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Free Plugin by Varun Dubey v2.1.0

BuddyPress Favorite Notification

Notify BuddyPress members when someone favorites their activity or comment, with realtime popups and email alerts.

BuddyPress Favorite Notification

The facts

Rating
5★ from 5
Active installs
80+
Price
Free
Last updated
31 Jul 2026
Added
Aug 2015
Requires WP
6.5
Tested up to
WP 7.0.4
Requires PHP
8.0
Downloads
25,571

Our analysis

AI-assisted

BuddyPress Favorite Notification is a WordPress plugin designed to enhance community engagement by notifying content authors when their activities or comments are favorited. It provides real-time notifications through BuddyPress alerts, optional emails, and popups, allowing authors to see appreciation immediately. The plugin also features a dashboard for site owners to track trending content and user interactions.

This plugin is suitable for BuddyPress communities looking to improve member interactions and feedback mechanisms. It offers various display options for favorite counts and allows members to manage their notification preferences easily.

Best for: This plugin is best for BuddyPress community sites aiming to enhance member engagement.

What it does well

  • Real-time notifications for favorited content
  • Customizable display options for favorite counts
  • Admin dashboard with trending activity stats
  • Member preferences for notification settings
  • Developer-friendly with action and filter hooks

Where it falls short

  • Requires BuddyPress to function
  • No information on support or documentation

Verdict

BuddyPress Favorite Notification provides useful features for community interaction, making it a valuable addition for those using BuddyPress.

From the developer

Varun Dubey's own description of BuddyPress Favorite Notification, lightly tidied.

BuddyPress Favorite Notification closes the feedback loop in your community. When a member favorites an activity or a comment, the author is told about it right away through BuddyPress notifications, an optional email, and a realtime popup that appears without a page refresh.

It also adds a Facebook-style “who liked this” line under each activity, and gives site owners a dashboard showing what is trending. BuddyPress is required.

What you get

Notifications when content is appreciated
* A BuddyPress notification to the author whenever their activity or comment is favorited.
* Realtime on-screen popups powered by the WordPress Heartbeat API, with an AJAX fallback, so a member sees the favorite as it happens.
* HTML email alerts with separate templates for favorited activities and favorited comments.
* No notification when you favorite your own content.
* Works with all BuddyPress activity types, including group activities, blog posts, and comments.

Favorite count display
* Three display modes, chosen in Settings: inline usernames (“John, Jane, and 10 others”), an icon with the count, or an icon and count that opens the full list.
* A choice of favorite icon – heart, star, bookmark, thumbs up, or none – so favorites are not mistaken for the Like reaction.
* A “View all” modal listing the members who favorited an activity, with clickable profile links. It loads a page at a time with a Load more control, so it stays usable on activities with thousands of likes. Set the page size with the bpfn_favorites_modal_per_page filter.
* Updates over AJAX as members like and unlike, with a 5-minute cache so the line loads instantly.
* The favorite display is shown to logged-in members only.

Admin dashboard
* Overview stats: total favorites, notifications sent, active users, and the most liked activity.
* Recent favorites from the last 7 days.
* Trending activities over the last 7 days and the last 30 days, top 10 each, with rank, content preview, author, and a direct link.

Tools and maintenance
* Automatic monthly cleanup of old read notifications, on by default, with a retention period of 7, 15, 30, 60, or 90 days.
* A manual cleanup button, the last cleanup result, and the next scheduled run.
* Chunked background migration of existing favorites, processed in batches so large sites do not time out, with progress tracking and a log.

Built for larger communities
* A custom, indexed favorites table for fast lookups instead of scanning user meta.
* Object caching on the favorite counts and the who-liked queries.

Member preferences
* Members get a Settings > Favorite Notifications screen in their BuddyPress profile where they can turn favorite notifications on or off per activity type (posts, comments) and per channel (web, email, realtime).
* Turning a channel off stops that notification. Notifications are on by default, so members only visit this screen if they want less.

Developer friendly
* Action and filter hooks throughout, including bpfn_notification_string, bpfn_email_from_name, and bpfn_email_from_email.
* Display hooks for full control of the favorite line: bpfn_favorite_icon_html, bpfn_favorite_display_format, bpfn_favorite_display_html, bpfn_display_modes, and bpfn_favorite_icons.
* Email templates can be overridden from your theme.
* Modular architecture with separate notification, email, realtime, settings, admin, and favorite display modules.
* Translation ready with an included POT file, and RTL support.

Perfect For

  • BuddyPress communities that want members to know when their posts land well
  • Social networks where engagement and return visits matter
  • Membership sites that use the activity stream as the main feed
  • Any BuddyPress site that wants to see what content is trending

Premium Support

Our support team is ready to help with setup, configuration, and troubleshooting. Reach us through the links below.

Documentation

Read the full description on the official page →

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