SMS Notifications

SMS notifications deliver alert messages directly to your phone as text messages. This is especially useful for on-call scenarios where you need to be reached even when you are away from your computer. SMS is available on Starter plans and above.

How it works

SMS notifications are delivered via Twilio. Before you can receive SMS alerts, you need to verify your phone number in Seenty. This ensures that alerts reach the right person and prevents abuse.

SMS is typically used as a secondary channel in your personal notification rules. For example, you might configure your rules so that you receive an email immediately when an incident occurs, followed by an SMS after 5 minutes if you have not acknowledged it.

Setup

Verify your phone number

Before adding SMS to your notification rules, you need to verify your phone number:

Go to Settings > Account.
In the Phone Number section, enter your phone number with the country code (e.g., +1 555 123 4567).
Click Verify.
You will receive a one-time verification code (OTP) via SMS.
Enter the code in Seenty to complete verification.

Phone number verification is tied to your personal account, not the organization. You only need to verify once, and the number is available across all organizations you belong to.

Add SMS to your notification rules

Once your phone number is verified:

Go to Settings > Notification Rules (or Operations > Notification Rules).
Click Add Rule.
Select SMS as the contact method.
Set the delay in minutes. For example, a 5-minute delay means you will receive the SMS 5 minutes after the initial alert, giving you time to respond via email first.
Click Save.

Test SMS delivery

You can trigger a test notification from your notification rules page to confirm that SMS delivery is working correctly.

Configuration options

Delay

The delay setting controls how many minutes after the initial alert the SMS is sent. Common configurations:

0 minutes -- Immediate SMS (useful as a primary alert channel for critical on-call scenarios).
5 minutes -- SMS after 5 minutes if you have not acknowledged the incident via another channel.
15 minutes -- SMS as a final escalation before the alert moves to the next person in the escalation policy.

Multiple rules

You can create multiple SMS rules with different delays. For example:

Email at 0 minutes (immediate)
Push notification at 2 minutes
SMS at 5 minutes
SMS at 15 minutes (second attempt)

Message format

SMS messages are concise to fit within character limits:

[Seenty] INCIDENT: api.example.com is DOWN
Severity: High | Since: 14:30 UTC
Ack: https://app.seenty.com/i/abc123

Messages include:

Alert type and affected resource.
Severity level and timestamp.
A shortened link to acknowledge or view the incident.

International support

Seenty supports SMS delivery to phone numbers worldwide. Standard messaging rates from your carrier may apply -- Seenty does not charge additional fees for SMS delivery.

SMS delivery times can vary by carrier and region. For the most time-sensitive alerts, consider combining SMS with push notifications for faster delivery.

Troubleshooting

Not receiving SMS?

Verify your phone number is correctly entered with the country code.
Check that phone verification was completed successfully (a green checkmark should appear next to your phone number in Settings).
Ensure your phone can receive SMS from short codes or international numbers.
Some carriers block automated messages -- try adding the sender number to your contacts.

SMS arriving late?

SMS delivery depends on your carrier's network. Latency of 5 to 30 seconds is normal.
If delays are consistently long, consider using push notifications as a faster alternative.

Duplicate SMS?

If you have multiple notification rules with SMS at different delays, you will receive separate messages for each rule. This is expected behavior for escalation sequences.

SMS

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