How to implement per-user notification settings like Instagram/X?

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1

Hello! I really appreciate your help. Thank you again for the other day! :blush:

I’m implementing a notification system similar to Instagram or X.

Here’s the idea:

  • Notifications are off by default.

  • A user can choose to turn notifications on for specific people only (just like enabling notifications for a creator’s posts on Instagram or X).

To support this, I created a Connections collection with fields like:

  • User A

  • User B

  • Notifications Enabled (boolean)

When User A sends a message to User B, I want to send a push notification only if the Connection record between them has Notifications Enabled = true.

However, I can’t figure out how to reference that specific Connection record in the Send Message action. It seems like I can’t use that boolean as a condition because the action doesn’t know which Connection record to check.

Is there a recommended way to structure this in Adalo? How would you implement this kind of per-user notification

2

Hi @Yuki.O,

Option to explore - try setting condition via “Count” (e.g. conditional action on Connections → Count, where Sender = User A and Received = User B, and cound greater than 0.
Can’t check this in the builder now, sorry.

Best,
Victor.

3

Hi Yuki,

The simplest approach is a relationship on the Users collection that points back to Users, an extra property, call it something like “Notify These Users”. When someone is given permission, you add them to that user’s list. Then in the push notification action, instead of picking “All Users”, you target Logged-in User > Notify These Users, so only the people on the list get notified.

So you’re storing the recipients directly on each user as permission is granted, and just selecting that list when the notification fires. Hope that makes sense!