name: custom-notification-type-design description: "Use when designing Custom Notification Types that fire via Flow, Apex, or Process Builder to Lightning bell, desktop, mobile (push), and Slack. Covers channel enablement, targeting, deliverability, consent, and anti-spam discipline. Does NOT cover email templates (see modernize-email-templates) or Salesforce Notifications API general reference." category: admin salesforce-version: "Spring '25+" well-architected-pillars:

• User Experience
• Operational Excellence
• Security triggers:
• "custom notification salesforce setup"
• "send desktop push notification flow"
• "salesforce bell notification from apex"
• "slack custom notification salesforce"
• "notification fatigue prevention" tags:
• admin
• notifications
• custom-notification-type
• push
• slack inputs:
• What triggers the notification
• Target audience and channels (bell / desktop / mobile / Slack)
• Frequency expectations outputs:
• Custom Notification Type setup (metadata)
• Targeting and consent design
• Throttling / de-duplication plan
• Observability + governance dependencies: [] version: 1.0.0 author: Pranav Nagrecha updated: 2026-04-28

Custom Notification Type Design

Purpose

Salesforce Custom Notification Types (CNTs) push messages to the bell, desktop, mobile, and now Slack. They are easy to enable and easy to abuse. Teams ship a new CNT per feature without a global view, which turns into notification fatigue — users silence the bell, disable mobile push, and ignore Slack. This skill frames CNT design as a product and governance problem, not a Setup click-through.

Recommended Workflow

1. Justify the notification. Does the recipient need to act, or is email/dashboard sufficient? If not actionable, do not notify.
2. Pick channels. Bell (in-app), desktop (browser), mobile push, Slack. Each has its own opt-in.
3. Design targeting. Role? Queue? Explicit list? Record owner? A user who can't act is a user you shouldn't notify.
4. Set frequency rules. Per record, per day, per user. Bundle where possible.
5. Design deep-link. Every notification should open the thing the recipient needs to look at.
6. Plan governance. Which notifications exist, who owns them, when they are reviewed.
7. Measure. Bell clicks, mobile open rates, Slack click-through. Low engagement = noise = cut.

Channel Characteristics

Targeting Patterns

• Owner: simplest; record owner + delegated users.
• Queue members: shared responsibility; membership must be current.
• Dynamic list via Flow: derive audience at runtime. Great for approvals/escalations.
• Explicit User list: avoid for anything that scales; stale membership is a liability.

Consent And Preferences

• Users set their own notification preferences; your CNT only fires when their preferences allow.
• Bell-only is safest default; opt-in to desktop / mobile / Slack as explicit uplift.
• Do NOT bypass user preferences via email workarounds — that is the fatigue accelerator.

Throttling / De-Dup

• One record update can fan out multiple triggers; coalesce. Use a "last notified at" field to suppress rapid repeats.
• Daily digests for non-urgent categories.
• Quiet hours where supported.

Deep-Link Design

• Bell: open the relevant record.
• Desktop/Mobile: same.
• Slack: link to a record or queue with minimal summary — do not dump the full record into the message.

Governance

• Registry custom object Notification_Type__c listing every CNT, owner, trigger, measurable outcome, review cadence.
• Quarterly review: engagement < 20% → cut or redesign.
• New CNT requires registry entry.

Anti-Patterns (see references/llm-anti-patterns.md)

• "Every change notifies every user."
• Mobile push for non-urgent stuff.
• Notifications whose deep-link lands on a list view, not the record.
• No ownership of who can add a CNT.

Official Sources Used

• Custom Notification Types — https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.custom_notifications_overview.htm
• Notification Builder in Flow — https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.flow_ref_elements_action_core_custom_notification.htm
• Send Custom Notification in Apex — https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexref.meta/apexref/apex_class_Messaging_CustomNotification.htm
• Notification Delivery Settings — https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.notif_builder_send.htm