How it works

Watching. A watcher gets Confluence’s usual notifications for the space or page, based on their own notification settings. Watching a space covers all its pages and blog posts. Group Watchers uses the same watch setting as the Watch button in Confluence.

What the app remembers. For each space or page, Group Watchers remembers whether it added a person’s watch, whether the person was already watching, and whether they unwatched after the app added them. That record is what makes the next two points possible.

Unwatch means unwatch. If someone the app added stops watching, the app does not add them back while they stay in the group, even if another rule for the same space or page includes them. The app checks the watches it added once a day; if it has seen that someone unwatched, a later watch they set up themselves is theirs and the app leaves it alone. To start fresh, remove every rule for that space or page, wait for the sync to finish, and add the rule again.

Leavers. When someone leaves every group in a rule, the app removes the watch it added (if Remove watches when people leave is on; while it is off, the watch is kept and the app stops tracking it). Watches people had before Group Watchers, and watches they set up again after unwatching, are never removed. If another rule for the same space or page still includes the person, their watch is kept.

When it runs. Right after you add or remove a rule, every hour, and when you select Sync now. Each run only changes people who joined or left a group since the last run. Large groups are processed in the background, and if Confluence asks apps to slow down, the sync pauses briefly and continues.

Permissions. Confluence checks every watch against the person’s own permissions. Members who cannot see a space or page are skipped and counted in the rule status. They are checked again every 6 hours, and added once they have access.

Limits. - Up to 100 rules, 10 groups per rule and 10,000 members per group. If a group is larger, or a group cannot be read, the rule shows a warning and no one is removed until the group can be read in full. - Only Atlassian user accounts can watch; app accounts and portal-only customers are skipped. - A deleted group is shown in the rule status and counts as having no members, so watches the app added for its members are removed. A deleted space or page is shown in the rule status, and the app makes no changes for it until the rule is removed.

What Group Watchers stores. Its rules, the setting above, a record of the account IDs it has handled for each space or page, and counts from the last sync. Everything stays in Atlassian’s Forge storage; Group Watchers makes no calls outside Atlassian.