Overview of in-app notifications in Atlassian Cloud products

Summary

Atlassian Cloud apps have a notification drawer to help you keep track of updates to your work. In this article, we'll cover the underlying logic behind the notification drawer and how it highlights notifications to you.

Environment

All Atlassian Cloud apps, including Jira, Jira Service Management, Confluence, and Bitbucket

Solution

Components of the notification drawer's bell icon

• Unseen Count: The number over the icon reflects how many new notifications you’ve received since you last opened the notification drawer (or viewed them in the mobile app)

• Read State vs. Unseen Count: Clearing the count is tied to opening/viewing notifications—not to marking each one “read”

Notification Types Included

• Direct Notifications:

  • These arise from actions directly involving you (for example: you’re a reporter, assignee, or explicitly mentioned on a Jira work item)

  • Each direct notification increments the bell count until you open the drawer

• Watching Notifications: Work items or pages you’re watching

  • Not included in the icon count by default

  • You will still see these in your “Watching” tab, but they do not affect the icon's counter unless you apply a custom configuration or automation

Expected User Flow

1. You perform your usual work (comments, assignments, mentions)

2. New direct notifications appear as incrementing numbers on the notification drawer's bell icon

3. Select the bell icon to expand the notification drawer and view all unseen items

4. The numbered count clears, but notifications remain listed until you manually dismiss them