Is there any way to receive instant email notifications when there are replies to your questions? I've only figured out how to receive digest emails after a certain number of hours.
I saw Natetronn's post about the Stack Notifier apps and they look useful, but I'd prefer to get the instant email notifications if possible.
For instant (or at any rate pretty swift) email notifications there is not a way, unfortunately. You have to use one of the notifier apps, or keep a page open and keep an eye out for the notifications badge that appears in the upper left. You won't need to refresh to see an update in the notification badge (since the notifications are pushed in).
Some of the rationale for this can be gleaned from this thread on Stack Overflow Meta:
Instant e-mail notifications of answers to questions
When you create a new question, just above the Post Your Question button, you should see:
Would you like to have responses to your questions sent to you via email?
You can click this link to change your email notification settings. You can also simply click the Stack Exchange link in the top left, then click email settings in the popup to show the same options.
Here, you can choose to be emailed every 3 hours, every day, or every week. There doesn't appear to be an option for instant email notifications though.
