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

Documentation and Support – Setup walkthrough and usage guides for every Wbcom plugin

Translations

English (default)
Ready for translation in your language with the included POT file
RTL language support included

Compatibility

WordPress 6.5 and higher
PHP 8.0 and higher
BuddyPress required – the plugin deactivates itself and explains why if BuddyPress is not active
Compatible with BuddyPress Nouveau and Legacy templates
Works with modern WordPress themes, including BuddyX and Reign

What’s New in 2.1.0

The “who liked this” line is now yours to shape. A new Display tab lets you keep the familiar inline usernames, swap them for a compact icon and count, or make that count open the full list of members. You can also change the icon itself: a heart reads as the Like reaction to many members, so a star or bookmark keeps favorites visually distinct.

The full list now pages through with a Load more control instead of stopping at the first 50 members, which matters once an activity collects thousands of likes. Nothing changes on update unless you change the setting: existing sites keep inline usernames.

What’s New in 2.0.1

Member notification preferences now actually work. Until this release a member who turned favorite notifications off still received them on every channel: the check that was meant to read their choice returned “enabled” for any request made through admin-ajax, which is exactly how BuddyPress favoriting works. Two further paths ignored the preference as well. If your members have complained that switching notifications off does nothing, this is the release that fixes it.

The admin is also rebuilt on the unified Wbcom card-panel interface under the shared “WB Plugins” menu, frontend colours follow your theme palette instead of fixed literals, and every surface mirrors correctly under RTL. The dead “Enhanced Notifications” toggle has been removed: BuddyPress strips notification markup down to a plain link, so the option could never change what members saw. German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese (Brazil) translations are included, and the text domain is now registered so they load at all.

More Free Tools from Wbcom Designs

Favorite Notification closes the loop the second a member’s activity gets liked, turning small moments of appreciation into the real-time nudges that pull people back to your site. That retention loop pays off most when there is a community worth returning to, and these other free tools from Wbcom Designs help you build one:

BuddyX – A free, fast community theme for BuddyPress, BuddyBoss and PeepSo with a modern layout and dark mode.
BuddyNext – Stand up a complete WordPress community with activity streams, member spaces, profiles, direct messaging, and built-in moderation.
Jetonomy – Add forums, question-and-answer boards, and idea spaces that stay tidy through trust-based auto-moderation even past 100,000 topics.
Mediaverse – Let members build photo and video albums, react, follow each other, and message privately while AI moderation keeps things clean.
Eventonomy – Run community events with RSVPs, calendars, and front-end submissions.
WB Gamification – Reward members with points, badges, and leaderboards to keep engagement high.
Listora – Publish searchable directories across ten listing types with reviews, maps, and member-submitted entries from the front end.
WP Career Board – Add a job board with front-end listings, applications, and employer profiles.
Learnomy – Build and sell online courses, auto-grade quizzes, collect payments, and award certificates when learners finish.

BuddyPress Favorite Notification