When security breaches happen, incident response time becomes very important. Browser push notifications are a great way to quickly draw an administrator's attention to alarms generated in the Genea system.
Overview
Events such as forceful door entry, multiple access denied events on a critical door or a fire alarm getting triggered demand prompt response. In such cases, getting notified through an audible browser push notification is an effective way to intimate an administrator.
Alarms can be received on different event categories such as access denied events, door contact events, monitor point events and more. Notifications are configured per alarm event per device: an administrator selects an alarm category, then an alarm event, then assigns custom roles to the individual devices that should notify for that event. Users belonging to the selected roles who have browser push notifications enabled will start receiving alarm notifications for those devices.
Because the configuration is per device, the same event can notify different roles on different devices — the vault door can page the security lead while a lobby door notifies nobody at all.
Procedure
Here we'll describe how a user can enable / disable push notifications, how an administrator can configure push notifications for a single role and for multiple roles simultaneously.
I. Enable / disable browser push notifications for your account
Browser push notifications can be enabled or disabled at will. Here are the steps to enable the browser push notifications:
All Genea users except the ones with the "User" role will receive an application popup when they log in requesting access to show push notification. Select the Enable button.
This will in turn give rise to the browser confirmation modal. Select Allow to show notifications.
This will enable push notifications for your account for that browser.
In case you wish to disable your notifications, you can do that as follows:
Navigate to My Profile.
Scroll down till you see the Browser Notification section. Toggle the checkbox.
With this, you will no longer receive browser push notifications from that browser.
II. Configure push notifications for a single alarm event for multiple roles
Here's how an administrator can select the different roles all the users of whom should receive push notifications for devices from specific alarm event:
Navigate to the Settings section under Alarm Management.
Select an alarm category.
Select an alarm event within the category.
The device list loads with every device in that category that can fire the selected event. Enable the toggle next to a device you want to generate alarm for. In the Browser Notification column, select one or more roles from the dropdown. This list is drawn from the Custom Roles module. Click on Apply.
With that, users belonging to the selected roles who have enabled browser push notifications will start getting alarm notifications for the selected events.
IMPORTANT NOTE: A device notifies for an event only if you have configured it for that event. There are no category-level defaults - a device you leave unconfigured produces no alarm and no notification for that event.
III. Configure a sticky notification that remains visible until the user interacts with it.
When Sticky is enabled, the notification remains on the screen until the user interacts with it.
If you want notifications for specific alarms to stay visible until acknowledged, enable the Sticky checkbox on that device's row in the event's device list. Sticky is set per device per event, so you can make the vault door sticky while leaving the rest of the doors on that event non-sticky.
When a notification appears, you can click View Details to review and acknowledge the alarm.
Sticky requires at least one notification role. Enabling Sticky on a device with no role assigned blocks the save until you add a role or turn Sticky off.
Notes
If you change your browser, you'll have to enable notifications for the new one.
The following are scenarios where notifications will fail to arrive:
When a logged in person has only User (default one) roles in all the locations.
When a logged in person uses incognito mode.
When an outdated browser or a browser where push notification utility is absent is being used. Below is a list from Mozilla containing the earliest browser versions with notification capabilities:
When a logged in person has denied permission to our application for browser notifications.
When a person has set “blocked” permission as default for notifications from all websites. It is a browser level setting which can be found in the settings menu of a browser.
When a person has put our web application into blacklist for notification permission. This option can also be found from the settings menu of a browser.
When a logged in person has disabled notification from My Profile. Currently it is implemented as per browser, so in a new browser or in incognito mode the setting is not reflected.
Some browsers, like Chrome and Firefox, do not show notifications if they are closed. They will start showing all the notifications once they are reopened. It is recommended to keep at least one browser tab / window open to continue receiving notifications.
If a person has enabled “do not disturb”, “focus” or similar modes, notifications can only be seen via action centers or from a place in the system where all the notifications are collected.
While screen sharing, some operation systems automatically enable “do not disturb”, “focus” or similar modes. In those cases, notifications can only be seen via action centers or from a place in the system where all the notifications are collected.
Compatibility matrix for sticky notifications across operating systems
OS | Version | Chrome(142.0.7444.176) | Firefox(145.0.1) | Safari (26.1) | Edge | Does the Sticky Notification Work?
|
macOS | All (Bigsur 11+, Monterey 12+, Ventura 13+, Sonoma 14+, Sequoia 15+ Tahoe 26+ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | No. |
Windows | 10,11 | ✔️ | ✔️ | N/A | Partial* | Yes |
Linux (GNOME DE) | Ubuntu 24.04 | ✔️ | ❌ | N/A | N/A | Yes |
Chrome OS | All | ✔️ | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
* Please note that our sticky notification feature will not work on Microsoft Edge version 85 or later.
This is due to changes in Windows’ handling of “high priority” toast notifications. In earlier versions, notifications with the requireInteraction setting would stay on-screen until dismissed by the user. Starting with Edge 85, these notifications automatically disappear after 25 seconds, so the sticky behavior cannot be applied.
If you have any questions about this feature, please contact acsupport@getgenea.com.