Notification channels
Compare app push at launch, email, SMS, browser alerts, and voice calls, and understand how to acknowledge an incident.
Updated October 9, 2026
FreshControls supports app push, email, SMS, browser notifications, and automated voice calls. Mobile app push will be available at launch. Choose recipients and channels in notification settings and escalation policies.
Channels that reach your team
- Email — a full alarm record with the device, site, reading, and threshold. Good for a paper trail and for people who live in their inbox. Available on every plan.
- App push, at launch — an alert on a registered phone with notification permission enabled. Tap an alarm notification to open its incident in the app. Available on every plan.
- SMS — a text message for people who are not at a screen. Useful for on-call staff moving around a site. Available on every plan. Allowances, paid-message eligibility, and fallback behavior depend on your plan and notification settings; review the current policy and rates on the pricing page.
- Voice — an automated phone call for the alarms you cannot afford to have missed. This is the channel most operators reserve for overnight and high-severity events. Voice calls are included from the Professional plan up, with an included monthly allowance and a per-call rate beyond it.
Desktop alerts in the dashboard
The web dashboard can raise a browser notification for a new critical alarm while the dashboard is open in a background tab. Grant browser permission from Settings → Notifications. Use app push, email, SMS, or voice to reach staff who are away from the dashboard.
Mobile notification permissions
Enable app notifications when prompted and check the device’s notification settings if alerts are missing. Operating-system settings, connectivity, and registration affect delivery. Opening an alert lets you review the incident; tapping it does not automatically acknowledge the alarm.
Acknowledgement pauses escalation
Acknowledging records that someone is responding and pauses paging according to the incident’s recorded policy. It does not resolve the alarm or confirm that conditions are safe. If re-escalation is enabled and the incident stays open, notifications can resume after the configured pause. Use the confirmation link in an email, the reply code in an SMS, the voice-call prompt, or the acknowledge action in the app. Push and browser alerts open the app; acknowledge the incident there.
Choosing channels per severity
A common setup:
- Low severity — email only, so routine warnings do not wake anyone.
- High severity — email and SMS, escalating to a voice call and a second person if the first does not acknowledge quickly.
Match the noise of the channel to the cost of the event, and your team keeps trusting the alarms instead of muting them.
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