Alerts¶

The Alerts screen lists every alert on your account and shows which ones are active right now. You can also edit an alert's basic settings, create an alert on a channel, and open an alert straight from the link in an alert text or email.

For how alerts work in general (thresholds, delays, hysteresis, who gets notified), see How alerts work.

You can't acknowledge alerts in the app

The app has no Acknowledge button. To acknowledge an alert, reply to the alert text, press 1 when the alert calls you, or acknowledge it in the web portal. See Acknowledging alerts.

See your alerts¶

Open the menu (☰) and tap Alerts.

Each alert shows an icon, its name, and the location and device it watches:

Icon	Meaning
Green check	The alert is not active
Red warning triangle	The alert is active
Blue snooze icon	The device's alerts are snoozed (see Devices)

Type in Search... to filter. The search matches the alert name, device name, serial and part number, location, and channel number and name.
Pull down to refresh the list. The screen does not refresh by itself.

Alert details¶

Tap the arrow at the left of an alert to expand it. You see:

Trigger: the alert's rule, written as the portal stores it. For example, OnThreshold(50.0,>2.0,text,email) means "above 50, with a hysteresis of 2, notify by text and email", and OnInactivity(text) means "alert when the device stops reporting, notify by text".
Device ID: the device's serial number.
Channel: the channel number and name.
Status: Enabled or Disabled.
The latest event: Active (red) or Cleared (green), with its Timestamp.

The app shows only the latest event. For the full history and notes, use the web portal (see Alert history and notes).

Edit an alert¶

You can edit an alert from the Alerts screen (the gear on the alert) or from the Devices screen (the gear on an alert under a channel). Both open a dialog titled Edit Alert Configuration, but the two dialogs are laid out differently.

Editing alerts needs the account's Add/Edit Alert Contacts role. Without it, an Access Denied message names the role you need. See Roles and permissions.

Before you edit an alert in the app, read What the app can't change.

From the Alerts screenFrom the Devices screen

Field	What it does
Alert Name	The name shown in lists and in notifications
Enabled?	Ticked: the alert is armed. Unticked: the alert is off and notifies no one
Bitmask	For channels that pack several on/off states into one number. Leave it at 65535 unless you know you need it
Send Via: Email / Text	How the alert's contacts are notified
Alert Contacts:	Who is notified. Tap + to add a contact, X (Delete) to remove one
Trigger Alert:	Immediately, or Time Threshold... to wait until the condition has lasted a number of minutes
Time Threshold (minutes)	Shown with Time Threshold.... How long the condition must last before the alert fires
Trigger On:	Threshold (a value crosses a limit) or Inactivity (the device stops reporting)
If value is: > / <	Threshold alerts only. Alert above (>) or below (<) the threshold
Threshold	Threshold alerts only. The limit, in the channel's units
Hysteresis	Threshold alerts only. How far back across the threshold the value must come before the alert clears
Message:	The text sent with the alert

Field	What it does
Alert Name	The name shown in lists and in notifications
Bitmask	For channels that pack several on/off states into one number. Leave it at 65535 unless you know you need it
Enabled? Yes / No	Whether the alert is armed
Send Alert Via: Text / Email	How the alert's contacts are notified
Alert Contacts	Who is notified. Tap + to add a contact, Delete to remove one
Repeat Notifications?	Has no effect. Leave it on Once (see the note below)
Alert Trigger Delay	Immediately, or Time Threshold... to wait until the condition has lasted a number of minutes
Time Threshold	How long, in minutes, the condition must last before the alert fires
Trigger On	OnThreshold (a value crosses a limit) or OnInactivity (the device stops reporting)
If value is... Greater than / Less than	Threshold alerts only
Value Threshold	Threshold alerts only. The limit, in the channel's units
Hysteresis	Threshold alerts only. How far back across the threshold the value must come before the alert clears
Alert Notification Message:	The text sent with the alert

Note

Repeat Notifications? (Once, Every 5 Minutes, Every 30 Minutes) no longer does anything: Whisker.io does not repeat alert notifications. An alert notifies once when it fires. To make sure someone responds, use a schedule group with one-at-a-time texting in the web portal (see Schedule groups).

To add a contact, tap +, pick a name in the Select a Alert Contact list, and tap Select. Only existing alert contacts are listed; to add a new person, see Contacts and users.

When you are done, tap Save. Tap Close to leave without saving.

What the app can't change¶

The web portal's alert editor has settings the app does not show. Saving an alert in the app leaves most of them as they were, with one exception:

Setting (web portal)	What happens when you save in the app
Schedule group and Text delivery options	Kept. The alert still notifies its schedule group the same way
Contacts, for an alert that uses a schedule group	Your changes to Alert Contacts are ignored. The group decides who is notified. Change the group in the web portal
Contacts, for an alert where contacts were picked individually	Your changes apply
No readings for (inactivity alerts)	Reset to 120 minutes. If an inactivity alert uses a different time, edit it in the web portal instead

Tip

For anything beyond a quick threshold change, such as changing who is on call, delays for escalation, or voice calls, use the web portal. See Creating and editing alerts and Alert contacts.

Turn an alert off¶

The app cannot delete an alert. To stop an alert, edit it and untick Enabled? (or choose No from the Devices screen), then tap Save. To silence a device for a while without changing its alerts, snooze it instead.

Create an alert on a channel¶

New alerts are created from the Devices screen, on the channel you want to watch.

Open Devices, find the device, and expand it.
On the channel, tap Add alert (the red bell with a plus).
The Add Alert Configuration dialog opens. It has the same fields as editing from the Devices screen (see Edit an alert).
Fill in at least Alert Name, the trigger, and for a threshold alert the Value Threshold and Hysteresis.
Tick Text and/or Email under Send Alert Via:, and add at least one contact with +.
Tap Save.

Note

Alerts created in the app notify the contacts you pick. To put a new alert on a schedule group, or to use one-at-a-time texting, create it in the web portal, or open it there after creating it in the app and choose the group. New inactivity alerts wait 120 minutes without a reading before they fire.

Open an alert from a text or email¶

Alert texts and emails can include a link such as https://www.whisker.io/a/12345. On a phone with the app installed, tap the link to open the alert in the app. If you are signed out, sign in and the alert opens.

The Alert Detail screen shows:

Item	Meaning
Name and badge	ACTIVE (the alert is active now), CLEARED (it fired and has cleared) or IDLE (it has never fired)
Device	The device the alert watches
Location	Where the device is
Threshold	The limit that triggers the alert
Sustain (min)	How long the condition must last before the alert fires
Message	The alert's message, if it has one
Last event	When the alert last fired or cleared, or No history on record
Alert id	The alert's number. Quote it if you contact support

If the screen says Couldn't load this alert., the alert may belong to a different account from the one you are signed in to, or it may have been deleted. Tap Try again, or sign in with the right account.

Note

Alert Detail is for reading only. To acknowledge the alert, reply to the text, press 1 on the call, or use the web portal.

If the app is not installed, the link opens a web page instead, offering to open or install the app. See Installing and signing in.