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Version: 12.0

How-to: Send an Emergency Alert from the Desktop

Goal: give an operator a panic button — a shortcut on a Windows desktop that sends a prepared emergency alert to everyone without opening the web portal. About 20 minutes.

Before you start: you can create emergency alert templates (Emergency alerts page), Settings → Integrations → Inbound API → API access is on, and the operator's computer runs Windows.

Emergency alerts are sent from templates that carry the content, the recipients, the channels, and a color scheme, so that nothing has to be chosen during an incident. Details are in Emergency alerts.

1. Prepare the template​

  1. Open Emergency alerts and click Create emergency alert template.
  2. In Sender settings, set the Authorized senders — the operators who may fire this template from the agents (or everyone).
  3. In Recipients, select Broadcast (everyone) or the groups that must be reached. For a first test, add only your own user.
  4. In Content, enter the title — for example Fire evacuation — and the instructions. Keep the text short; it must be read in seconds.
  5. In Delivery, select every channel the situation needs — desktop, mobile, and, if configured, SMS, MS Teams, digital signage — and set the duration (1 day by default).
  6. In Appearance, choose the alert type (popup or scrolling ticker), the Color scheme (for example, Code Red), the skin, and the Full screen window type if the alert should cover the whole screen; pick the icon of the emergency button under Button.
  7. In Response & tracking, switch on Require acknowledgement.
  8. Click Create emergency alert template and confirm the summary dialog.
  9. The template appears as a card in Alert shortcuts with its color band and type.

2. Create the desktop shortcut​

  1. On the Emergency alerts page open the shortcut download of the template: the dialog offers Download DeskAlertsAPI.exe and Download shortcut.
  2. Save DeskAlertsAPI.exe into a folder on the operator's computer, for example C:\DeskAlerts\Panic\. This tool is downloaded once and shared by all shortcuts.
  3. Save the batch file — named SendInstant_<template name>.bat — into the same folder. The batch file calls DeskAlertsAPI.exe with the server address, the installation's API secret, and the encrypted ID of this template.
  4. Optionally create a Windows shortcut to the batch file on the desktop or the taskbar with a recognizable icon and name (RED — Evacuate).

Important: The batch file contains the installation's API secret in clear text; anyone who has the file can call the API while API access is on. Keep it on trusted operator workstations only, delete it when the operator changes, and generate a new secret under Settings → Integrations → Inbound API when a shortcut leaves the organization — that invalidates every existing shortcut. The shortcut works only on Windows.

3. Test it​

  1. Double-click the shortcut. A console window flashes and the alert is sent immediately — there is no confirmation. (The same template can be tested from the portal: tap its card in Alert shortcuts.)
  2. The alert opens on the recipients' desktops within seconds, in the skin chosen in the template; the color scheme is shown in the portal, on the agents' emergency buttons, and in Dispatched alerts.
  3. On the Emergency alerts page the alert appears at the top of Dispatched alerts with the status Distributing, its color, and the sender.
  4. Click the row to expand it. The actions Preview, Details, Stop, View schedule, Analytics, and Full report appear; Full report shows who received and acknowledged the alert.
  5. Stop the test alert with Stop; the status changes to Stopped.

Test with a small recipient group first — a temporary template addressed to the operators themselves — before creating shortcuts for organization-wide templates.

Other ways to send the same template​

WhereHow
DashboardThe Send emergency alert template widget: tap the card (two taps when the Two taps activation is set)
Emergency alerts pageTap the card in Alert shortcuts
Desktop agentTrigger emergency alert in the agent's tray window lists the templates the user is an authorized sender of; pressing one arms it (ARMED, countdown) and Send sends it
Mobile app and web clientThe emergency buttons shown to authorized senders
Inbound APIThe emergency send endpoint of the inbound API with the template ID