System and method for managing updates at clients used by a user to access a cloud-based collaboration service are disclosed. In one aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure include a method, which may be implemented on a system, for storing a representation of the action to queues of clients associated with the user in a distributed database cluster based on an action type of an action performed by a collaborator of the user. The clients of the user are selected based on the client category and the action type of the action, to receive a notification as a result of the action or to perform a synchronization with changes that occurred as a result of the action.