Creating Your First Notification in 5 Minutes
Set up your first real-time social proof notification step by step.
Your script is installed. Now it is time to create your first notification. This walkthrough covers the full setup from choosing a notification type to going live. The whole process takes about five minutes.
Step 1: Choose a notification type
Log in to app.activly.io and click New Notification. You will see several types to choose from:
- Recent Purchase — shows activity like "Sarah from London just bought Running Shoes." Requires a connected e-commerce or payment integration.
- Live Visitor Count — shows how many people are on a page right now. Works immediately with no integration needed.
- Signup Notification — shows individual or aggregate signup activity. Requires a connected form or email platform.
- Review — surfaces a recent customer review with a star rating.
- Low Stock — shows remaining inventory when stock drops below a threshold. Requires Shopify or WooCommerce.
If you have not connected a data source yet, start with Live Visitor Count. It pulls data directly from the Activly script and is ready to go the moment you activate it.
Step 2: Configure the notification
After selecting a type, you will land on the configuration screen.
- Name your notification — this is internal only. Your visitors never see it. Use something descriptive like "Homepage Visitor Count" or "Pricing Page Purchase Proof."
- Set the display message — use the message editor to write what visitors will see. For a visitor count notification, this might be " people are viewing this page right now."
- Customize colors and font — set the background color, text color, and border radius to match your brand. You can enter hex codes directly.
Step 3: Set targeting
Control which pages the notification appears on:
- All pages — the notification shows everywhere on your site.
- Specific URLs — enter exact page URLs where you want it to appear.
- URL patterns — use wildcards to target groups of pages, such as
/products/*for all product pages.
You can also toggle Show on mobile on or off. For most notification types, showing on mobile is recommended — just make sure your design works at smaller sizes.
Step 4: Set timing
Timing controls how the notification behaves in the session:
- Delay before first show — the number of seconds after page load before the first notification appears. A delay of 5-10 seconds is recommended. Showing too quickly can feel intrusive.
- Display duration — how long each notification remains visible. 5-7 seconds is the optimal range for readability without overstaying.
- Frequency between notifications — if you have multiple notifications in a queue, this is the pause between them.
Step 5: Go live
- Review your settings by clicking Preview — a preview modal shows what the notification will look like on your site.
- When you are satisfied, toggle the notification from Paused to Active.
- Visit your site. The notification should appear according to your delay setting.
If you do not see it, open the page in an incognito window to rule out browser extensions that might suppress popups or scripts.
What's next
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