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Overview

Receive real-time push notifications on your mobile device with the Watchman Tower app. Push notifications are free, work offline, and support rich media including charts, graphs, and quick actions.
Push notifications are included in all plans. Monthly quotas: Free (500), Solo (1,000), Team (5,000), Stack (20,000). Download the mobile app from the App Store or Google Play.

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Getting Started

Download the App

Install Watchman Tower from the App Store or Google Play

Sign In

Log in with your Watchman Tower account credentials

Enable Notifications

Allow notifications when prompted by your device

Configure Per Monitor

Go to any monitor’s detail page → “Notifications” tab → Check “Push” checkbox

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Enabling Push for a Monitor

To receive push notifications for a specific monitor:
  1. Navigate to your monitor’s detail page
  2. Click the “Notifications” tab
  3. Check the “Push” checkbox under channels
  4. Push notifications will now be sent to your mobile device
That’s it! No additional configuration needed. Each monitor can have push notifications enabled or disabled independently.

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Features

Instant Delivery

Receive alerts within 1-2 seconds of detection

Rich Content

View charts, response times, and status graphs directly in notifications

Quick Actions

Acknowledge alerts, pause monitoring, or view details without opening the app

Offline Storage

Notifications are stored locally and accessible even offline

Sound & Vibration

Custom sounds and vibration patterns for different alert severities

Badge Counts

App icon shows unread alert count at a glance

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Notification Types

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Critical Alerts

High-priority notifications for site outages: 
🚨 example.com is DOWN
Response: Connection timeout
Duration: Just now
[View Details] [Acknowledge]
Features:
  • ⏰ Bypasses Do Not Disturb
  • 🔊 Loud alert sound
  • 📳 Strong vibration pattern
  • 🔴 Red notification color

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Warning Alerts

Medium-priority for performance issues: 
⚠️ api.example.com is SLOW
Response time: 3.2s (threshold: 2s)
Duration: 5 minutes
[View Monitor] [Dismiss]
Features:
  • 🔔 Standard notification sound
  • 📳 Normal vibration
  • 🟡 Yellow notification color

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Recovery Notifications

Site is back online: 
✅ example.com is UP
Downtime: 12 minutes
Status: All systems operational
[View Report] [OK]
Features:
  • 🎵 Success sound
  • 📳 Light vibration
  • 🟢 Green notification color

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Info Updates

Non-urgent updates and summaries: 
📊 Daily Summary
8 monitors checked
99.98% uptime
[View Dashboard]
Features:
  • 🔕 Silent (no sound)
  • 📳 No vibration
  • 🔵 Blue notification color

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Notification Settings

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Alert Filtering

Choose which monitors trigger push notifications:
  • All Monitors
  • Critical Only
  • Favorites
  • Custom Groups
Receive notifications for all your monitors

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Severity Levels

Control which severity levels trigger notifications:
  • ✅ Critical - Site down, connection errors (always recommended)
  • ✅ Warning - Performance degradation, slow responses
  • ☑️ Info - SSL expiring, domain expiry warnings
  • ☐ Success - Recovery notifications (optional)

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Quiet Hours

Schedule notification-free periods: 
Quiet Hours: 10:00 PM - 7:00 AM
Days: Every day
Critical Override: Enabled (critical alerts always notify)
Critical alerts can override quiet hours to ensure you’re notified of emergencies. Configure this in Settings → Notifications → Critical Override.

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Quick Actions

Perform actions directly from notifications:

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Acknowledge Alert

Marks alert as seen and stops repeat notifications

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View Details

Opens the app to the monitor detail page

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Pause Monitoring

Temporarily pause checks for 15min, 1hr, or 4hr

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Open Dashboard

Quick access to full dashboard view

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Share Incident

Share incident details with team via Slack, email, etc.

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Rich Notifications

Push notifications include visual data: Response Time Graph:
  • Last 24 hours of response times
  • Trend line showing performance
  • Current vs average comparison
Status Timeline:
  • Visual timeline of up/down periods
  • Downtime duration markers
  • Check frequency indicator
Error Details:
  • HTTP status code
  • Error message
  • Affected regions

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Battery Impact

Push notifications are optimized for minimal battery drain:
  • ⚡ < 2% daily battery usage
  • 🔋 Uses iOS/Android push services (not polling)
  • 💤 Intelligent batching during low activity
  • 📴 Automatic pause when device is offline

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Notification Grouping

Related alerts are automatically grouped: 
📱 example.com (3 alerts)
├─ 🚨 Site is DOWN (2m ago)
├─ ⚠️ SSL expiring in 7 days (1d ago)
└─ ℹ️ Check frequency increased (3d ago)
Tap to expand and view individual alerts.

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Privacy & Permissions

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Required Permissions

  • Notifications - Display alerts (required)
  • Background App Refresh - Receive alerts when app is closed (optional but recommended)
Watchman Tower never accesses your contacts, photos, or other personal data. We only use permissions necessary for monitoring notifications.

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Troubleshooting

Check these settings:
  1. iOS/Android notification permissions enabled
  2. Background App Refresh enabled
  3. Do Not Disturb is off (or critical override enabled)
  4. Internet connection active
  5. App is logged in (check Settings → Account)
Common causes:
  • Low Power Mode enabled (iOS)
  • Battery optimization blocking app (Android)
  • Poor network connection
  • Device in Airplane Mode
Solution: Disable battery optimization for Watchman Tower app.
Verify:
  • Device not in Silent Mode
  • Notification sound not set to “None”
  • Volume is turned up
  • Haptics enabled in device settings
Multiple devices are logged in. This is normal behavior. To disable notifications on specific devices:
  1. Open app on that device
  2. Go to Settings → Notifications
  3. Toggle “Enable Push Notifications” off

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Comparison: Push vs SMS

FeaturePush NotificationsSMS
CostFree0.0075−0.0075 - 0.05 per message
Delivery Speed1-2 seconds5-30 seconds
Rich Content✅ Charts, graphs, quick actions❌ Text only
Offline Access✅ Stored locally❌ Requires cellular
Device RequiredSmartphone with appAny mobile phone
Internet RequiredYesNo (uses cellular)
We recommend push notifications as your primary alert method, with SMS as a backup for critical incidents.

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Next Steps

Download iOS App

Get Watchman Tower for iPhone and iPad

Download Android App

Get Watchman Tower for Android devices

Alert Overview

Learn about all notification channels

SMS Alerts

Set up SMS as backup notification method