FAQ

If you have questions, check the FAQ below or ask our Bot through the online chat who has access to our online help.

Is there a free trial or demo?

Yes, you can try SIGNL4 any time for 30 days free of charge on the ‘Optimize’ plan. Cost of notifications are included. Follow this link.

For demo videos, please visit Vimeo

What is the major difference to other solutions?

SIGNL4 differs in various aspects from other solutions. Here is a selection:

  1. Strong focus on usability (ease of use) and modern, user-friendly UI
  2. Strong focus on modern mobile apps enabling true remote incident response
  3. Strong focus on rapid onboarding, hence return on investment
  4. Strong focus on advanced (2-way) integrations with 3rd party products and with little connectivity effort

Which notification channels are available?

SIGNL4 notifies via mobile push, text and voice call. We support more than 430 network worldwide for reaching out via text and voice call.

One channel can be selected for persistent (repeated) notification in case of missing alert response. The sequence of these comm channels can be configured freely. Push sound can be personalized.

How can I connect a 3rd party system?

The easiest way to connect your 3rd party system to SIGNL4 and to trigger mobile alerting flows is to send an email. Each team in SIGNL4 gets a dedicated email address. Send an email with any content to it and it gets translated into a mobile alert workflow.

The webhook (HTTPS) can be used for connecting modern IT systems while the comprehensive REST API provides for deeper integration and 3rd party control of functions in SIGNL4.

Please, find related information on integrations and the API here.

On top, SIGNL4 provides a growing number of connector apps which either reside in the 3rd party tool (Zabbix, ServiceNow, CheckMK for example) or a pull connectors running on SIGNL4 (e.g. for Microsoft Azure Monitor and Sentinel, Micro Focus SMAX). You can find more on integrations here.

Who receives alert notifications (alert routing)?

All team members with the status ‘on duty’ receive alert notifications. This allows for managing timely availability of team members and automated routing to staff ‘on duty’.

A second layer of routing is through alert categories. Team members can explicitly be assigned to specific service and systems categories. Based on a keyword algorithm or direct addressing, alerts are tagged with a specific category. This way, only specific members, e.g. responsible for a certain system, will receive those alerts when on duty. For others, the category can be hidden, or alerts can be still visible but not notified.

The base layer of routing is a team. From an external system, teams in SIGNL4 are addressed through their dedicated email address or their webhook.

Can I track if somebody acknowledges or handles an alert or work item?

Yes, absolutely. This is the fundamental principle of SIGNL4. When an alert/work item (signl) is submitted to staff on duty, they can acknowledge/confirm an alert or work item. This is done by hitting the encircled question mark section. If this person has set a profile image, it will be shown. If this section is tapped again, the alert/work item goes gray which indicates that it has been resolved.

The status of an alert or work item is visible throughout the entire team. Date and time of those action are tacked in the alerts audit train – the timeline.

Can multiple people confirm an alert?

Yes, this is the default mode of SIGNL4 (and the only available option in the free plan). All team members on duty are required to acknowledge an alert.

You can change this behavior to a ‘first come, first confirm’ mode; in this case only one person on duty needs to confirm an alert. The later is often used in maintenance or IT operations scenarios.

You can change the alerting mode in the management portal of SIGNL4 (https://account.signl4.com/manage/).

Can alerts be escalated?

Yes. Alerts need to get confirmed. If an alert is not confirmed within a configurable ‘target response time’, it is automatically escalated to a ‘manager on duty’.

Each team member can set his or her status to ‘manager on duty’ by a double-tap on the profile picture on the app’s dashboard. You can watch a video here: https://vimeo.com/album/4858122/video/246436585 

How many users can my team have?

There is no limitation on how many users a team in SIGNL4 can have if you are on a commercial plan. The ‘forever free’ plan only allows for a maximum of five users per team.

Can I have multiple teams?

Yes. When you sign up, a single team will be created. You can add more teams any time. Teams are centrally managed and billed but their data like users and alerts are visible to them only.

How do these colorful alert categories work?

Under “Services and Systems” on the mobile app and under ‘Categories’ in the account portal, you can manage customizable alert categories. Categories can be used to enrich and to route alerts to specific users (opt-in/out or assignment by an administrator).

To trigger a specific category, e.g. for an email alert, use one of the following options:

1. Define keywords in the respective Services&Systems category on the mobile app. SIGNL4 scans incoming content and uses a algorithm to find the best match.
2. Use ‘X-S4-Service:[categoryname]’ in the email body to force a category.

