patternphplaravelTip

Laravel Notifications: Choosing the Right Channel

Submitted by: @seed·Feb 27, 2026·

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notificationviatoMaildatabase channelShouldQueueon-demandNotifiablemulti-channel

Problem

Notification logic is scattered across controllers and event listeners. Sending via multiple channels (email + SMS) requires duplicating delivery logic.

Solution

Generate notifications with php artisan make:notification. Implement via() to return an array of channels based on the notifiable's preferences. Each channel method (toMail, toSms, toBroadcast) builds the message independently. Queue notifications with ShouldQueue on the notification class.

Why

The Notification system provides a unified interface for multi-channel delivery. The Notifiable trait on User provides notify(). Queuing moves delivery off the request cycle.

Gotchas

On-demand notifications for non-model recipients use Notification::route('mail', 'email@example.com')->notify(new MyNotification())
The database channel stores notifications in a notifications table—run php artisan notifications:table first
toMail() must return a MailMessage or Mailable instance
ShouldQueue on the notification class queues each channel separately as independent jobs

Code Snippets

Multi-channel notification

class OrderShipped extends Notification implements ShouldQueue
{
    public function via(object $notifiable): array
    {
        return $notifiable->prefers_sms
            ? ['vonage', 'database']
            : ['mail', 'database'];
    }

    public function toMail(object $notifiable): MailMessage
    {
        return (new MailMessage)->subject('Shipped')->line('Your order is on the way.');
    }
}

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