What Reddit notifications cover, and why none of them watch keywords

What are Reddit notifications?

Your Reddit notifications tell you about activity tied to your account, such as comments on your posts, replies, mentions, chat messages, follows and trending posts, and you switch each type on or off in your Notifications settings. Reddit's help article on opting in or out of notifications says the settings page shows "a list of all the available notifications" with a toggle for each.

Notifications do not wait for you. The same article says "How long notifications stay available depends on their type, ranging from 1 to 365 days. Most notifications disappear after 7 days." A reply you ignore for a week is gone from the inbox, so check it on a schedule.

Reddit sends the same events by email too, with separate settings. Its email preferences article lists four groups: messages, "Activity on Reddit that are about you (mentions, follows) or your posts and comments (upvotes, replies to your comments, comments on your posts and pinned posts)," newsletters and recommendations, and administrative messages about your account.

How do you change Reddit notification settings?

You change Reddit notification settings in the Notifications tab of your Settings on reddit.com, or under Manage Notifications in the app's account settings. Reddit's help centre gives the path for each platform.

Platform	Path to notification settings
reddit.com	Settings, then the Notifications tab
iOS	Avatar, menu, Settings, your username under Account Settings, Manage Notifications
Android	Avatar, menu, Settings, Account Settings under General, Manage Notifications under Contact Settings
Email on reddit.com	Settings, then the Emails section

Every account keeps its own preferences. Reddit's email article warns that if you run more than one account on the same address, opting out on one "while continuing to receive them on another account" is expected behaviour. Log in to each account and set it separately. Administrative messages, such as password resets and policy updates, keep coming whatever you switch off.

Which Reddit notifications can you set per community or per post?

You set notifications per community with the bell icon next to the Joined button, and per post with the Follow post bell icon. Reddit's article on joining or leaving a community says the bell beside Joined "will bring up a menu showing your notification preference for this particular community." Its AMA checklist for moderators tells them to "Use the Follow post bell icon to get notified when new comments are posted."

Following a post is the most useful notification for anyone answering questions on Reddit. Once you reply to a buyer's thread, follow the post, and you hear about every new comment in it, including the competitor who replies under you.

Trending notifications work the other way. Reddit defines them as "notifications you get about popular posts from communities you've recently visited," and its trending notifications article says "you can't turn off trending notifications for a specific community." Turn off Trending posts under Recommendations, or keep all of them.

Why are you not getting Reddit notifications for replies?

You are not getting notified about some replies because Reddit only notifies you of comments made directly on your post, not replies to other comments in the thread. Reddit's help centre explains: "you'll get notified when someone comments directly to your post (also known as a parent comment). You won't get a notification if someone has replied to someone else's comment."

That rule hides the most useful part of a thread. When the original poster replies to another commenter with "which tool did you end up using?", you hear nothing. Fix it in three steps:

1. Check that comments on your posts are switched on in the Notifications tab.
2. Follow any post where you answered a question, so new comments anywhere in it reach you.
3. Reopen threads you care about once a day, because most notifications disappear after 7 days.

Which replies reach you

Comment on your postNotifies you when it replies to the post directly

Reply to another commenterSends nothing, even when it is the useful one

Followed postNotifies you of new comments anywhere in the thread

What notifications do Reddit moderators get?

Reddit moderators get mod notifications for activity in the communities they moderate, set per community in Mod Tools or under Moderation in the notification settings. Reddit's Community settings article lists them:

• New posts. A notification for every new post in the community.
• Posts with upvotes. A notification once a post passes a vote count you set with the Advanced setup slider.
• Posts with comments. A notification once a post passes a comment count you set.
• Mod mail and reports, with thresholds for reported posts or comments.
• Milestones and tips, such as the community's cake day.

Even moderators do not get every alert. The same article says "There are rate limits for each notification type -- this means you may not receive all of the notifications you are eligible for each day." And this whole set works only in communities you moderate.

Can Reddit notify you when someone mentions your keyword?

No. None of Reddit's notification help articles describes an alert for a word in someone else's post or comment. Reddit notifications fire on activity aimed at you: your posts, your comments, your username, your chats and your communities. A stranger writing "can anyone recommend a scheduling tool?" in a subreddit you have never visited triggers nothing, and that post is the lead.

