The Pushover alternative made for iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Pocketbell is a push notification app made only for Apple devices. If you send alerts with Pushover today, your scripts move over with a few changed lines: most fields keep their names, priority 2 becomes Critical and repeats until acknowledged, and one purchase covers every iPhone, iPad and Mac you own.
Free to start. Pro from $3.99 a month. For iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS 26.
What you keep
The things that make Pushover easy to live with are all here.
One request, from anything
A POST with a title and a message. url, url_title, sound, retry, expire, callback and ttl keep the names you know.
Emergency alerts, as Critical
Priority 2 becomes critical: it repeats until someone acknowledges it, with the same retry and expire ranges.
Quiet hours
Normal notifications arrive silently overnight, in your time zone. Important and Critical still ring.
Buy it once, if you like
Pro is $69.99 once for life, or a subscription. Either way it covers every iPhone, iPad and Mac you sign in on.
What’s new on Apple devices
Pocketbell is made only for Apple devices, so it uses everything they can do.
Delivery you can see
Each device reports when a notification arrives, so your script knows it landed, and where.
Buttons that answer
Send Approve and Deny, tap one on any device, and the answer goes back to the script that asked.
Live Activities
Deploys, backups and builds as live progress on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island.
A true Mac app
A menu bar icon for what needs acknowledgment, and a full window with a sidebar, shortcuts and right-click menus.
Webhooks that write themselves
Paste a Source’s URL into Uptime Kuma, Grafana or Alertmanager, and alerts arrive written out, Critical when something’s down.
Replace, not pile up
Send a replace key, and “back up” takes the place of “down” on screen, with how long it lasted.
Switching
Switch in five minutes.
- 01
Get Pocketbell
Download it on your iPhone, iPad or Mac and sign in with Apple. It’s free to start, and one purchase covers all of them.
- 02
Create a Source
One for each Pushover application you send from. Its key stands in for both the app token and your user key.
- 03
Change the request
Send JSON to api.pocketbell.dev with the key as a bearer token, and turn the priority number into its name.
curl -s \
-F "token=APP_TOKEN" \
-F "user=USER_KEY" \
-F "title=api-2 is down" \
-F "message=Health check failed 3 times" \
-F "priority=2" -F "retry=300" -F "expire=3600" \
https://api.pushover.net/1/messages.jsoncurl https://api.pocketbell.dev/v1/messages \
-H "Authorization: Bearer pb_live_…" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"title": "api-2 is down",
"message": "Health check failed 3 times",
"priority": "critical",
"retry": 300, "expire": 3600}'Field by field
| In Pushover | In Pocketbell | Notes |
|---|---|---|
token + user | Authorization: Bearer | One key per Source, made in the app and shown once. |
message | message | Up to 4,096 characters. |
title | title | Defaults to the Source’s name. |
priority | priority | A name instead of a number. See below. |
retry, expire | retry, expire | Critical only: 30 to 3,600 and 60 to 10,800 seconds. |
sound | sound | bell, chime, ping, pulse, rise, alarm, default or none. Or set it per Source in the app. |
url, url_title | url, url_title | Or up to three buttons that open links, with actions. |
html=1, monospace=1 | markdown: true | Bold, italic, code, links and lists. |
callback | callback | Pro. Signed, and sent when it’s acknowledged or expires. |
attachment | attachment | Pro. An https link to the image instead of an upload. |
ttl | ttl | How long Apple keeps trying a device that’s offline. The notification stays in the inbox for your plan’s history. |
device | Not needed | Choose each Source’s devices in the app. |
timestamp | Not needed | The time shown is when it was sent. To send it later, use deliver_at, up to 30 days ahead. |
Priorities
| In Pushover | In Pocketbell | Notes |
|---|---|---|
-2 | silent | In the inbox, with nothing on screen. |
-1 | quiet | On screen, with no sound. |
0 | normal | A standard notification. Arrives silently during quiet hours. |
1 | important | Time Sensitive: it can break through a Focus. |
2 | critical | Repeats until acknowledged, canceled or expired. |
Tools with Pushover built in, like Uptime Kuma, Grafana and Home Assistant, can send to a Pocketbell webhook Source instead. Each has a step-by-step guide. See every integration guide.
Is Pocketbell right for you?
A great fit if
- Your devices are iPhone, iPad and Mac.
- You send alerts from servers, scripts, CI or monitoring.
- You want to know a Critical alert was seen, not just sent.
Not the right fit if
- You need notifications on Android, Windows or Linux. Pocketbell is made only for Apple devices.
- You need one message to reach a whole team. Each Pocketbell account is one person’s.
Common questions
Is Pocketbell a good Pushover alternative?
If your devices are Apple ones, yes. Pocketbell does what most people use Pushover for, alerts from scripts, servers and monitoring with emergency alerts that repeat until acknowledged, and adds delivery receipts, buttons that answer, Live Activities and a native Mac app. It doesn’t run on Android, Windows or Linux.
Can I keep my Pushover scripts?
Almost as they are. Send to https://api.pocketbell.dev/v1/messages, put the Source’s key in an Authorization: Bearer header instead of token and user, send JSON, and turn the priority number into its name (2 is critical). title, message, url, url_title, sound, retry, expire, callback and ttl keep their names.
Does Pocketbell have emergency priority?
Yes, it’s called Critical. A Critical notification repeats every 5 minutes until someone acknowledges it, the sender cancels it, or it expires after an hour. retry can be 30 to 3,600 seconds and expire up to 3 hours. The sender can check its status at any time, and with Pro get a signed callback when it’s acknowledged.
Do I have to buy Pocketbell separately for iPhone and Mac?
No. Pocketbell is one App Store app, and one purchase covers every iPhone, iPad and Mac you sign in on. The free plan works on all of them too.
Can tools with built-in Pushover support send to Pocketbell?
Yes, through a webhook Source. Uptime Kuma, Grafana, Alertmanager and Home Assistant can all post to its URL, and Pocketbell has a step-by-step guide for each at pocketbell.dev/integrations.
How much does Pocketbell cost?
Pocketbell is free for 3 Sources, 1,000 notifications and 30 questions a month, Critical notifications included. Pro is $24.99 a year with a 14-day free trial, $3.99 a month, or $69.99 once, and adds unlimited Sources, 25,000 notifications a month, unlimited questions, 90 days of history, Live Activities, images and callbacks.
Is Pocketbell affiliated with Pushover?
No. Pocketbell is made by SR WORKS LLC and isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by Pushover. The name is used only to show how to move over.
Put every alert in your pocket.
Free to start. Made for iPhone, iPad and Mac.