Email, push, and text notifications
Notifications need three things: a configured delivery service, recipient addresses or devices, and an action rule. No channel is on by default. Push needs no service: the recorder sends it to each person's phones and browsers itself.
Configure the services
An administrator opens Settings → Notifications and scrolls to Email, push and text, the section below Your notifications that only administrators see:
| Channel | Configuration |
|---|---|
| SMTP host, port, sender, and optional username and password | |
| Text | Telnyx sending number and API key |
| Push | Nothing; see push notifications |
Non-loopback SMTP requires certificate-verified TLS: implicit TLS on port 465, required STARTTLS elsewhere. Secrets are stored in the credential vault and are not displayed again. Environment settings take precedence and appear read-only; see configuration. Leave the SMTP server empty to clear the relay.
For text, the sending number must be on your Telnyx account, in international
form (+15551234567), and assigned to a messaging profile. Each person enters
their own number. Carrier charges apply per message.
Each service has its own check — Check connection and Check key — which reaches the provider without sending anyone a message. Use it to separate a wrong host or key from a delivery problem. It confirms the recorder can reach the provider, not that a person receives anything.
Set Recorder address for links in the same section, or set
EVERNVR_PUBLIC_ORIGIN. Email and text require this address. It should be the
HTTPS address staff can reach; setting it does not create remote access.
Add recipients and test
Each person opens Settings → Notifications → Your notifications, enters their email and phone number, and enables their preferred channels. A channel whose service is not configured says so beside the switch; for an administrator that note links down to Email, push and text. Administrators can also set email addresses and phone numbers under Settings → Access. Push is turned on from each device, as below.
Push notifications
Push goes straight from the recorder to the browsers and installed apps where someone turned it on. There is no service to configure and no third-party app to install. The recorder signs and encrypts each message itself, and the device's own push service (Apple, Google, Mozilla, or Microsoft) delivers it. The recorder needs outbound HTTPS to reach those services.
To turn push on, open the recorder on the phone or computer, go to Settings → Notifications → Your notifications, and choose Turn on for this device. Allow notifications when the browser asks. Each device a person turns on appears in the list below the button, where it can be removed. Push is turned on for the account the first time a device subscribes; Enable push turns it off and on again without forgetting the devices.
- iPhone and iPad (iOS 16.4 or later): first add the recorder to the Home Screen. In Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Open EverNVR from the Home Screen icon and turn push on in that window. Safari tabs cannot receive push.
- Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux: turn it on in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari. On Android, Install app from the browser menu adds the recorder to the home screen as well.
The device must reach the recorder over HTTPS with a certificate it trusts, so install the recorder's certificate authority from the login page first. A browser will not run push from an address it shows a certificate warning for, even after the warning was accepted. If the login page shows no Trust this recorder link, the recorder uses a certificate from the site's own authority; ask your installer how devices are given it.
Tapping a notification opens the recorder at the alert, on the address the device turned push on from. On iPhone and iPad, links in email and text messages open in Safari, not the Home Screen app, and ask for a sign-in there. A push notification opens in the Home Screen app.
A push message carries the rule and one sentence: what was seen, on which camera, and the AI agent's note when there is one. It carries no picture and no footage link token. A retried message replaces the earlier one on the device rather than showing twice. A device whose browser unsubscribed, or that was reset, is removed from the list automatically.
Upgrading from a release that used ntfy turns push off for everyone; each person turns it on again from their devices.
Administrators can turn on Tell me when the recorder itself has a problem: camera offline, recording stalled, and detection down, through the channels enabled above. Each problem sends one message and one all-clear.
Each channel delivers independently, a few messages at a time, so a mail server that stops answering delays email alone; texts, push and webhooks go out as usual. A delivery that fails is retried with increasing waits for up to an hour and then recorded as failed in History.
Footage links in a message open on the recorder's own network and require a recorder login. Email includes an event image when one is available, and that image leaves the recorder for the configured relay.
Use Send test email, Send test push, and Send test text. Tests are limited to one per person per minute and use a synthetic one-pixel image. Observe receipt on the real destination device.
In Action rules, add a Send notification action and choose the people and channels. A rule may carry several actions, so one rule can notify two groups of people differently, or notify and then do something else; see action rules. An explicitly selected channel reaches that address regardless of the recipient's channel preference switch. Preference switches apply when the rule leaves the channel choice to the recipient and to recorder-problem messages. Snoozing suppresses delivery; suppressed alerts do not replay later.
Understand delivery status
History → Notifications shows pending, sending, retry, accepted, failed, expired, and suppressed messages. Accepted means the provider accepted the message; it does not establish phone receipt. The same tab lists a rule's other actions with their outcome, labeled Webhook, Camera preset, Camera aimed, Camera output, Camera message, Preserve footage, and Arm or disarm rules, and Logged for a rule with no actions.
Delivery is at least once, with at most five attempts — 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 10 minutes, and 30 minutes apart — and a one-hour expiry. Duplicates are possible. Permanent rejections stop retries.
Email can include an event picture, which the mail provider may retain or display on a locked device. A push notification carries the rule and one sentence, encrypted so the push service cannot read it; the device shows it, including on a locked screen unless the device's notification settings hide previews. A text carries the rule, one sentence, and the link — no picture. Messages do not carry a token granting footage access. Review the recipients and provider before enabling image delivery.
Morning briefing
Morning briefing, at the foot of Settings → Notifications → Email, push and text, sends one message a day covering the night: what each camera saw, what was unusual against the site's own normal, and camera and recorder health with what to check, in three short paragraphs.
It is off until an administrator turns it on, sets a time — 07:00 by default, in the recorder's local time — and names at least one person. Each person hears it through whichever channels they switched on for themselves; a text carries only the headline, and someone chosen with no channel on receives nothing. The briefing covers every camera, so only people who can see every camera are offered as recipients.
The AI agent writes the briefing when it is configured and on. When it is off, over budget, or unreachable, the recorder writes a plainer one from the same records, so the briefing does not depend on a provider subscription. Send one now produces one immediately, which is the way to check it at handoff. A recorder that was switched off at the chosen hour sends the briefing when it comes back. Past briefings are under History → Briefings.