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How To Get Notified When a Form is Submitted in Google Forms

Lee Stanton September 8, 2023

If you send your Google Forms quizzes or surveys without activating notifications, you’ll have to check the spreadsheet for new responses manually. This can be time-consuming and make your work inefficient. Fortunately, you can activate Google Forms notifications.

How To Get Notified When a Form is Submitted in Google Forms

This article explains how to enable Google Forms submission notifications.

Set Up Google Forms Notifications for New Responses

If you want to set up Google Forms for notifications, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s a relatively straightforward process. Here’s how it’s done:

Go to your Google Forms and open an existing form or tap the “Add” icon to create one.
After setting up your form, navigate to the top and tap the “Responses” tab.
Tap the “Three-dots” in the top right corner.
Choose “Get email notification for new responses from the drop-down menu.” With these settings
active, you’ll receive an email when someone fills out the form.

Also, you can activate the settings from the spreadsheet where Google Forms organizes all your responses:

With your form open, tap the “Responses” tab.
Choose “View in sheets” in the top right corner.
When the sheet loads, go to the toolbar and hit the “Tools” tab to show the drop-down menu.
Tap on the “Notification settings” drop-down menu and select “Edit notifications.”
A new window opens from which you can set notification rules. In the first section, select to receive a notification when “A user submits a form.” In the second one, choose to receive an “Email right away.” Hit “Save” when you finish.

The above settings only send a notification to you, the owner or creator of the form. What if you also want the respondent to receive a confirmation that the submission was successful?

Tap the “Settings” tab at the top of the form and navigate to “Presentation.”
Hit the drop-down menu and scroll until you see “After submission.”
Tap “Edit” to the right to open a text box.
Type in the confirmation message you want the respondents to receive after submitting the form and tap “Save.”

Though the above method is better than manually tracking new submissions, the notifications don’t show the form’s content. You’ll have to open Google Forms sheet to view the details. To get more functionalities, you can use add-ons.

Using Google Forms Add-Ons for Email Notifications

Google Forms has a marketplace where you can find third-party add-ons. This is where you should go to install email notification add-ons on your Google Forms.

Email Notifications for Google Forms

Email Notification for Google Forms is one of the best add-ons that allows you to set rules for your notifications. Also, you can use it to receive notifications on your phone. The best part is that the notifications you receive show the form’s contents – you don’t need to go to Google Forms to view the responses. Here’s how you use it:

Installation

Launch your Google Forms and open the form you want to receive notifications for.
Go to the top right corner and tap the “Three vertical dots” menu.
Select “Get add-ons” from the options displayed, which will take you to the marketplace.
Type “Email Notifications for Google Forms” in the search bar. When it shows up on the search results, tap on it.
Select “Install” and follow the on-screen prompts till the installation is complete. When you return to your form, you’ll see an “Add-ons” icon (it resembles a puzzle) at the top. This is where you can access the notification add-on.

Setting up Notifications

With your Google form open, navigate to the top and tap the “Add-ons” icon. Select “Email notifications for Google Forms.”
From the drop-down menu, choose “Create email notifications.” This opens a mini-window to the right where you can configure notification rules.
In the first section, “Form rule name,” enter who should receive the notification. For example, “Notify the respondent and form owner.”
In the next section, enter the email address that should receive notifications when respondents
submit forms. If you have multiple emails, enter them all and separate them with commas.
Next is the email notification template. By default, it shows the respondents’ answers in tabular form. If you’d like to customize it, tap “Edit” beside “Use a visual editor.” This opens the email template designer, where you can customize the subject line and the body text. When you finish, tap “Save.”
The other sections involve checking boxes for different rules:
- Conditional notifications: This is for sending notifications to specific persons based on the response in the form. You can leave this box unchecked (we’ll discuss how to use it shortly).
- Notify form submitter: Check this box because you want the respondents to receive a confirmation message. Also, select the form field containing the email question from the drop-down menu.
- Generate PDF file: If you want to receive the respondents’ forms in PDF format attached to the email notification, check this box.
- Remove add-on branding: This is for users with a premium subscription. It allows you not to show you sent the form via Google Forms.
When you finish, tap “Save” to apply the changes.

Google Form Alternatives

If Google Forms isn’t providing quite what you need, you can always try other solutions like Zoho Forms, Microsoft Forms, or Mighty Forms

Stay Updated

With Google Forms notifications enabled, you can keep real-time data of the forms submitted. With the right know-how, it’s easy to activate the notifications using Google Forms’ notification features. And if you want more features, you can choose Email Notification for Google Forms add-on.

Do you prefer Google Forms’ notification system or add-ons? Why is one or the other best-suited to you? Tell us in the comments section below.