines how Unblu sets an agent’s pause notifications state.

If the pause notifications mode is OFF, the agent’s pause notifications state is also OFF.
If the pause notifications mode is ON, the agent’s pause notifications state is also ON.
If the pause notifications mode is set to AUTO, Unblu determines what to set the agent’s pause notifications state to. It does so based on whether it knows of any autopause notification reasons. If it does, it pauses notifications for the agent.

The default pause notifications mode is OFF. You can change the default pause notifications mode for new agents with the configuration property com.unblu.pausenotifications.initialPauseNotificationsMode.

Autopause notification reasons

When an agent’s pause notifications mode is set to AUTO, Unblu automatically pause notifications when the agent is:

In an active Unblu collaboration session. This includes embedded co-browsing, universal co-browsing, document co-browsing, and screen sharing.
In an Unblu audio or video call.

If you want to pause notifications in other situations, too, you have tell Unblu about it. You do so by sending Unblu an autopause notification reason. The reason is displayed in the Agent Desk, so the agent knows why they aren’t receiving notifications.

Configuring the pause notifications feature

The pause notifications feature only has a few configuration properties:

com.unblu.pausenotifications.enableManualPauseNotificationsMode allows agents to set their pause notifications mode themselves. It’s available in the GLOBAL and ACCOUNT scopes.
com.unblu.ui.usermenu.showPauseNotificationsEditor shows the Pause notifications menu in the Agent Desk. This lets agents set their pause notifications mode.

The configuration is available in the GLOBAL, ACCOUNT, TEAM, and USER scopes. It only has an effect if agents may manually change their pause notifications mode.
com.unblu.pausenotifications.cleanupIntervalInSeconds defines the interval at which Unblu checks whether there are still active pause notification reasons. If there aren’t, it resumes sending notifications to the agent in question.

The shortest interval allowed is 20 seconds.
By default, Unblu automatically pauses notifications if an agent is in an active Unblu call or collaboration session. You can change this behavior with the configuration properties com.unblu.conversation.autopausenotifications.enableActiveCallAutoPause and com.unblu.conversation.autopausenotifications.enableActiveCollaborationAutoPause.
com.unblu.pausenotifications.initialPauseNotificationsMode is the pause notifications mode initially assigned to new users.

Pausing notifications

There are three different ways to pause notifications:

Manually in the Agent Desk settings menu. Whether this option is available depends on how you configured Unblu.

For more information on pausing notifications manually, see the Agent Desk guide.
Automatically if the agent is in an Unblu call or collaboration session. You can, however configure Unblu to behave differently in these situations.
Via the Unblu web API. This is primarily intended for integrating other systems. It lets you pause Unblu notifications when an agent’s in a Skype call, for example, or when have a meeting scheduled in their calendar.

Setting autopause notifications reasons

To pause an agent’s notifications for a reason outside Unblu, call the web API’s /persons/{personId}/addAutoPauseNotificationReason endpoint.

The body of the call contains three compulsory elements:

The sourceId is an identifier for the autopause notifications reason. It can be used to updating or removing the reason.
The displayName appears in the Agent Desk. It tells agents why their notifications are paused.
You must include a time limit for automatically pausing notifications. You can’t autopause an agent’s notifications indefinitely.

To update an autopause notification reason, call the /persons/{personId}/addAutoPauseNotificationReason with the same sourceId. You can change the displayName or increase how long to autopause notifications. It isn’t possible to reduce how long notifications are paused.

If you want to resume notifications for the agent before the time limit is reached, call the /persons/{personId}/removeAutoPauseNotificationReason endpoint.