---
title: Turn Important Emails into Call Notifications with Echobell
date: 2025-08-22
description: "Route urgent emails to Echobell and receive call-style notifications on iOS. This guide covers channel setup, spoken-friendly templates, conditions for filtering, and forwarding rules for Gmail, iCloud, and Outlook."
author: Nooc
authorAvatarLink: /images/avatars/nooc.webp
authorLink: https://nooc.me
---

Some emails need to reach you regardless of what you're doing — production incidents, billing failures, VIP senders. Echobell lets you forward those emails to a channel and deliver them as call-style notifications that ring through Focus mode.

Echobell stores only accounts, channels, and subscriptions server-side. Notification content stays on your devices.

## Prerequisites

- Echobell installed ([App Store](https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6743597198?pt=128151925&ct=blog-email-to-call-notification-en&mt=8))
- Notifications permission granted

## Step 1 — Create a channel

1. Open Echobell → New Channel
2. Name it (e.g. "Critical Email Alerts") and pick a color
3. Save

## Step 2 — Bind the email trigger

On the channel detail page, copy the dedicated email address. Any email sent to this address triggers the channel.

Available template variables for email triggers:

- `from` — sender address
- `to` — channel-bound address
- `subject` — email subject
- `text` — plain-text body
- `html` — HTML body (when present)

## Step 3 — Write spoken-friendly templates

Call notifications read this content aloud, so keep it short and direct.

Title:

```
[Email Alert] {{subject}}
```

Body:

```
From: {{from}}
Preview: {{text}}
```

To attach a clickable link to the notification record, pass `externalLink` via webhook or set a Link Template in Advanced Settings.

## Step 4 — Set the Calling notification type

In your subscription settings, configure:

- Notification Type: **Calling**
- App Settings → Repeat Voice Content: On (optional)
- App Settings → Retry Failed Call: On (recommended)

Calling notifications ring like a phone call and can break through Focus modes depending on iOS settings.

## Step 5 — Filter with Conditions (optional)

Without Conditions, every email to the channel triggers a notification. Add a Condition to restrict which emails actually ring.

Only a specific sender:

```
from == "alerts@yourcompany.com"
```

Subject contains "URGENT":

```
subject.toLowerCase().includes("urgent")
```

Combined rules:

```
(from == "pager@service.com" || from == "vip@customer.com") && subject.toLowerCase().includes("fail")
```

## Step 6 — Set up mail forwarding

### Gmail

1. Settings → See all settings → Filters and Blocked Addresses
2. Create a filter by From or Subject
3. Action: Forward to your Echobell channel email address
4. Optional: Skip inbox or apply a label

Gmail may require verifying the forwarding address. If that's inconvenient, forward via a group alias you control.

### iCloud Mail

1. Settings → Rules
2. Condition: From or Subject contains your criteria
3. Action: Forward to your Echobell channel email address

### Outlook

1. Settings → Mail → Rules
2. Add conditions for sender, subject, or keywords
3. Action: Forward/Redirect to your Echobell channel email address

## Step 7 — Test

1. Send an email to the channel address (or trigger your forwarding rule)
2. Confirm a call-style alert arrives
3. Check the record in Echobell and adjust templates or conditions as needed

## Troubleshooting

- **Not receiving calls:** Confirm Notification Type is set to Calling; check iOS notification permissions and Focus mode; enable Retry Failed Call in App Settings.
- **Template didn't render:** Variable names are `from`, `to`, `subject`, `text`, `html`. Conditions use plain expressions — no `{{ }}` wrapping.
- **Too noisy:** Tighten Conditions or add stricter sender/subject criteria in your mail rules.

## Next steps

- Create separate channels per team or system
- Use webhooks for automated system alerts, email for human-sent messages
- Share the channel subscription link with teammates who need the same calling alerts

## Related

- [Email trigger docs](/en/docs/email-trigger) — full variable reference and configuration options
- [QQ Mail to call notifications](/en/blog/qq-mail-to-call-notifications) — forwarding rules specific to QQ Mail
- [How to bypass iOS Focus Mode for critical alerts](/en/blog/how-to-bypass-ios-focus-mode-for-critical-alerts) — choosing the right urgency level
- [Notification types](/en/docs/notification) — Normal, Time Sensitive, and Calling behavior
- [Conditions](/en/docs/conditions) — expression syntax for filtering alerts