FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about NotiLens. Can't find an answer? Contact us.
General
What is NotiLens? +
NotiLens is a smart alerting platform that watches your business — Stripe payments, Shopify orders, servers, GitHub activity, AI agents, and more — and notifies you the instant something needs attention. Even when nothing happens and it should.
How is NotiLens different from other alerting tools? +
Most alerting tools are built around infrastructure and server monitoring — they're complex to set up and designed for large engineering teams. NotiLens is built for founders, small teams, and builders who need business-level alerts across payments, orders, AI agents, and operations — all in one simple place, without the overhead.
What are Smart Signal Alerts? +
Smart Signal Alerts notify you only when meaningful conditions occur — such as thresholds being crossed, state changes, missing activity, or unusual behavior — instead of every raw event. This eliminates noise and keeps your team focused.
Do I need to write code to get started? +
No. You can set up NotiLens in minutes using one-click integrations. For custom systems, you can use webhooks, the MCP server, or our SDK.
Are mobile apps available? +
Yes. NotiLens is available on iOS and Android with real-time push notifications and full sync across all your devices.
Can I receive notifications on multiple devices? +
Yes. Notifications are delivered to iPhone, iPad, Android, mobile web, and desktop browsers simultaneously.
Notifications & Alerts
Are topics secure? +
Yes. Each topic has a secret key that must be passed when sending notifications. You can also disable the secret key if your use case requires it.
Can multiple users subscribe to a single topic? +
Yes. Multiple users can subscribe to and receive notifications from the same topic. Great for team-wide alerts.
Is acknowledgement (ACK) supported? +
Yes. Notifications can require acknowledgement. For urgent or warning alerts, the app sends repeated reminders every 5 minutes until you or a teammate acknowledges them.
Can I open links or download files from notifications? +
Yes. Notifications can include a URL or file link that opens directly from the alert. Useful for linking to dashboards, reports, or documents.
Can I get a summary instead of individual notifications? +
Yes. You can receive notification digests — hourly or daily — depending on your plan. Summaries group activity so you're not interrupted for every single event.
On-Call & Escalation NEW
What is on-call scheduling? +
On-call scheduling lets you define a rotating roster of team members who are responsible for responding to alerts during their assigned slot. NotiLens automatically tracks who is on-call right now and routes notifications to them.
What rotation types are supported? +
Weekly, daily, and custom rotation lengths are supported. You set a rotation start date and the system handles the rest — no manual updates needed when a new cycle begins.
Can I set a schedule to only be active during certain hours or days? +
Yes. Each schedule can have active time windows (e.g. Mon–Fri, 9am–6pm in the owner's timezone). Outside those windows NotiLens falls back to the account-level schedule or sends to all subscribers.
What are overrides? +
Overrides let you swap on-call coverage for a specific time range — useful for holidays, vacations, or ad-hoc swaps. The override takes priority over the regular rotation for that period.
What are escalation policies? +
An escalation policy defines a chain of steps that fire if an alert isn't acknowledged. For example: notify the on-call person immediately → if no ACK in 10 minutes, notify the team lead → if still no ACK, page everyone. Each step has a configurable delay.
Can I assign different escalation policies to different topics? +
Yes. You can set a default account-level policy and override it per topic. Critical topics can have aggressive escalation while low-priority topics use a more relaxed policy.
Are on-call schedules timezone-aware? +
Yes. Active time windows are evaluated in the schedule owner's timezone. Rotation start times are stored in UTC and converted correctly regardless of where team members are located.
Do Not Disturb NEW
What is Do Not Disturb (DND)? +
DND lets each user define quiet periods when they don't want to receive notifications — for example, nights, weekends, or holidays. Notifications sent during a DND window are silently skipped for that user.
Can I set different DND hours for each day of the week? +
Yes. You can configure per-day schedules — for example, Mon–Fri 10pm–8am and full Saturday/Sunday. Each day can have multiple time slots, and overnight slots (e.g. 10pm–6am) are supported.
Can I block out a full holiday or vacation period? +
Yes. Full DND periods let you set a from/to date range where all notifications are silenced for the duration — ideal for holidays or time off.
Does DND affect on-call routing? +
DND is checked per-user when routing notifications. If the on-call person has DND active, the escalation policy kicks in to ensure coverage — notifications aren't simply dropped for critical alerts.
Is DND timezone-aware? +
Yes. DND windows are evaluated in each user's configured timezone, so a team distributed across time zones each gets quiet hours at the right local time.
Team & Collaboration
Can I invite teammates to my NotiLens account? +
Yes. You can invite team members by email. Each member can be assigned to specific topics and given a role (admin or member).
Can I control which topics a team member sees? +
Yes. Admins can assign each team member to specific topics, so team member only receive alerts relevant to their area.
Can a team member be on multiple on-call schedules? +
Yes. A user can appear in multiple schedules across different topics or time windows.
Integrations
What integrations does NotiLens support? +
NotiLens integrates with Stripe, Shopify, GitHub, server monitoring, AI agents, and more. You can also connect any system via webhooks, the REST API, MCP server, or our SDK.
What is the MCP server? +
The MCP (Model Context Protocol) server lets AI agents and LLM-based tools send notifications directly to NotiLens without writing custom code. It's designed for AI agent workflows that need to surface important events to humans.
Can I send notifications from my own backend? +
Yes. Use the REST API or our SDK to send notifications programmatically from any language or framework. Include a title, message, priority level, URL, and more.
Pricing & Plans
Is NotiLens free? +
NotiLens offers a 7-day free trial with no credit card required. After the trial ends, choose a plan to keep your alerts running. No auto-charges, no surprises.
Which plan includes on-call and escalation features? +
On-call scheduling and escalation policies are available on the Team plan and above.
Can I cancel anytime? +
Yes. There are no long-term contracts. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time from your account settings.