Get alerted and resolve incidents with AI SRE on the go

Download the apps from the App Store or Google Play

• Alerts that wake you up: critical alerts sound even when your phone is on silent or in Do Not Disturb, and can repeat until you deal with them.
• Act from the notification: tap Acknowledge, Resolve or I'm unavailable without opening the app.
• Resolve with AI SRE: investigate an incident with AI SRE right from your phone.
• Live status on iPhone: follow the incident on the lock screen and in the Dynamic Island.

Connecting the mobile apps

1. Download the apps from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Open the app and sign in with your work e-mail or single sign-on.
3. Tap Allow notifications when the app asks.

iOS walkthrough

See how to connect the iOS app and set up alerts that bypass silent mode.

Android walkthrough

See how to connect the Android app and set up alerts that bypass silent mode.

Configuring push notifications

Get notified using push notifications and critical alerts for any of your monitors, heartbeats, or integrations.

1. Go to Incidents -> Monitors.
2. Click any monitor and select Configure.
3. Under How should we escalate incidents?, keep Notify the primary responder selected.
4. Under How should we notify the primary responder?, tick both Push notification and Critical alert.

Each phone then gets the kind of alert it's set up for in the app. If you tick only Push notification, phones with Critical alerts turned on get a regular notification instead.

Using an escalation policy?

With an escalation policy selected, notification channels come from the policy's severities.

Configuring notifications in the app

Open the app and tap Settings. Notification settings apply to the organization you're in, on this phone only. If you're in more than one organization, set them up in each.

• Push notifications: get alerts as regular notifications.
• Notification sound: pick the sound for regular notifications.
• Critical alerts: get high-priority alerts that break through Do Not Disturb.
• Critical alert sound: pick the sound for critical alerts.
• Bypass silent mode: critical alerts sound even when your phone is on silent or vibrate.
• Override system volume: critical alerts play at the volume you set with the slider below it, whatever your phone's volume is.
• Repeat alert sound: a critical alert keeps sounding until you tap it.
• Show Live Activities: on iPhone, show the incident's status on the lock screen.

Bypass silent mode, Override system volume and Repeat alert sound need Critical alerts turned on.

Android: make sure critical alerts get through

The app asks for Do Not Disturb access when you set it up. If you skipped it, open your phone's Settings, search for Do Not Disturb access, tap Better Stack On-call and turn on Allow Do Not Disturb.

To keep your phone from holding back alerts to save battery, see Get alerts on time on Android.

Repeat alerts until you wake up

Turn on Repeat alert sound and a critical alert keeps sounding until you deal with it. It stops when you tap the notification, open the app or answer the alert phone call. It also stops when someone acknowledges or resolves the incident. A phone call that goes to voicemail doesn't stop it.

Turn voicemail off for the most reliable alerts

Disable voicemail to make sure phone call alerts always reach you. Prefer to keep voicemail enabled? Enable critical alerts and disable calls in Settings → Alerts

Send a test alert to your phone

Check that alerts reach a phone without waiting for an incident. The test alert goes to that one phone only.

1. Go to Settings → Alerts
2. Under Push notifications, open the phone's ⋯ menu and select Send test alert.
3. Click Critical alert to test an alert that cuts through silent mode and Do Not Disturb, or Push notification to test a regular one.

Check that the phone got it. If we couldn't deliver it, the page says so and tells you what to do next.

Apple Watch notifications

While your iPhone is locked and you wear your Apple Watch, iOS sends alerts to the watch and your iPhone stays silent. This applies to critical alerts too. Alerts on the watch use the default sound and don't repeat, so they're easier to miss while you sleep.

To always get alerts on your iPhone:

1. In the Better Stack app, open Settings and tap Always receive alerts on iPhone.
2. Under Forwarding, turn off your Apple Watch.

Remove a phone you don't use anymore

Once you remove a phone, we stop sending notifications to it.

1. Go to Settings → Alerts
2. Under Push notifications, open the phone's ⋯ menu and select Remove.
3. Click Remove to confirm.

When notifications stop reaching your phone

When one of your phones stops getting notifications, we e-mail you so you don't miss an incident. You get the e-mail when all of these are true:

• A notification failed to reach the phone more than a day ago, and none has reached it since.
• None of your other phones has received a notification or test alert since that failure.
• You're in an on-call schedule, or an escalation policy sends you push notifications or critical alerts.

While it keeps failing, we e-mail you again every week. If you opened the Better Stack app on the phone in the last 30 days, a banner in Incidents shows the same warning too. Click Send test alert in the e-mail or the banner to check the phone, or I don't use this phone anymore to remove it.

The e-mails and the banner stop as soon as one of these is no longer true, for example once a notification or test alert reaches the phone or you remove it.