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WIN-911 text messages from the email WIN-911 already sends

WIN-911 text messages can reach the standby phone as one plain line, built from the alarm email WIN-911 sends today. WIN-911 keeps its voice callouts and acknowledgments, and you add one email contact with your Welco address. Operators whose Bell or Rogers email-to-text went quiet, or who were never full WIN-911 contacts, get the alarm too.

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  • Keep WIN-911 as it is
  • One email contact to add
  • No per-user fees

Works by email with

  • WIN-911

Published:

A WIN-911 notification chain: the SCADA tag "Filter Feed Level Transmitter Faulted" on data source SCADA01 goes to FAULT, WIN-911 raises it in the Membrane Filtration alarm group and its Email channel sends the notification. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: Filter feed level transmitter FAULTED, unacked at 5:12 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: a long WIN-911 alert email is trimmed into one short text: "Welco: Filter feed level transmitter FAULTED, unacked at 5:12 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

What operators get when WIN-911 email becomes a text

  • A line they can read half asleep

    The text keeps the point, the state and the time. The data source, the group label and the WIN-911 footer stay in email.

  • More phones without more contacts

    The chief operator or a backup can get the text without a full WIN-911 contact of their own.

  • Texts that don't depend on a carrier gateway

    Bell has closed its email-to-text gateway, and Rogers reportedly stopped too. Welco sends from alerts-only numbers that carry nothing but alarms.

Why send WIN-911 email to Welco

WIN-911 is a SCADA alarm notifier. It watches alarms in your HMI (the screens operators use) and sends them to people. Its channels include voice, text and email, as listed on the SmartSights site, October 2026.

Email is the easy channel to turn on, and it's all Welco's SCADA alarm notification needs. Check these before you change anything in WIN-911.

  • WIN-911 email is already set up and working, with a mail server it can send through.
  • A Welco account with your municipality or company verified. Start free to make one.
  • The operators who should get texts. Each joins from a Welco invite on their own cellphone and replies YES once.

Send WIN-911 alarms to Welco in 5 steps

Screen names differ between WIN-911 versions. Look for the contact and email settings you already use. Whoever looks after WIN-911 can finish in about 20 minutes.

  1. Approve WIN-911's sending address

    Open a recent WIN-911 alarm email and copy the From address. Add it to your Welco approved senders so Welco accepts mail from it.

  2. Create an email contact for Welco

    In WIN-911, add a contact named something like Welco Texts. Give it an email method and paste your Welco address as the email.

  3. Add the contact where alarms already go

    Put the new contact in the group or notification list that receives your alarm emails today. Leave voice callouts and acknowledgment settings as they are.

  4. Replace old carrier addresses

    If any WIN-911 contact emails a carrier address ending in txt.bell.ca or txt.bellmobility.ca, remove it. Invite that person to join Welco from their own phone instead.

  5. Send a test alarm

    Trigger a test alarm in WIN-911, or force a safe tag. Check the text on the phone and the entry in the Welco feed.

Keep WIN-911 and get its alarms as texts

Add one email contact in WIN-911 and verify your business with Welco.

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

Text me my WIN-911 alarmsBook a demo

One backwash pump alarm, a call and a text

At a lake-intake water plant in Ontario, WIN-911 keeps calling as it always has. Welco adds the text beside it.

  1. WIN-911 starts its callout and sends the email

    Backwash Pump 2 Failed is ACTIVE and UNACKED at 2026-10-06 04:18:05

  2. Welco checks the sender and the clock

    The mail comes from WIN-911's approved address. Before 6 a.m., the rule sends it to the standby operator and the chief operator.

  3. Both phones show the same short line

    Welco: Backwash pump 2 FAILED, active and unacked at 4:18 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

  4. The standby operator acknowledges in WIN-911

    The voice call comes through and is acknowledged there, the way your crew already works.

  5. The chief operator texts back

    Saw it. Call me if the filter needs a hand

  6. The reply lands in the WIN-911 sending mailbox

    Welco emails replies to the alarm's sender. Forward that mailbox to operations so somebody reads them.

    Reply from the chief operator: Saw it. Call me if the filter needs a hand

Times are an example. A text reply never acknowledges the alarm in WIN-911.

A WIN-911 pump overload email as a text

WIN-911 emails spell out the alarm state in full. Welco keeps the point, the state and the time, and drops the footer.

Alert email from win911@scada.example.org, subject “WIN-911 Alarm Notification”. Welco trims it to one text of 87 characters: “Welco: Raw water pump 1 OVERLOAD, active and unacked at 6:48 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Text received: Welco: Raw water pump 1 OVERLOAD, active and unacked at 6:48 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.

Characters197871 credit

Animation: the alert email "WIN-911 Alarm Notification" is trimmed into one text: "Welco: Raw water pump 1 OVERLOAD, active and unacked at 6:48 PM. Reply STOP to opt out."

The trim is a rule you set once. See how alerts get cut to one text. Municipal water and wastewater crews often start with pump and filter alarms like this one.

Tips for WIN-911 text messages

WIN-911 already decides when to send. Welco decides which phone gets the text.

  • Texts by time of day

    Use on-call routing to send night email alarms to the standby phone. WIN-911 can keep sending the same email around the clock.

  • Skip the INACTIVE messages

    WIN-911 often emails when an alarm goes INACTIVE too. A Welco alarm rule can drop those, so texts only show alarms that are still live.

  • Limit the burst after a comm loss

    When a data source drops, say during a storm power outage, WIN-911 may email many alarms at once. Flood control keeps each phone to a handful of texts.

If WIN-911 email doesn't arrive as a text

Check each link in the chain.

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Frequently asked questions

Is this a replacement for WIN-911?

Not on this page. Here, WIN-911 stays in charge of your alarms, callouts and acknowledgments. Welco only turns its alarm email into a text. If you want to compare running Welco on its own, the WIN-911 alternative comparison covers when WIN-911 is still the better choice.

Does a text reply count as a WIN-911 acknowledgment?

No. Welco emails the reply to the address that sent the alarm, so it is a message to people. Acknowledge by the WIN-911 call or at the HMI, as your crew does now. The alarm stays unacked in WIN-911 until then.

Does adding Welco open anything into our SCADA network?

No. WIN-911 already sends email out through your mail server, and Welco is one more recipient of it. There is no agent, login or inbound path from Welco to the WIN-911 server or the SCADA network.

Why not send WIN-911 email straight to a carrier address?

Carrier gateways keep closing. Bell retired Text via Email on December 31, 2025, per its end-of-life FAQ, and Rogers and Fido reportedly stopped around June 2023. In the US, Verizon expects its shutdown to finish by March 31, 2027 (Verizon notice). Welco sends from alert-only numbers instead.

Can several operators get the same WIN-911 alarm?

Yes. One Welco contact in WIN-911 is enough. In Welco, put every operator who should get that alarm on the rule, and each phone gets a single copy. You can also send different alarm groups to different phones using a rule that reads the group name in the email.

What should the WIN-911 email say for a good text?

Lead with the alarm name and the state, then the time. If your WIN-911 email already reads that way, leave it alone. Welco cuts the footer and the data source lines with a trim rule. If your template adds a long header, move it below the alarm line so the useful part comes first.

Does Welco charge for each WIN-911 contact?

No. Welco has no per-user fees, so adding a fourth or fifth operator costs nothing extra. Welco bills by message credits, not by person. A long WIN-911 email can use more than one credit unless you trim it. See the pricing page for plans.

Send WIN-911 email alarms to phones as texts

Keep WIN-911 for callouts and let Welco handle the text.

Text me my WIN-911 alarmsBook a demo

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