Reddit's closest native tool is the Trends page in Reddit Pro. Reddit's Reddit Pro Trends article says it lets you "monitor keywords to see where, when, and how they're being discussed on Reddit." It is a dashboard you open, and the article describes no alert that pushes a match to you. It also covers less than all of Reddit: "Only public and SFW communities are used," and "Currently Reddit Pro only aggregates English conversations."

	Reddit notifications	Reddit Pro Trends	Keyword monitoring
What triggers it	Activity on your posts, comments, username, chats and joined or moderated communities	A keyword you add	A keyword you add
Covers strangers' posts in any subreddit	No	Public, SFW, English communities	Yes, in the communities the tool watches
Pushes the match to you	Yes, for its own events	Not described	Yes
Where you read it	Inbox, push and email	The Reddit Pro dashboard	The tool's feed and alerts

Until a keyword alert exists, the manual route is a saved search: run your phrase in Reddit search, sort by New and reopen it daily. The Reddit search operators guide shows how to tighten that phrase, and the guide to Reddit's Hot, New and Top sorts explains why New is the sort for catching fresh posts.

How does RedReplier differ from Reddit notifications?

RedReplier sends the alert Reddit does not: a match on your keyword in any public subreddit, whether you joined it or not. RedReplier watches every public subreddit for the keywords you target, and you can narrow it to specific communities. It ranks each match by buyer intent, so the "can anyone recommend" posts sit above casual mentions. Matches land on your RedReplier dashboard within minutes of a post or comment going live, and email alerts go out as digests on a cadence you set per keyword, from hourly to daily. RedReplier drafts a reply, and you review, edit and post it yourself. Keep Reddit's own notifications for the threads you have already joined, and let Reddit keyword monitoring find the ones you have not. Leave out words that drag in noise with negative keywords.

Frequently asked questions

How do I turn on Reddit notifications?

On reddit.com, open Settings and the Notifications tab, then toggle on the types you want. In the iOS or Android app, open Settings from your profile menu, pick your account settings and tap Manage Notifications. Email notifications have their own section under Settings.

Why am I not getting notifications for comments on my Reddit post?

Reddit only notifies you of comments made directly on your post, which it calls parent comments. A reply to someone else's comment in your thread sends you nothing. Check that the setting is on, and follow the post with the bell icon to hear about every new comment.

How do I get notifications for a specific subreddit?

Join the community, then click the bell icon beside the Joined button to set your notification preference for it. If you moderate the community, Mod Tools also offers notifications for new posts and for posts that pass a vote or comment threshold.

How long do Reddit notifications last?

Reddit says notifications stay available for 1 to 365 days depending on their type, and "Most notifications disappear after 7 days." Check your inbox at least weekly, or a reply you meant to answer will be gone.

How do I stop Reddit trending notifications?

Open Settings, then Notifications, scroll to Recommendations and turn off Trending posts. Reddit does not let you turn them off for one community, only all at once. The Daily Digest email is a separate toggle under Newsletters in the Emails section.

Can Reddit alert me when someone mentions my brand?

Reddit notifies you when someone mentions your username, but no notification setting fires on a brand or product name in someone else's post. Reddit Pro Trends tracks keywords on a dashboard limited to public, SFW, English communities. A keyword monitoring tool pushes those matches to you.

Can Reddit send notifications by email?

Yes. Reddit sends the same events by email, with separate settings in the Emails section of Settings on reddit.com. Its email preferences cover four groups: messages, activity about you or your posts and comments, newsletters and recommendations, and administrative messages about your account.

Why do I still get Reddit emails after turning notifications off?

Administrative messages, such as password resets and policy updates, keep coming whatever you switch off. Another cause is a second account on the same address, because each account keeps its own preferences. Log in to each account and set it separately.

How do I follow a post on Reddit?

Click the Follow post bell icon on the post. Reddit then notifies you when new comments are posted. It works well after you answer a buyer's question.

What is Reddit Pro Trends, and does it send alerts?

Reddit Pro Trends lets you monitor keywords to see where, when and how they are discussed on Reddit. It is a dashboard you open, and Reddit's article describes no alert that pushes a match to you. It covers only public, SFW, English communities.