Alerts that break through silent mode and DND.
PocketAlert gives every push notification a priority level from silent to critical. On Android, a critical alert bypasses Do Not Disturb and silent mode; on iPhone it breaks through Focus as a time-sensitive notification. You set it with a single field in the API call.
Priority levels that match the incident
A monitoring alert at 3 AM and a daily backup report should not sound the same. PocketAlert gives every message a priority level, from silent to critical.
Five levels, one field
silent, low, default, high, critical — one level field on any message, in the API, a webhook payload, or MCP.
Breaks through DND on Android
Critical alerts on Android post to a dedicated channel that bypasses Do Not Disturb and can show full screen.
Cuts through Focus on iPhone
High and critical messages arrive as time-sensitive notifications on iPhone, so they break through Focus modes.
Silent when it should be
Level -2 delivers without sound or vibration. Success pings and digests stay on record without waking anyone.
Defaults per app & webhook
Set default_level once per application or webhook. Every message inherits it; any message can override it.
Priority-first feed
The mobile app filters and sorts the feed by priority, so critical incidents never drown in routine noise.
Three steps to alerts that wake you
Pick a level
silent for digests, high for warnings, critical for incidents that cannot wait until morning.
Send the message
Add "level":"critical" to the API call, the webhook payload, or set a default on the application.
It breaks through
Android bypasses DND and shows full screen. iPhone cuts through Focus. Silent stays silent.
Send your first critical alert
1. Pick the level
Every message accepts a level (or priority) field:
level: silent (-2) · low (-1) · default (0) · high (1) · critical (2)Aliases work too: min, normal, urgent, max. Invalid values get a clean 400 from the API, so a typo never fails silently.
2. Send it
curl -X POST 'https://api.pocketalert.app/v1/messages' \
-H 'Token: YOUR_API_KEY' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"title":"Primary DB down","message":"Postgres is not responding on db-1","level":"critical"}'The same field works in a webhook payload — add "level": "critical" to the JSON any service posts to your PocketAlert webhook URL — and in the create_message MCP tool.
3. Let the quiet things stay quiet
pg_dump mydb | gzip > backup.sql.gz && \
curl -X POST 'https://api.pocketalert.app/v1/messages' \
-H 'Token: YOUR_API_KEY' \
-d 'title=Backup finished' -d 'message=Nightly dump completed' -d 'level=silent'Silent messages land in your history without a sound. Your phone only makes noise when the level says it should.
How levels resolve
Explicit message level → webhook default_level → application default_level → default. Set the default once on a webhook that receives monitoring alerts, and everything it forwards arrives as high without touching the sender.
One-time setup on the phone
On Android, allow Do Not Disturb access when the app asks (Settings → Critical only) so critical alerts can break through. On iPhone, allow notifications and PocketAlert delivers high and critical messages as time-sensitive, which cut through Focus modes. Full iOS critical-alert sound — the kind that overrides the mute switch — is rolling out as Apple grants the entitlement.
Questions, answered
On Android, yes. Send a message with level: critical and it posts to a dedicated notification channel that bypasses Do Not Disturb and shows full screen — grant the app Do Not Disturb access once in Settings. On iPhone, critical messages come through as time-sensitive notifications, which break through Focus modes; full critical-alert sound that overrides the mute switch is rolling out as Apple grants the entitlement.
Five: silent (-2), low (-1), default (0), high (1), and critical (2). The API accepts either the name or the number, and common aliases work too — min, normal, urgent, and max. Send it as level or priority; both are accepted.
Set default_level on an application or a webhook and every message routed through it inherits that level. An explicit level on the message itself always wins. If nothing is set anywhere, the message goes out as default.
Critical delivery is a paid feature. On the Free plan a critical message is delivered at high priority — it still arrives instantly and stays at the top of your feed, it just does not override Do Not Disturb.
No. A silent message (level -2) skips the sound and vibration entirely and lands quietly in the notification tray and your message history. Use it for success pings, digests, and anything you want on record without a buzz.
The pager is back. It lives in your pocket.
One level field on the API call decides whether a push whispers or wakes you. Set it and stop sleeping through incidents.