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Ignition SMS alarm notification through the email you already send

Ignition SMS alarm notification can run on the alarm email your pipeline already sends: add one roster contact with your Welco address. When a tag goes into alarm at 1 a.m., the operator on call reads the area, the alarm and the value in one text. No SMS module, no cellular modem and no messaging account to fund.

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  • No SMS or Voice module
  • One roster contact to add
  • No per-user fees

Works by email with

  • Ignition

Published:

A Ignition HMI screen with a Filters process mimic and an alarm summary: the row Filters/Train2/GenAlarm, General Alarm, appears ActiveUnacked with priority High above two acknowledged alarms. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: [Train 2] Filter general alarm ACTIVE at 1:37 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: a long Ignition alert email is trimmed into one short text: "Welco: [Train 2] Filter general alarm ACTIVE at 1:37 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

What changes when Ignition alarms become texts

  • The operator reads it on the lock screen

    The text drops the display path and the source string. What is left is the area, the alarm, the value and the time.

  • Your pipelines stay in charge

    Rosters, priorities and the alarm journal stay in Ignition. Welco only chooses which phone gets each email, by time of day.

  • The gateway stays behind the firewall

    Welco never connects to your gateway. It only receives the mail your email profile sends out, so no inbound port is opened.

  • A radio drop won't flood the phone

    When an ice storm takes out a radio repeater and forty remote tags trip, flood control holds the texts to a few. The alarm status table keeps the full list.

What you need for Ignition SMS alarm notification

Ignition (by Inductive Automation) sends alarm email through its Alarm Notification module and an email profile. If your gateway emails alarms today, you are most of the way to SCADA alarm notification by SMS.

  • An email notification profile that can reach a mail server, such as the municipality's mail relay or Microsoft 365.
  • An alarm pipeline with a notification block, and alarms on your tags that point to that pipeline.
  • A Welco account with your business verified. Start free if you don't have one yet.
  • Operators who join from a Welco invite on their own cellphone. Each replies YES to a first text before any alarm reaches them.

Set up Ignition alarm texts in 6 steps

Menu names below match the Ignition 8.1 gateway and Designer. Whoever maintains your gateway can do this in about 20 minutes, most of it testing. For another SCADA package, use the SCADA alarm text setup guide.

  1. Approve the gateway's From address in Welco

    Find the From address your email profile uses, for example ignition@gateway.example.org. Add it to the senders allowed to trigger texts. Mail from any other address is turned away.

  2. Check the email notification profile

    On the gateway, open Config, then Alarming, then Notification. Make sure an Email Notification profile exists and its mail server test works.

  3. Create a user for the Welco address

    In your user source, add a user such as welco-oncall. Under its contact info, add an email entry and paste your Welco address.

  4. Put that user on an on-call roster

    Open Alarming, then On-Call Rosters, and add the new user to the roster your pipeline uses. You can also build a roster just for texts.

  5. Point the pipeline at the roster

    In the Designer, open Alarm Pipelines and select the notification block. Choose the email profile on its Notification tab and the roster on its Contacts tab, then save the project.

    • Keep the message short. Site, point, state and time are enough for a text.
    • Check that each tag alarm's Active Pipeline is set to this pipeline.

  6. Trip a test alarm

    Force a test tag into alarm and watch the Welco feed. Turn on Welco's no-send test mode first if you want to see the result without sending a text.

Your Ignition pipeline can text tonight

Verify your business, add a roster user with your Welco address, and trip a test alarm.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

Text me my Ignition alarmsBook a demo

An Ignition reservoir alarm before and after

Ignition's default email wording repeats the display path and the full alarm source. Welco keeps the reservoir, the state, the level and the time.

Alert email from ignition@gateway.example.org, subject “Alarm Notification: High Level”. Welco trims it to one text of 86 characters: “Welco: [East Reservoir] High Level ACTIVE, 9.6 m at 10:15 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Text received: Welco: [East Reservoir] High Level ACTIVE, 9.6 m at 10:15 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.

Characters246861 credit

Animation: the alert email "Alarm Notification: High Level" is trimmed into one text: "Welco: [East Reservoir] High Level ACTIVE, 9.6 m at 10:15 PM. Reply STOP to opt out."

You control the trim with a rule. See how trimming to one text keeps long alarm emails to the part an operator needs. Municipal systems running Ignition can see more in water and wastewater alarm texts.

Tips for Ignition alarm texts

A few choices make the difference between texts people trust and texts people mute.

  • Night alarms to the standby phone

    Rosters decide who gets the email. Welco on-call routing then picks the phone by time of day, so nobody edits a roster at every shift change.

  • Lead operator and backup together

    One Welco address can reach two or three phones at once. Each phone gets one copy, even if the gateway sends the email twice.

  • Bundle a comm-loss storm

    Turn on consolidation in the notification block so many remote tags arrive as fewer emails. Welco flood limits catch whatever still gets through.

  • Keep Cleared out of texts

    If the pipeline also emails clears, an alert rule drops any email that says Cleared. A text then always means a live alarm.

If an Ignition alarm doesn't become a text

Work through these in order. The first two cover most cases.

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Frequently asked questions

Do I need the Ignition SMS or Twilio Notification module?

No. Those modules send texts directly, and the Twilio module needs your own Twilio account. With Welco you only need Ignition to send alarm email, which the Alarm Notification module does. Welco turns each email into a text, and there is no SMS account for you to register or top up.

Does Welco connect to the Ignition gateway or our control network?

No. Welco has no login to the gateway and no agent on it. The gateway sends mail out through your relay, and Welco receives it like any mailbox would. Your IT team only allows outbound mail, and nothing inbound reaches the plant.

Can an operator acknowledge an Ignition alarm by replying to the text?

No. A reply comes back as an email to the address that sent the alarm. Use a From address on a mailbox your crew reads, and the morning shift sees who answered. Acknowledge the alarm in your Perspective or Vision alarm status table as usual.

Can I keep the Voice module or our dialer for callouts?

Yes. Welco is one more email contact on a roster, so voice callouts can keep running beside it. Many sites text first and keep a voice path for alarms that need a spoken callout. Welco itself never places calls.

Do operators need Perspective or an Ignition app to read the alarm?

No. The alarm lands in the phone's normal messages app like any other text. Nobody logs in to the gateway to read it. Operators open Perspective or Vision only when they want the trend or need to acknowledge.

Can I use system.net.sendEmail instead of a pipeline?

Yes. Some sites send alarms from a tag change script with system.net.sendEmail and an SMTP server. Put your Welco address in the recipient list instead of a carrier address like number@txt.bell.ca, which Bell retired on December 31, 2025. The Welco steps are the same: approve the sender, invite the operators, and test.

Will cleared and acknowledged alarms also turn into texts?

Only if your pipeline emails them. Many sites send active alarms only. If clear messages do arrive, a Welco rule can drop emails that contain a word like Cleared. Operators then only get texts for alarms that need a visit.

What did the Ignition notification modules cost?

Inductive Automation lists Alarm Notification at US$2,245 and its SMS, Twilio and Voice modules at US$945 each (price list, October 2026). All prices are in US dollars (USD). Customers in Canada pay in US dollars too. Welco has no per-user, hardware or setup fees, so compare SCADA alarm notification cost or see plans on the pricing page.

Turn your Ignition pipeline email into a text

Add one roster user with your Welco address and the standby phone hears about the next alarm.

Text me my Ignition alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing