Get Started with Echobell

Welcome to Echobell, the instant alert app that helps you stay on top of important notifications. Whether you're a developer needing webhook alerts for your CI/CD pipeline, a system administrator monitoring servers, or a team managing critical notifications, this comprehensive guide will walk you through setting up and using Echobell effectively.

By the end of this guide, you'll understand how to create notification channels, set up webhook and email triggers, customize notification templates, and integrate Echobell with your existing tools and workflows.

What is Echobell?

Echobell is a powerful notification management tool designed for developers, DevOps teams, and anyone who needs reliable instant alerts. It bridges the gap between your systems and your mobile device, ensuring critical information reaches you immediately.

Key capabilities:

• Webhook Integration: Connect any system that can make HTTP requests - monitoring tools, CI/CD pipelines, IoT devices, and more
• Email Triggers: Turn any email into an instant notification by forwarding to your channel's dedicated email address
• Custom Templates: Use dynamic variables to create informative, context-rich notifications
• Flexible Notification Types: Choose between normal notifications, time-sensitive alerts, or phone call-style notifications for critical issues
• Privacy-First Design: Your notification history stays on your device, not on our servers
• Team Collaboration: Share channels with teammates and manage subscriber access

Learn more about what makes Echobell unique and explore our complete feature overview.

Core Concepts

Before diving in, let's understand some key concepts:

Channels

A Channel is the core unit in Echobell for organizing and distributing notifications:

• Each channel has a unique Name and Color for easy identification across different alert sources
• Channels contain Notification Templates that determine what information is sent to subscribers
• Channels are triggered through webhooks or emails
• You can create your own channels or subscribe to channels shared by others
• Each channel supports conditions to filter which triggers actually send notifications
• Channels can be shared via secure subscription links with team members or the public

Think of a channel as a notification pipeline: data comes in through triggers, gets formatted by templates, filtered by conditions, and delivered as notifications to all subscribers.

Triggers

A Trigger is what activates a channel to send notifications. Echobell supports two trigger methods:

• Webhook: A URL endpoint that, when called via HTTP GET or POST, activates the channel. Perfect for integrating with monitoring systems, CI/CD pipelines, serverless functions, and any tool that can make HTTP requests.

• Email Trigger: A unique email address linked to the channel. When an email is sent to this address, the channel is activated. Ideal for email-based alerts, forwarding important messages, or systems that only support email notifications.

You can use both trigger types simultaneously on the same channel, giving you maximum flexibility in how you send alerts. Learn more about webhook integration and email triggers.

Notification Types

When subscribing to a channel, you can choose from different notification styles that determine how alerts appear on your device:

• Normal (Active): Standard app notification that appears in your notification center. Best for non-urgent updates and informational alerts.

• Time Sensitive: High-priority notification that can break through Focus modes and Do Not Disturb settings. Recommended for important alerts that need immediate attention but aren't critical emergencies.

• Calling: Call-like alert with ringtone and full-screen interface, similar to receiving a phone call. Essential for critical incidents requiring immediate response, such as production outages or security alerts.

The notification type you choose depends on the urgency of the channel's content. You can subscribe to the same channel multiple times with different notification types if needed. Read our detailed guide on notifications to understand when to use each type.

Getting Started

1. Setting Up Your Account

1. Download Echobell from the App Store
2. Open the app and sign in with your email or sign in with Apple

2. Creating Your First Channel

1. From the main view, tap the button on the bottom right corner to navigate to the Channels view
2. Tap the + button to create a new channel
3. Enter a name for your channel (e.g., "Server Alerts")
4. Select a color to identify your channel
5. Configure your notification templates:
   • Title template: What appears as the notification headline
   • Body template: The detailed content of the notification
6. Optionally, toggle whether to subscribe the channel to yourself
7. Choose a Notification Type for your channel (Normal, Time Sensitive, or Calling)
8. Save your new channel

3. Setting Up a Trigger

Once your channel is created, there are two ways to trigger notifications: via webhooks or emails. Tap the channel you just created to access its settings. In the channel settings, you can find the Triggers section.

