Hate missing desktop notifications on Ubuntu? Well, with the Recent Notifications indicator you don’t need to.
This handy tool collects and collates all desktop notifications you receive, regardless of whether you see them or not. Then, with one click, you can see and action them.
For those of you who regularly nip away from the keyboard this indicator is ideal.
With this indicator running you won’t miss desktop notifications next time you go to let the cat in, order another coffee, bang your head against a brick wall, or whatever else.
As this indicator requires depends on the libnotify notification daemon. If you’re running Ubuntu’s Unity desktop, XFCE or MATE then you’re all set as these desktop environment implement their notification standards using this tech.
Recent Notification Indicator lets you quickly remove individual and/or all notifications from the applet dropdown menu with a simple click. Some notifications can contain clickable links (excluding MATE).
Via the dconf-editor app you can also adjust a few other settings, such as setting the maxmium number of notifications to collect/display in the applet menu, and specify applications or notification sources to “ignore” (e.g., Update Manager, Rhythmbox, etc).
To adjust these you’ll need to use the dconf-editor app (available in Ubuntu Software). After installing navigate to the following key:
net > launchpad > indicator > notifications
Blacklisting an application works in the same way as when you hide a music player from showing up in the Sound Menu, e.g.: ['app-name']. To blacklist multiple apps or sources use a , to separate them, e.g.: ['app-name', 'app-name'].
How To Install Recent Notifications Indicator on Ubuntu
As mentioned, this indicator only works with the Unity, XFCE and MATE desktops. It does not work with GNOME. You need to be running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or later to install:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jconti/recent-notifications
sudo apt update && sudo apt install indicator-notifications
Once installed launch the indicator from the Unity Dash (or an equivalent start menu) and… wait for some notifications to arrive!
Curious to see it work? Send yourself a test notification via the terminal using:
notify-send 'test message'