How to get security camera alerts on WhatsApp

The case for WhatsApp is simple. It's the app that's already open on the phone of the shop owner or the site manager, and an alert that lands where you already talk gets seen. Email is where camera alerts go to be found the next morning, and another app's notification is easy to swipe past, but a WhatsApp message gets read in minutes, because everything else in that chat list does too.

What fires an alert in the first place

An alert exists because a check fired. A check is a paid watcher over your footage that judges a window of recent frames as they arrive, so what gets flagged is an event with a shape (someone concealing an item, someone going down and staying down) rather than one ambiguous frame. Theft Watch and Package Watch are typical examples: the first flags concealment as it happens, the second watches a lobby's parcels. Which checks to run, and how alerts behave once they fire, is covered properly in the alerts guide; this page is about the delivery end.

How to link WhatsApp

1. 01

   Open Account, then Notifications

   Sign in at app.svid.ai and open the Account screen, then Notifications. WhatsApp linking lives there alongside the other delivery channels, and so does unlinking, whenever you want it.

2. 02

   Tap Link WhatsApp

   It opens a WhatsApp chat with the Svid number, message already filled in. Send it as it is.

3. 03

   Open the secure link the bot replies with

   The reply contains a secure link. Open it while you're signed in to the app and that WhatsApp number is bound to your account.

4. 04

   Switch on the Alerts toggle

   One toggle turns WhatsApp on for every video in the account. That's the whole job; the next alert lands in the chat.

What arrives on your phone

Each message carries the alert's reasoning, what the check saw and why it fired, plus a link straight to the flagged moment, so you're reading the judgement and one tap from the footage behind it. And it's alerts only. Daily summaries and billing never go to WhatsApp, so the thread stays something worth keeping notifications on for.

One toggle for the whole account

WhatsApp is deliberately account-wide. Push and email can be tuned per video from each video's notifications menu, but WhatsApp is a single Alerts toggle covering everything: a channel this direct is for the alerts you always want to know about, not a per-camera preference to maintain. If some cameras deserve a quieter treatment, tune their push and email instead and leave WhatsApp as the catch-all.

Why a busy site won't flood your phone

Rate limiting is built in. The account gets at most one WhatsApp message every 10 seconds, and a camera that's just sent one waits 30 seconds so a different camera gets the next slot; a landlord with eight cameras hears from all of them, just not all at once. Alerts themselves are deduplicated too: one event fires one alert, and the same check re-firing within two minutes is recorded as the event continuing, not a fresh siren.

Can I get WhatsApp alerts for just one camera?

No, WhatsApp is account-wide by design: one Alerts toggle covers every video. Per-video tuning belongs to push and email, which are set from each video's notifications menu.

Will a busy site flood my WhatsApp?

No. The account gets at most one message every 10 seconds, a camera that just sent one waits 30 seconds so another camera gets the next slot, and one event fires one alert rather than a stream of duplicates.

Do summaries or billing messages come to WhatsApp?

No, alerts only. Daily summaries and billing never go to WhatsApp, so the thread only ever carries something that might need action now.

Do I need to install anything to get camera alerts on WhatsApp?

No. Ordinary WhatsApp on your phone is enough. Linking is a pre-filled chat message and a secure link, and each alert's link opens the flagged moment in the app.