When an alert goes to a group of people, we don't call them all at once. We call one person, wait, then call the next if nobody has answered.
This page is about deciding that order. It works on every plan and takes about a minute to set up.
Which do you need?
| If you want… | Use | Where |
|---|---|---|
| The same order every time | Priority on each person | This page 👇 |
| People to take turns (weekly, daily…) | An On-Call Schedule | On-Call Schedules |
| Different people at different hours | An On-Call Schedule | On-Call Schedules |
Schedules need the Professional plan. Priority doesn't.
The short version
Each person has a Priority number. 1 gets called first.
You set it on the Users page — the Priority column.
It is not on the Team Groups page. That's the first place most people look, and it isn't there. Priority belongs to the person, not to the group.
Setting it
- Open Users.
- Find the Priority column.
- Click the number (or the dash, if it's blank) next to someone's name.
- Type a number and save.
1is called first,2second, and so on.
That's it. Any flow that alerts a group — or a list of people — now follows that order.
An example
Say you set these:
| Person | Priority |
|---|---|
| Ann | 1 |
| Ben | 2 |
| Chris | 3 |
An alert fires. What happens:
Ann's phone rings
↓ she doesn't answer (5 minutes by default)
Ben's phone rings
↓ he doesn't answer
Chris's phone rings
The moment anyone acknowledges, the rest stop. Nobody else is bothered.
Three things that surprise people
A blank Priority means LAST, not first. Anyone without a number is called after everyone who has one. If nobody in the group has a number, they're still called one at a time — just in no particular order.
Priority follows the person, not the group.
Ann set to 1 is called first in every group she's in. You can't have her first in one group and last in another. If you need that, you need an On-Call Schedule (Professional plan).
Giving two people the same number does not call them together. It only decides which of them comes first. They're still called one after the other. To make several phones ring at the same time you need an escalation policy or an on-call schedule — or post to a Teams/Slack channel, which everyone sees at once.
When Priority isn't enough
Priority is one fixed order, always. It can't change by day or time.
If you want any of these, you want an On-Call Schedule instead:
- "Ann this week, Ben next week" — taking turns
- "Different people overnight" — hours-based cover
- "Two people at once for the handover hour"
Schedules are on the Professional plan and up.
It's not working — what to check
Everyone gets called in the wrong order. Check the Priority numbers on Users. Blank counts as last.
Only one person ever gets called. That person is probably acknowledging, which correctly stops the rest. Check the alert's history to confirm.
Someone never gets called at all. They most likely have no phone number, or no notification channels turned on. Check their row on Users.
The order ignores Priority for one particular group. That group may still have an on-call schedule attached — perhaps from an earlier plan. A schedule takes over the ordering for its group. Open On-Call Schedules and deactivate it if you no longer want it.
What to read next
- Inviting Users — getting people into your account
- On-Call Schedules — when a fixed order isn't enough