Use case # A backup alert channel An additional route to the engineer on call. Connect Acktide to your monitoring alongside existing notifications, then test it when the primary channel is unavailable. ## When the primary channel fails ### Your notification channel is down A messenger, email gateway or integration fails. The alert fires, but nobody receives it. You may only find out from the consequences. ### The message arrived. Nobody responded. A notification in a shared chat does not assign responsibility. You need an explicit ACK from a named person, and escalation if nobody acknowledges it. ## One alert, two channels Alertmanager sends the critical event to both receivers at the same time. There is nothing to switch during an incident; the backup is always active for the rules you choose. | Channel | What the team receives | | --- | --- | | **Existing channel** | Your usual notifications in a messenger, email or current on-call system. Existing settings stay in place when you add a parallel path. | | **Acktide** | An Android system notification on the lock screen, ACK directly from the notification, and escalation to a backup engineer if nobody acknowledges it. | Existing Slack, email and webhook receivers in Alertmanager keep working unchanged; you add one more receiver. ## What makes a backup independent Host the backup outside your primary site, and check that monitoring and phones can reach Acktide if that site fails. - **Separate hosting**Acktide’s server and database run outside the cluster or site whose failure you are protecting against. - **Phone access during a primary network outage**The phone must be able to reach Acktide when the primary network is unavailable. Include VPN and DNS in your test plan. - **An independent signal source**If an entire site goes down, the alert must originate elsewhere: external checks or separate monitoring. - **Tested recovery**Test restoring from a backup and administrator access in advance. ## What the backup can and cannot do | Situation | Acktide behavior | | --- | --- | | Primary notification channel fails | Independent delivery to the phone while the alert source, Acktide and the network remain available | | Phone temporarily offline | Delivery resumes after reconnection if the server has already received and stored the event | | Entire site unavailable | Requires Acktide outside that site and an independent signal source; see [site peering](https://acktide.com/en/peering.html) | | No phones reachable | Delivery waits for connectivity. SMS and calls require a separately configured provider and are disabled by default | [Download Free and test it](https://acktide.com/en/free.html) [Full list of limits](https://acktide.com/en/limits.html)