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Alerts and on-call

Notification rules

Notification rules decide how Spectate pages you when an escalation path pages you, as the person on call or by name. Each rule is a method and a time, for example "the Spectate app immediately, a phone call after 2 minutes if not acknowledged". Every member has their own rules, in Account → Notifications.

High and low urgency

You have two lists of rules. Each paging step in an escalation path selects one of them:

Use low urgency for alerts that can wait, for example a branch for low severity alerts outside working hours.

Change your rules

1. In the dashboard, open Account → Notifications.
2. Under High urgency, select a method for each rule.
3. For each rule, select Immediately or After N min if not acknowledged.
4. Select Add rule for each other method, or remove a rule.
5. Do the same under Low urgency.
6. Select Save rules.

Each list has 1 to 10 rules. A rule waits 0 to 60 minutes after the page. If someone acknowledges the alert before that time, Spectate does not send the rule. The same method can be in a list more than one time, for example a phone call after 2 minutes and again after 10 minutes.

Methods

SMS and phone calls use the team's SMS and call credits. Spectate spends them only when it sends the rule. If you acknowledge the alert first, a later SMS or call costs nothing.

If a method cannot reach you, Spectate skips it. For example, it skips SMS when you have no phone number. The dashboard shows "Can't reach you yet" next to that rule. If no rule can reach you, Spectate sends an email.

Before you save rules

Until you save your own rules, Spectate pages you by every method at the same time. These are email, the Spectate app, and Slack or Discord. If you added a phone number, Spectate also sends an SMS or calls you. Both urgencies use these defaults.

Send a test

1. Open Account → Notifications.
2. Under Test your methods, select Send test next to a method.

Spectate sends a test page at once. Use it to check that a phone call gets through Do Not Disturb. A test SMS uses 1 credit and a test call uses 2 credits.

When the alert resolves

Spectate sends each member that a step paged an email, and a push that replaces the page in the Spectate app. It updates the Slack and Discord messages in place.

Shift messages

Shift messages are a reminder before each of your shifts, with Request cover, and a message when the shift starts and ends. Spectate sends them in Slack, Discord and the Spectate app. Choose them in Account → Notifications → Shift messages:

To stop shift messages and cover requests in the Spectate app, clear Shift messages and cover requests in the Spectate app. Pages in the app follow your notification rules.