Webhook Trigger

1. Tap the webhook button to copy the generated webhook URL
2. Integrate this URL into your systems (e.g., server monitoring, CI/CD pipeline)
3. When the URL is called, your channel will be triggered

You can provide variables to your notification templates in two ways:

# Example webhook call with query parameters
curl -X GET "https://hook.echobell.one/t/your-unique-id?server=production&status=critical&message=CPU%20usage%20at%2095%25"

# OR with JSON body
curl -X POST https://hook.echobell.one/t/your-unique-id \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"server": "production", "status": "critical", "message": "CPU usage at 95%"}'

These variables will be used to populate your notification templates. For example, if your title template is {{server}} - {{status}}, it would render as "production - critical".

Special Variables:

• externalLink: If you include this variable, it will be displayed as a clickable link in the notification records

Email Trigger

1. Tap the email button to copy the generated email address for your channel
2. When an email is sent to this address, your channel will be triggered

With email triggers, Echobell automatically extracts these variables from the email:

• from: The sender's email address
• to: The recipient's email address (your channel's email)
• subject: The email subject line
• text: The plain text content of the email
• html: The HTML content of the email

You can use these variables in your templates, such as {{subject}} or {{text}}.

4. Customizing Notification Templates

Templates use variables that are filled from the trigger data:

1. In your channel settings, go to Notification Templates
2. For the title template, you might use: {{server}} - {{status}}
3. For the body template, you could use: {{message}} Detected at {{timestamp}}
4. Variables are enclosed in double curly braces: {{variable_name}}
5. Test your template with sample data

5. Subscribing to Channels

1. You can share the subscription link of your channels to others
2. Or you can use subscription links shared by others to subscribe to the channels
3. Tap Subscribe on the channels view
4. Enter the subscription link
5. Choose your preferred Notification Type:
   • Normal for standard alerts
   • Time Sensitive for important alerts
   • Calling for critical situations
6. Confirm your subscription

App Settings

You can customize how Echobell handles notifications through these settings:

• Repeat Voice Content: When using call notifications, this setting will make the notification content repeat
• Retry Failed Call: Automatically retry call notifications that failed due to Focus Mode or other reasons

Privacy and Data Storage

Echobell prioritizes your privacy:

• Only user accounts, channels, and subscription data are stored on our servers
• Notification content and history are stored locally on your device
• Your alert data never leaves your control

Next Steps

Now that you've set up your first channel, explore these resources to get the most out of Echobell:

Essential Guides

• What is Echobell? - Understand the core concepts and philosophy behind Echobell
• Feature Overview - Explore all available features and capabilities
• Template Guide - Master template syntax and create dynamic notifications
• Conditions - Learn to filter notifications based on trigger data
• Webhook Integration - Deep dive into webhook configuration and best practices
• Email Triggers - Configure email-based notification triggers

Integration Guides

Connect Echobell with popular tools and platforms:

• Grafana Integration - Monitor your infrastructure with instant alerts
• GitHub Actions - Get notified of CI/CD pipeline events
• Prometheus - Set up alerting for Prometheus metrics
• Home Assistant - Smart home automation notifications
• Uptime Monitoring - Website and service availability alerts
• TradingView - Trading alerts and market notifications

Best Practices

• Start Simple: Create basic channels with simple templates first, then gradually add complexity
• Test Your Templates: Use test webhook calls to verify your templates render correctly before deploying
• Use Conditions Wisely: Filter out noise by setting conditions on channels to only alert on important events
• Choose Appropriate Notification Types: Reserve "Calling" notifications for truly critical alerts to avoid alert fatigue
• Organize with Colors: Use channel colors strategically to quickly identify alert sources at a glance
• Document Your Channels: Use channel notes to document what triggers them and how to respond

Common Use Cases

Discover how others use Echobell:

• Server Monitoring: Get instant alerts when CPU, memory, or disk usage exceeds thresholds
• CI/CD Notifications: Know immediately when builds fail or deployments complete
• E-commerce Alerts: Receive notifications for new orders, payment issues, or inventory warnings
• Security Monitoring: Critical alerts for authentication failures, suspicious activity, or security events
• IoT and Smart Home: Notifications from sensors, cameras, and home automation systems
• Team Coordination: Share channels with team members for collaborative incident response

Get Help

Need assistance or have questions?

• Support Center - Browse common questions and troubleshooting guides
• Email Support: Contact us at echobell@weelone.com
• Community: Join discussions and share your use cases with other Echobell users

Ready to integrate Echobell with your systems? Check out our webhook integration guide or explore developer-specific integrations to get started!