Where alerts are delivered, and setting up Telegram
Choose phone notifications or Telegram for your alerts. Connect your preferred channel in Settings and send a test before relying on it.
3 min read
Alerts can arrive as phone notifications or Telegram messages once connected in Settings. They also appear in the app’s notification bell. WhatsApp is coming soon.
Read this twice
If no Telegram chat id is saved, or one is saved but the switch is off, the alert is recorded in the app and never sent to anybody — and the credit is spent all the same. From the outside it looks like the product is working: rows appear on the bell, the balance goes down, and your phone stays silent. Nothing tells you at the moment it happens. Connect Telegram before you switch any tracking on.
Find your chat id
- 1Open @userinfobot in Telegram and press Start. It replies with a plain number - that is your chat id.
- 2Press Start. It replies with an Id, which is a plain number.
- 3Copy that number.
Save it and prove it works
- 1Paste the number into the Chat id field in Settings and save.
- 2Turn Send me alerts on Telegram on. A saved id with the switch off sends nothing.
- 3Press Send test. If the test message arrives, alerts will arrive.
- 4If it does not arrive, open @Gst_truck_watch_bot and send it a /start, then test again. Telegram forbids a bot from messaging anyone who has not started it, so this one step is the difference between a saved chat id and a silent phone.
ExampleThe Telegram section of Settings
The chat id field, the switch under it, and Send test — all three have to be right.
- 1The chat id. One number, and it is the only field that decides whether anything reaches your phone.
- 2The switch under it. A saved id with this off sends nothing at all.
- 3Send test. The only proof that both halves are done — if the test arrives, alerts will arrive.
The two steps before this one happen inside Telegram itself, not here: get your id from @userinfobot, and send @Gst_truck_watch_bot a /start. Get Telegram
Why two bots
The first bot only tells you your own id. It is a public utility and sends you nothing afterwards. The alerts themselves come from our own bot, which is why that one needs its own /start. Send test is the only reliable way to know both halves are done.
If Telegram is silent
Work through these in order:
- 1Telegram is installed and signed in on that phone.
- 2Telegram's own notifications are allowed in the phone's settings. On an iPhone that is Settings, then Notifications, then Telegram.
- 3The chat id is saved and the switch under it is on.
- 4You have sent @Gst_truck_watch_bot a /start.
- 5Send test reports connected.
The bell is not a notification
The bell at the top of the screen is this app's own list of the same alerts. It is there to look at, not to interrupt you — the interrupting is Telegram's job. Adding this app to your home screen opens it full screen; it does not make the icon buzz.
Before you take a lorry live
Set up Telegram nowQuestions about this
An alert says it was not delivered. Do I get the credit back?
No. The credit paid for the check, which ran. Delivery is separate and free. The alert is kept in the app with the reason it failed, so nothing is lost except the message.
Can I send alerts to a group or to my team?
You save one chat id. A Telegram group has its own id, so a group chat can be used — get its id the same way and paste that instead.
Can I get alerts by SMS or WhatsApp?
SMS and WhatsApp are not available. You can use phone notifications or Telegram, configured separately in Settings.
Will my old alerts be sent once I connect Telegram?
No. Alerts raised while it was not connected were recorded and not sent, and they stay that way. They are still readable on the bell and on the lorry's own page.
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