Google__ The Missing Manual - Kevin Purdy [37]
As discussed in the previous section, the settings that control which notifications you receive on your iPhone are on the Google+ settings page, and they’re described in detail in the next section. The settings icon on the main screen of the Google+ iPhone app (iPhone/iPod Touch) doesn’t give you any notification options, or even an on/off switch—you have to control notifications from the Web.
NOTE
As of this printing, Google+ doesn’t have an app specifically designed for the iPad (though this will probably change soon). You could install the iPhone app on your iPad, but you probably shouldn’t, because it looks funky and isn’t easy to use. The notifications do work, but they’ll just open in the iPhone-sized app.
Controlling Which Notifications You Receive
GOOGLE+ CAN NOTIFY YOU of just about everything that happens on the site that involves you: when people respond to your posts, tag photos with you in them, and so on. But you can also tweak Google+ so it only gives you a tap on the shoulder when something really worthwhile happens. This section explains how to tweak the number and frequency of notifications to your liking. You make all these adjustments from the Google+ settings page (to get there, click the gear icon in the upper right of any Google+ page and then choose “Google+ settings”).
The Most Important Setting
Not surprisingly, the most important option on the Google+ settings page is the first one: “Who can send you notifications?” This setting is the only way you can control which notifications appear in your Google toolbar and Notifications stream, whereas you can use the settings described starting on The Other Notification Settings to fine-tune the notifications you get via email and cellphone.
You might not think this setting is all that vital if you only use Google+ to share news with a small group of friends, family members, and acquaintances. They’re the only people who can see your posts, so who else could you be notified about?
As you learned Chapter 2, anyone can add you to one of their circles, even if you haven’t added them to a circle of yours. And anyone you haven’t blocked (Blocking, Muting, and Reporting Posts) can mention you in a post, share a post specifically with you, or tag you in a photo. So unless you adjust this setting, you might get notifications about that annoying guy you only knew in seventh grade when he writes posts about you, uploads embarrassing pictures from your adolescence, and so on. Then again, you might like knowing when people are talking about you and pointing you out in pictures.
To adjust this setting, click the box to the right of “Who can send you notifications?” In the list that appears choose the minimum amount of acquaintance you want to have with the people whose actions result in you receiving a Google+ notification. For example, if you want to know about every single mention of you on the site, choose Anyone.
NOTE
You may be wondering about the “Only you” setting—how could Google+ work so that only you can send yourself notifications? Based on experiments and searching, it seems “Only you” is basically equivalent to “Nobody can send me notifications”—in other words, it’s a weirdly named Off setting.
If you’re using Google+ to interact with particular circles and you rarely (if ever) post items using the Public or Extended Circles options (Choosing Who Sees Your Posts), it’s probably okay to leave this setting as it is (it’s automatically set to “Extended circles”; flip to Writing a post while viewing your main stream for a reminder of what that means). If you post things publicly or seem to attract a lot of unknown commenters and sharers who bother you, scale back to Your Circles instead.
If you’d like, you can pick out certain circles and people who can trigger notifications by choosing Custom. In the box that appears, select