diff --git a/appview/pages/templates/user/settings/notifications.html b/appview/pages/templates/user/settings/notifications.html
index add0b4215..ab933c4b8 100644
--- a/appview/pages/templates/user/settings/notifications.html
+++ b/appview/pages/templates/user/settings/notifications.html
@@ -160,8 +160,14 @@
           <div class="flex flex-col gap-1">
             <span class="font-bold">Email notifications</span>
             <div class="flex text-sm items-center gap-1 text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">
-              <span>Receive notifications via email in addition to in-app notifications.</span>
+              <span>Receive digest emails for issue and pull request activity.</span>
             </div>
+            {{ if not .HasVerifiedEmail }}
+              <div class="flex text-sm items-center gap-1 text-amber-600 dark:text-amber-400 mt-1">
+                {{ i "triangle-alert" "w-3.5 h-3.5 shrink-0" }}
+                <span>You need a <a href="/settings/emails" class="underline">verified email address</a> to receive email notifications.</span>
+              </div>
+            {{ end }}
           </div>
         </div>
         <label class="flex items-center gap-2">
diff --git a/appview/settings/settings.go b/appview/settings/settings.go
index d211c5bcc..8a1a25e3b 100644
--- a/appview/settings/settings.go
+++ b/appview/settings/settings.go
@@ -290,9 +290,13 @@ func (s *Settings) notificationsSettings(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request)
 		return
 	}
 
+	primaryEmail, emailErr := db.GetPrimaryEmail(s.Db, did)
+	hasVerifiedEmail := emailErr == nil && primaryEmail.Verified
+
 	s.Pages.UserNotificationSettings(w, pages.UserNotificationSettingsParams{
-		BaseParams:  pages.BaseParamsFromContext(r.Context()),
-		Preferences: prefs,
+		BaseParams:       pages.BaseParamsFromContext(r.Context()),
+		Preferences:      prefs,
+		HasVerifiedEmail: hasVerifiedEmail,
 	})
 }