Learn Hardcore Russian: Платформа сама присылает уведомления о фильме недели всем, у кого активна подписка. - The platform itself sends notifications about the film of the week to everyone whose subscription is active.

Платформа присылает уведомления… – The platform sends notifications.
With сама:
Платформа сама присылает уведомления… – The platform itself sends notifications (not someone on its behalf).

Why is the verb присылает used instead of посылает or отправляет?

All three can be translated as sends, but they differ in nuance:

присылать / прислать – to send to someone, with more focus on the arrival to the recipient
- Often used for things being delivered to you: emails, notifications, documents, money, etc.
посылать / послать – to send (more general; also used for “to send someone somewhere”)
отправлять / отправить – to dispatch, send off (neutral, often for technical or official contexts)

In присылает уведомления, the idea is:
The platform sends (and they arrive) to users.

It fits well with notifications, emails, SMS messages—things that “come to” someone.

What case is уведомления in, and why that form?

Уведомления is:

nominative plural of уведомление (notification), or
accusative plural (inanimate), which looks the same as nominative plural.

Here it is in the accusative plural, because it is the direct object of the verb присылает:

Кто? Платформа
Что делает? присылает
Что? уведомления

So: присылать (что?) уведомления – to send notifications.

Why is it о фильме недели and not just о фильме or something like о фильме на этой неделе?

The phrase о фильме недели literally means about the movie of (the) week, i.e., the movie of the week.

Grammar:

о requires the prepositional case:
- о фильме (about the movie) – фильм → фильме
недели is genitive singular of неделя (week), showing “of the week”.

So фильм недели = movie of the week.

The whole phrase:

уведомления о фильме недели = notifications about the movie of the week.

О фильме на этой неделе would mean “about the movie this week” and sounds more like “a movie that’s (showing) this week”, not the set category “movie of the week”.

Why is недели in the genitive case here?

Недели is genitive singular because it’s part of a common pattern: one noun defining or qualifying another, like:

классный руководитель – class teacher
песня года – song of the year
человек года – person of the year
фильм недели – movie of the week

In фильм недели, недели answers “of what?”, so it takes the genitive.

This genitive often corresponds to English of-phrases or X of the Y descriptions, especially fixed labels: “book of the month”, “song of the year”, etc.

Why is всем in the dative case?

Всем is the dative plural of все (everyone / all).

Russian uses the dative for the indirect object, the recipient of an action. In English we often use to:

send notifications to everyone
присылать уведомления (кому?) всем

So:

всем = to everyone (as in “to all (people) who have…”).

That’s why it is dative.

How does the structure всем, у кого активна подписка work?

This part means to everyone who has an active subscription.

Breakdown:

всем – to everyone (dative plural)
у кого – literally “by whom / at whom”, but idiomatically “who has”
- у
  - кого (genitive) is a standard Russian way to talk about possession:
    - у меня есть подписка – I have a subscription
    - у кого есть подписка? – who has a subscription?
активна подписка – the subscription is active

So:

всем, у кого активна подписка
= to everyone who has an active subscription

You could also say a more explicit relative clause:

всем, у которых есть активная подписка
(also correct, a bit longer and more formal)

Why is it у кого and not something like кто имеет for “who has”?

Russian typically does not use иметь to express ordinary possession in everyday speech. Instead, it uses:

у + genitive
- есть (optionally)
  - у меня (есть) книга – I have a book
  - у него (есть) подписка – He has a subscription

In questions / clauses:

у кого есть подписка? – who has a subscription?
все, у кого есть подписка – everyone who has a subscription

So у кого = who has, in context.

Кто имеет подписку is grammatically possible but sounds formal, bookish, or unusual in everyday language. The у кого construction is the natural choice.

Why is it активна подписка and not активная подписка?

Активна here is a short-form adjective, while активная is the full-form adjective.

активная подписка – active subscription (used as an attribute before a noun)
подписка активная – the subscription is active (full form used predicatively, often with some emphasis)
подписка активна – the subscription is active (short-form adjective, more neutral and typical in such predicate statements)

In у кого активна подписка, the structure is:

(у кого) [subject] подписка – subscription
(что делает / какова?) активна – is active

So it’s like saying: “for whom the subscription is active”.

Short-form adjectives are standard in such “state” descriptions:

Дверь открыта. – The door is open.
Он прав. – He is right.
Подписка активна. – The subscription is active.

Why is there no есть (is) after активна?

In the present tense, Russian usually omits есть (the verb “to be”) in simple X is Y sentences.

So instead of:

Подписка есть активна. (incorrect / unnatural)

Russian says:

Подписка активна. – The subscription is active.
У меня подписка активна. – My subscription is active.
У кого активна подписка. – who has an active subscription (literally “for whom the subscription is active”)

Only in some special contexts (emphasis, existence) is есть used:

У меня есть подписка. – I have a subscription.
Есть проблема. – There is a problem.

So its absence here is just normal Russian grammar.

Why is the word order Платформа сама присылает уведомления, and could we say Сама платформа присылает… instead?

Word order in Russian is more flexible than in English and is often used for emphasis.

Платформа сама присылает уведомления…
– neutral theme: Платформа (the platform)
– focus/emphasis on сама: it does it itself.
Сама платформа присылает уведомления…
– strong emphasis on сама платформа as a unit:
“It’s the platform itself (not some external service, not admins) that sends notifications…”
– this feels more contrastive, as if answering “Who sends them?” or correcting someone.

Both are grammatical; the given sentence is relatively neutral but still clearly emphasizes automatic/self action.

You wouldn’t usually say Платформа присылает сама уведомления; that sounds awkward, because сама naturally sticks to the subject (платформа).

What gender is платформа, and how does it affect сама and присылает?

Платформа is feminine in Russian:

Ends in -а, and its grammatical gender is feminine.

Effects:

Pronoun/adjective сам agrees in gender:
- masculine: сам
- feminine: сама
- neuter: само
- plural: сами

Since платформа is feminine, we use сама:
Платформа сама…

The verb присылает is in 3rd person singular; it doesn’t show gender in present tense:

она присылает – she/it (fem.) sends
он присылает – he sends
оно присылает – it (neut.) sends

So gender shows up in сама, not in присылает.

Why is there a comma before у кого?

The comma separates the main clause from a relative clause (or subordinate clause):

Main clause:
Платформа сама присылает уведомления о фильме недели всем
– The platform itself sends notifications about the movie of the week to everyone
Subordinate clause:
у кого активна подписка
– who has an active subscription

The subordinate clause у кого активна подписка describes/restricts всем (everyone). Russian punctuation rules require a comma to separate such clauses from the main part of the sentence.

Could the sentence also be written as Платформа сама рассылает уведомления…? What would change?

Yes, you could say:

Платформа сама рассылает уведомления о фильме недели всем, у кого активна подписка.

Рассылать also means to send out / distribute widely, often to many recipients (a mailing, a mass notification).

Nuance:

присылает уведомления – more from the recipient’s point of view (“sends them to you / they arrive to you”).
рассылает уведомления – from the sender’s point of view, emphasizing mass distribution.

Both are correct; рассылать makes the “mass mailing” idea a bit stronger.