Telegram alerts when your service goes down
Your API can look fine on your laptop and still be down for customers — deploy stuck, DNS wrong, TLS expired, region outage. External uptime monitoring hits your public health URL from the internet. Telegram is ideal for mobile-first founders: push-style DMs without living in a team chat.
StillOnline sends owner alerts to your Telegram account through the official StillOnline bot. You do not create your own bot or paste tokens — link your account once in account settings and turn on Telegram alerts.
What you get in Telegram
After a check is configured, StillOnline can message you in a private chat with the bot when:
| Event | When |
|---|---|
| Check down | Probe fails twice in a row (degraded → down). While the check stays down, you get a reminder on every scheduled probe (same interval as the check — e.g. every 5 minutes on Free). |
| Check recovered | Status returns to operational after down or degraded. |
| 24h stability | Check stays operational for 24 hours without an outage (milestone message). |
Each message includes project, check, URL, last probe (HTTP code, latency, method), trigger rule, timestamp, and inline buttons for status page and dashboard.
StillOnline does not alert on a single failed probe — only after status becomes down, plus recovery and the 24h milestone. You can turn each event type off under Which notifications to send in settings.
Email owner alerts while down are throttled to at most once every 15 minutes; Telegram (and Slack) repeat on each probe interval so you feel ongoing outages on your phone.
Before you connect Telegram
- A StillOnline account — sign in (Google or GitHub).
- A project with an HTTP check — URL that should return 2xx (see health check quickstart).
- Telegram on your phone or desktop — you must be able to open a chat with a bot and tap Start.
On Free, pick one owner alert channel: Email, Telegram, or Slack. On Pro / Ultimate, you can enable email, Telegram, and Slack together (Pricing).
Part A — Link Telegram to your account
Step 1 — Open owner notification settings
- Go to https://stillonline.tech/en/app/settings.
- Scroll to Owner notifications → section Telegram.
Step 2 — Connect Telegram
- Click Connect Telegram.
- Your browser opens the StillOnline bot in Telegram (
t.me/...?start=...with a short-lived link token, usually 15 minutes). - In Telegram, tap Start (the
/startcommand with the token is sent automatically). - The bot replies that Telegram is linked and reminds you to enable alerts in settings.
If the link expired, click Connect Telegram again on the site — do not forward an old t.me URL to someone else.
Step 3 — Confirm the link on the site
Back in settings, you should see your Telegram username (e.g. @yourname) next to Telegram. If not, refresh the page after linking.
One StillOnline account ↔ one Telegram user. If Telegram says it is already linked to another account, sign in on the site with the email you used originally.
Part B — Enable Telegram alerts
Step 4 — Turn on alerts and save
- Check Telegram alerts (only available after linking).
- On Free, under Free: one channel, select Telegram (switching from email disables email owner alerts until you change channel or upgrade).
- Under Which notifications to send, leave Check outage (DOWN), Recovery, and 24 hours without outages enabled unless you want to mute some types on all channels.
- Click Save.
Email for owner alerts uses the address from your Google/GitHub sign-in; Telegram does not need a separate address.
Step 5 — Confirm a check exists
In Projects, open your project and ensure an HTTP check points at your live URL (e.g. https://api.example.com/health). The worker probes on your plan interval (5 minutes on Free).
Part C — Verify alerts work
Step 6 — Trigger a test down (carefully)
Pick a non-production check or a temporary URL:
- Edit the check URL to something that returns 500 or is unreachable, or pause your service briefly in staging.
- Wait for two failed probe cycles (up to ~10 minutes on a 5-minute interval; the second fail often comes ~1 minute after the first).
- You should get a Telegram message OUTAGE · StillOnline (or localized title) with probe details and buttons.
While the check stays down, expect another message each probe interval — that is intentional for Telegram. Mute the bot chat in Telegram if you only want the first down ping (email is better for throttled reminders).
Step 7 — Confirm recovery
Restore the correct URL or service. After successful probes, you should get RECOVERED · StillOnline.
Keep your status page linked for customers — Telegram owner alerts are not a public incident channel.
Telegram vs email vs Slack
| Channel | Best for |
|---|---|
| Telegram | Mobile push; DM with the StillOnline bot; repeat alerts every probe while down |
| Inbox workflow; down alerts throttled to 15 minutes | |
| Slack | Team channel via Incoming Webhook — see Slack setup guide |
Subscribers on the public status page still get email when they subscribe with Google — separate from owner Telegram alerts.
Limits and troubleshooting
| Issue | What to check |
|---|---|
| Connect Telegram fails or “bot soon” | StillOnline Telegram bot not configured on the server — try later or use email/Slack meanwhile. |
| No message on failure | Check enabled? Two failures needed for down? Telegram alerts on and account linked? Free plan: Telegram selected as the only channel? Check outage (DOWN) enabled? |
| Too many messages | Normal while down on Telegram — each probe; mute chat or rely on email for throttled down alerts. |
| “Link expired” in bot | Token timed out — use Connect Telegram again within ~15 minutes and tap Start. |
| Wrong account linked | One Telegram per site user — sign in with the correct Google/GitHub account before linking. |
StillOnline logs delivery in the database (NotificationLog, channel TELEGRAM) for support debugging.
Related guides
- Slack alerts via Incoming Webhook — team channel setup.
- Health check URL quickstart — create the URL monitoring will watch.
- Best uptime monitoring for indie SaaS 2026 — how we compare to other tools.
FAQ
Do I need to create a bot with BotFather?
No. StillOnline operates the bot. You only link your Telegram user from settings.
Can alerts go to a group or channel?
Owner alerts are direct messages from the bot to you. For a team, use Slack or share the status page.
Will I get an alert on every timeout?
No. Status must become down after two consecutive failures. A single blip may show as degraded on the status page without a down alert.
Telegram vs email frequency while down?
Telegram: every scheduled probe while down. Email: at most once per 15 minutes while down.
Can I use Telegram and email on Free?
No — one owner channel on Free. Pro allows email + Telegram + Slack together.
How do I unlink Telegram?
Contact support or link flow from another account is blocked until resolved — plan to use one Telegram identity per StillOnline user.
Is my Telegram ID stored?
Yes, to deliver DMs — see Privacy Policy. We do not use it for marketing in the alert bot chat.