diff --git a/src/notification.c b/src/notification.c
index a2fa002..692a88c 100644
--- a/src/notification.c
+++ b/src/notification.c
@@ -326,6 +326,10 @@ int notification_init(notification * n, int id)
 
         n->format = settings.format;
 
+        if (n->category == NULL) {
+                n->category = "";
+        }
+        
         rule_apply_all(n);
 
         n->urls = notification_extract_markup_urls(&(n->body));
@@ -446,10 +450,6 @@ int notification_init(notification * n, int id)
                 n->icon = strdup(settings.icons[n->urgency]);
         }
 
-        if (n->category == NULL) {
-                n->category = "";
-        }
-
         n->timestamp = time(NULL);
 
         n->redisplayed = false;
diff --git a/src/settings.c b/src/settings.c
index 857cb8f..8baeffb 100644
--- a/src/settings.c
+++ b/src/settings.c
@@ -382,6 +382,7 @@ void load_settings(char *cmdline_config_path)
                 r->summary = ini_get_string(cur_section, "summary", r->summary);
                 r->body = ini_get_string(cur_section, "body", r->body);
                 r->icon = ini_get_string(cur_section, "icon", r->icon);
+                r->category = ini_get_string(cur_section, "category", r->category);
                 r->timeout = ini_get_int(cur_section, "timeout", r->timeout);
                 r->allow_markup = ini_get_bool(cur_section, "allow_markup", r->allow_markup);
                 r->plain_text = ini_get_bool(cur_section, "plain_text", r->plain_text);