MagicBell's New Topical Inbox Is Just What You Needed

We'll make this short and sweet, just like our notifications.

We've always believed that not all channels were created equal and that in-app experience—specifically, the inbox in the app you're working in—is a central component of the whole notification experience. If you think about it, what are notifications? They are the next step in your flow of work and the project manager who communicates updates. Embedding a notification system into your app can be the tracks you lay toward your train of progress.

But you don't need train tracks all over the place, which is what can happen with notification overload and a lack of prioritization. Just like all channels aren't created equal, neither are all notifications. Too many notifications without context, even if they are contained in one place, is a great reason to switch on Do Not Disturb. This has become a problem of which many in the industry are aware, which is why companies like Apple are bypassing DND to push important notifications.

In the last year, we've made it our mission to re-think the idea that notifications should appear in reverse chronological order. Do you need a feed of everything that's ever happened? Some of our customers do, but some need fewer notifications with more context. That's why our engineering team, including myself, has refined how and when you receive notifications through our newest prototype: The Topical Inbox.

With Topical Inbox, users typically see no more than four or five notifications that are already represented in MagicBell as topics. Instead of seeing a stream of events, you can now see notifications within the context of the pull request that you're participating in. It shows you all the things you must pay attention to now so you're always on top of what's happening in the moment.

Think about it like a stock trading terminal versus a stock ticker. A stock ticker lets you see all the historical trends. And that can be helpful in some scenarios. But for most of you, what you really need is a trading terminal. You don't want to open your terminal tomorrow only to see what happened yesterday.

Our success is your success, and we believe this next iteration of MagicBell will help our customers bring true market differentiation to their products. And even better: if you love (and need) the original, historical inbox, you can still have it operate that way! We don't want to throw away what's working well, and a lot about MagicBell is doing magical things for everyone. That's why we'll retain the seamless integration with other channels and our extensive library of providers.

As always, if you have questions or suggestions, we'd love to hear from you. In the meantime, enjoy your new Topical Inbox and expect more from the superhero engineers at MagicBell in the coming months.