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Do Not Disturb

Status: Complete

How Do Not Disturb (DND) mode works in Chatalot and what it suppresses.

What DND Does

When your status is set to Do Not Disturb, Chatalot suppresses active notification delivery:

Notification Type Behavior with DND
Desktop notifications Suppressed -- no OS-level popups appear
Sound notifications Suppressed -- no tones play for messages, mentions, or voice events
Unread badges Still shown -- channel badge counts and bold names continue to update
Unread separators Still shown -- the "New Messages" line still appears when you open a channel
Message delivery Not affected -- all messages are still delivered and stored; you just are not actively notified

In short, DND silences sounds and popups but does not hide any information. When you return from DND, all unread indicators accurately reflect what you missed.

How to Enable DND

Using the Status Picker

  1. Open the status picker in the sidebar (near your user info area).
  2. Select Do Not Disturb.
  3. Your presence indicator changes to a red dot, visible to other users.

Your DND status is saved locally and persisted across page reloads and reconnections.

When Does DND End?

DND stays active until you manually change your status to something else (Online, Idle, or Invisible). There is no automatic timer or schedule for DND -- you must explicitly turn it off.

To turn off DND:

  1. Open the status picker.
  2. Select a different status (e.g., Online).

Visual Indicator to Others

When you are in DND mode, other users see:

  • A red dot on your avatar in the members panel, DM list, and profile card.
  • This signals that you prefer not to be disturbed and may not respond immediately.

Note: DND is a social signal as well as a functional setting. Other users can still send you messages -- the messages just will not produce notifications on your end.

Which Notifications Are Still Shown

Even in DND mode, the following continue to work normally:

  • Unread badge counts in the sidebar update in real time.
  • Bold channel names for channels with unread messages.
  • Unread separator lines appear when you open a channel.
  • Typing indicators still show when others are typing.
  • Voice state updates still show who is in voice channels.
  • Messages appear in real time if you have a channel open.

The only things suppressed are the active interruptions: sounds and OS-level notification popups.

DND and Idle Detection

If your status is DND, Chatalot's idle detection does not override it. Even after 5 minutes of inactivity, your status remains DND (it does not switch to Idle). Idle detection only activates when your status is set to Online.

DND Across Devices

Your DND status is stored locally per browser/device and also broadcast via WebSocket. If you set DND on one device:

  • Other users see you as DND regardless of which device you set it on.
  • Your other devices restore their saved status independently on reconnect, so you may want to set DND on each device where you want notifications suppressed.