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A team that never wants phone calls
Keep a team informed by notification only, and know what you give up.
This is for admins whose team, such as a daytime back office or a group that only wants to know, should never be phoned. When you're done, the rules that page that team send notifications and nothing else.
What you'll set up
How a rule pages is set on each rule, not on the team. So you set every rule that can reach this team to notify only.
- In the console, go to Rules. Find each rule that can reach this team: rules that name its rotation, and rules that page Whoever covers the queue on a queue the team covers. Choose Edit.
- Under When this fires, choose Push only — no call, ever.
- Choose Save changes. Changing how a rule pages doesn't send it back to Pending.
- For new rules, choose the same option when you create them. New rules start on Push, then call, so this is easy to miss.
On a notify-only rule, every step of the chain that would have been a call becomes a notification instead. The chain still moves on: if the first person doesn't acknowledge, the next person on the rotation is notified, and so on. See Rotations, time off and cover.
What it trades away
- A notification is easy to sleep through. A call is what wakes someone. Nobody presses 1, so nobody proves they're there.
- Overnight, it may wait until morning. During someone's quiet hours, a notify-only rule's notifications arrive quietly and don't break through Do Not Disturb.
- No app, no page. Someone who hasn't enrolled their phone, or has turned off Standby's notifications, isn't reached at all by these rules. On other rules, the call would have caught them.
If any of those would matter for a particular alert, give that one rule Push, then call and leave the rest notify-only.
Calls that still happen
Notify-only covers the rules you set. Standby's own incidents can still ring a phone on this team's rotation, if they have mobile numbers on file:
- Workspace-wide incidents, such as figures stopping or a change that couldn't be undone. In Audit → Readiness, the workspace-wide incidents check has Send them to, where you can choose a different rotation.
- Workspace-wide practice drills, booked with no rule chosen, which page like Push, then call. A drill on one of this team's rules follows that rule, so it rings no phones.
Try it safely first
On Rules, choose Simulate on one of the rules and choose Show what would happen. Every step should say Notify or Notify quietly, and none Call. Nothing is sent. Then have each person use Send me a test notification under Settings → Devices in the app, so you know the notifications arrive. See Prove the whole chain works before you rely on it.
Variations
- Calls only when it's serious. Keep routine rules notify-only and give one high-threshold rule Push, then call, even during quiet hours.
- Calls by day, never at night. Use Push, then call and set each person's quiet hours. During them, they get a quiet notification instead of a call.
- No numbers at all. Leave mobile numbers off this team under On-call → People. Readiness will flag it; if that's how you want it, choose Accept this.