In case you are using the webhook API, use the JSON payload parameter ‘X-S4-Service’ : ‘[categoryname]’ to enforce a category. Here is a video: https://vimeo.com/album/4858122/video/244003265

What are the mobile device requirements?

You need an Android phone or iPhone to use SIGNL4. The minimum iOS version to run SIGNL4 is 13 . On Android devices the minimum OS version is 8 to run SIGNL4

How secure are my data?

SIGNL4 has been designed with highest security standards to protect your data. All data are protected by one of the strictest data privacy laws in the world.

Storage of SIGNL4 data in Azure is encrypted and decrypted transparently using 256-bit AES encryption, one of the strongest block ciphers available, and is FIPS 140-2 compliant.

Service connectivity is secured via SSL (REST) and TLS (SMTP). Authentication of the mobile app is token-based and data are automatically erased from the mobile device if no valid authentication is provided.

Here is what we do with your data according to GDPR: Data Privacy Policy

We are working with multiple vendors like Microsoft on security certifications.

How can I delete my account?

To delete your account, go to the SIGNL4 management portal (https://account.signl4.com/manage), log in and go to ‘Help’. Click ‘Terminate’ to cancel any existing subscription and delete your team and all data.

What is the availability of SIGNL4 (SLA)?

SIGNL4 uses Microsoft Service Fabric clustering technology to provide for uninterrupted service availability. Unlike other SaaS there is no single or redundant VM but an entire cluster. Since, mid Feb 2018 we operate a status page at http://status.signl4.com

Is there a user guide?

The mobile app is largely self-explaining. To speed things up a little, here is a video tutorial with more than 40 videos: https://www.vimeo.com/showcase/4858122

How can I trigger an alert from Windows Powershell?

Here is an example on triggering an alert through a Windows Powershell command:

Invoke-RestMethod ‘https://connect.signl4.com/webhook/‘ -Method POST -ContentType ‘application/json’ -Body ‘{“Alert”:”Error”,”Description”:”PowerShell alert.”}’

Note that you can add or use any parameter in the JSON payload.

Please note that is the 8 digit code that identifies your team and is uniquely created when you sign up. You’ll find it in the app under “APIs” or in the management portal.

How to trigger alerts from Unix/Linux via command line?

Here is an example on triggering an alert from a Unix or Linux command line:

curl -H “Content-Type: application/json” -X POST -d ‘{“Alert”: “Warning”, “Description”: “Linux backend server down.”}’ https://connect.signl4.com/webhook/

Please note that is the 8 digit code that identifies your team and is uniquely created when you sign up. You’ll find it in the app under “APIs” or in the management portal.

Can I trigger alerts from a web page?

Yes, sure. There is a built-in feature for sending alerts from the management portal (‘New Signl’).

SIGNL4 Emergency Notifications

SIGNL4 also provides a webhook API which can be used to trigger alerts from web site. Here are additional details: https://connect.signl4.com/webhook/docs/index.html

You would use what we call the ‘inbound webhook’. It accepts various payload types to submit event/alert content.

Where do I find the email address for triggering alerts to my team?

You find this dedicated team email address in the management portal (https://account.signl4.com/manage) or in the mobile app (Gear Symbol/Settings->APIs).

Can an email mailbox be queried?

Not yet. SIGNL4 cannot query an email mailbox (e.g. via POP3 or IMAP). Instead emails need to be routed to the email address each team gets in SIGNL4. You can for instance create a mailbox rule in your mail program to route all or specific emails to the SIGNL4 team email.

How can I trigger alerts from C# code?

Here is a great C# example from our inspirational blog.

What is my 'team secret'?

You can find your ‘team secret’ or ‘team id’ in two places. Either in the management portal on the dashboard (https://account.signl4.com/manage/) or in the app (tap the ‘gear’ symbol on the dashboard to go to settings, then tap APIs: the first 8 digits of your team’s email address are your secret).

How can I obtain an API key?

Currently, you need to request it manually. Please, send an email to account@signl4.com to request your API key.

And here is a blog post on how to work with the API key.

How do I get support?

We offer free support by email and live chat.

You can also check our video library and our knowledge base for help.

We recommend you follow us on Twitter for latest news and updates.

Get started

SIGNL4 on Google Play

SIGNL4 on Apple iTunes

Get started

SIGNL4 on Google Play

SIGNL4 on Apple iTunes