How do I watch JIRA issues but limit only to comments and description edits?

[Phil]

When I watch JIRA issues, I get too much information in my emails such as status updates and field updates (priority, fix version etc). I am only interested in comments (create/edit) and description edits. What is the easiest way to achieve this? Does it have to be through the notification scheme? (I am not an administrator)

[Matthew Knatz]

The notifications sent to watchers are set in the notification scheme and based on issue events. You are pretty limited on what you can specify: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/configure-notification-schemes/ 

Also these are global settings meaning they will affect all users in all projects that use this notification scheme. You can't personalize watcher notifications on a per-user basis using default Jira. 

The best way to get what you're asking for would be to use the Automation for Jira plugin. An example of exactly what you're looking for in terms of notifications exists here: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Receive-notification-when-description-updated/qaq-p/852817

[Phil]

Thanks Matthew. It seems like it's not a simple setup. After much cogitating on this one, I decided to use email filters on Gmail to simply delete anything that does not have 'comment' or 'status update'. It's not perfect but it's sufficient as a workaround for now.