Notifications
Bark push notifications, browser notifications, and email — backends and configuration.
OpenPlaud can notify you when a recording finishes syncing or a transcription completes. Three backends ship in the box: Bark (iOS push), browser notifications (Web Notifications API), and email (SMTP). Each backend is independent; you can enable any combination.
Notifications never block the sync loop — each backend uses a hard timeout (three seconds for Bark, similar for email) and failures are logged, not retried into a queue.
Bark (iOS push)
Bark is a free, self-hostable iOS push service. You install the Bark app, it gives you a personal push URL, and you paste that URL into OpenPlaud.
Settings → Notifications → Bark push URL. Paste the URL Bark gave
you (looks like https://api.day.app/<your-key>). The URL is stored
per-user.
OpenPlaud sends notifications with level: "timeSensitive" so they
break through Focus modes on iOS. Failure is silent in the sense that
sync continues — check the server logs if you expected a notification
that didn't arrive.
Browser notifications
Browser notifications use the standard Web Notifications API and work out of the box on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge once you grant permission.
Settings → Notifications → Browser notifications → Enable. The browser prompts you for permission; OpenPlaud remembers the per-user toggle in the database.
These only fire while the OpenPlaud tab is open in at least one browser. For background delivery, use Bark or email.
On the hosted instance at openplaud.com, email is already configured for you — just enable it. On a self-host instance, the operator has to wire up SMTP first; see Email (SMTP) setup.
Settings → Notifications → Email → Enable. OpenPlaud will send a message to your account email when a recording finishes syncing or a transcription completes.
To verify it works without waiting for a real event, hit Settings → Notifications → Email → Send test email. If your self-host operator hasn't configured SMTP, the backend short-circuits cleanly and logs a "SMTP not configured" warning on the server — no mail goes out and no error surfaces in the UI.
Picking a backend
| Need | Use |
|---|---|
| Push to phone, away from desk | Bark |
| Notification while OpenPlaud open | Browser |
| Audit trail of completions | |
| Multi-user team alerting |
Bark and browser are good for personal use. Email is the right choice when you want a persistent inbox record of every sync result.
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