An alert is what a Smart Badge button press produces. When a staff member presses their badge, Staff Safe activates an alert, notifies the responders named in the Alert Rule, and lists the alert with the staff member's real-time location so responders can reach them.
Every alert carries one status — New, Acknowledged, or Resolved — which tracks the response, not the incident. See Alert status values.
For how an alert progresses from a badge press to resolution, including the number of presses required, see About staff duress alerts.
Where alerts appear
Staff Safe presents alerts in more than one place because responders and administrators need different things from them.
| View | What it is for | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Simple View | The responder view. Shows only active alerts, with large visuals and the staff member's real-time location. Always available. | Responders |
| Map View | Shows active alerts on a floor plan. Available at your organization's discretion, because real-time location is privacy-sensitive. | Responders |
| List view | The full list, with alert details, filters, and history. | Responders and administrators |
| Kio Staff Safe Alerts | The iOS app, giving responders the Simple View experience on a mobile device. | Responders |
An alert appears in every view its audience has access to. Acknowledging or resolving it in one place updates it everywhere.
Active alerts and Alerts History
The List view opens on active alerts — those that are New or Acknowledged. Selecting the Alerts History link shows resolved alerts, and Back to active alerts returns.
An alert stays in the active list until a responder resolves it. Resolving is what moves it to Alerts History; nothing closes an alert on its own.
How responders are notified
An alert reaches responders through the notification methods set in the Alert Rule — email, text message, phone call, or a webhook to a third-party system — and through the app itself. A Critical severity alert also raises an in-app banner and plays an audible notification for signed-in users.
Alerts are always listed in Staff Safe whether or not any notification method is configured. Notification methods control who is told, not whether the alert exists. See About Alert Rules actions and notification recipients.
Responding to an alert
A responder can act on an alert from wherever they receive it:
- In the web app — see Respond to alerts from the Simple View.
- From the mobile app — see Respond to alerts in the Kio Staff Safe Alerts mobile app.
- From a notification — see Respond to alerts from email or text notifications.
Acknowledging records who is responding. Resolving records that the incident was handled. Both are logged in the alert's Activity Timeline, which is what makes the alert an auditable record afterwards.
To act on an alert, a person needs a Staff Safe role with access to alerts. Receiving a notification is not enough on its own. See About user access to Staff Safe.
When no one responds
If an alert is not acknowledged or not resolved within a set time, an Alert Rule can send reminders — notifying the same recipients again, either once or repeating on a schedule, until someone responds. See About Alert Rules actions and notification recipients.
If an alert never reached anyone at all, the cause is usually in the Alert Rule rather than the badge. See Troubleshooting: Alert not activated.