Google Chat Alerts Beta
Send FlareWarden alerts to a Google Chat space as readable messages. Add an incoming webhook to the space, pick Google Chat as the destination, paste the URL, and alerts start arriving.
What You Get
Readable alert messages, not raw payloads
Incident, SSL, DNS, and anomaly alerts arrive in your space as Google Chat messages: a bold headline with a status emoji, the facts that matter (URL, cause, how long it was down), a link straight to the monitor in FlareWarden, and when it happened in UTC.
The name and avatar above are the ones you give the webhook in Google Chat (step 3 below). Google Chat shows them on every message the webhook posts.
| Emoji | Means |
|---|---|
| 🔴 | Critical — monitor down, SSL expired, DNS failure |
| 🟡 ⚠️ 📈 | Warning — monitor degraded, SSL expiring soon, anomaly detected |
| 🟢 ✅ | Recovered — monitor back up, DNS recovered, anomaly resolved |
| 🔄 🧪 | Informational — SSL certificate changed, test messages |
Before You Start
What Google Chat needs for incoming webhooks
- A Google Workspace Business or Enterprise account. Google offers incoming webhooks to Workspace accounts only, so a personal Gmail account can't add one.
- Your Workspace admin must allow incoming webhooks. If Add webhooks is greyed out in the space, ask them to turn it on.
- A computer. Google Chat sets up webhooks in the browser (chat.google.com or Gmail), not in the mobile app. Alerts still show up on your phone once the webhook exists.
Setup
About two minutes, start to finish
Open the space in Google Chat
In a browser, open the space that should receive alerts
Open Apps & integrations
Click the arrow next to the space name, then Apps & integrations, then Add webhooks
Name the webhook and save
Call it FlareWarden. For our icon, set the avatar
URL to
https://flarewarden-uploads.fly.storage.tigris.dev/brand/icon-64.png, then click Save
Copy the webhook URL
Next to the new webhook, click More (⋮) and then Copy link
Add a Google Chat destination in FlareWarden
In FlareWarden, go to Integrations, click Add Webhook, and choose Google Chat
Paste the URL and save
Give it a name, pick which events and monitors it covers, and save
Send a test
Use the Send test button — a test message appears in your space within seconds, and FlareWarden tells you if Google Chat rejected the URL
Webhook URL Format
What a valid Google Chat webhook URL looks like
https://chat.googleapis.com/v1/spaces/AAAAxxxxxxx/messages?key=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&token=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
- Copy the whole link, including the
keyandtokenafter the?— Google Chat refuses a URL without them. - Pasted a Google Chat URL into a custom webhook? FlareWarden recognizes it and switches the destination to Google Chat, so alerts arrive as messages rather than raw JSON.
- Treat the URL like a password: anyone who has it can post into your space.
Which Events Fire
Every alert type FlareWarden sends to Google Chat
Incidents
incident.started
- Monitor went down or degraded
incident.recovered
- Monitor came back up, with downtime duration
SSL Certificates
ssl.expiring -
Certificate expiring soon
ssl.expired -
Certificate has expired
ssl.changed -
Certificate was replaced
DNS
dns.failed - DNS
check failed or records changed unexpectedly
dns.recovered
- DNS check recovered
Anomalies
anomaly.detected
- Response time drifted from the learned baseline
anomaly.resolved
- Response time returned to normal
Testing
test - Sent
when you click Send test
Troubleshooting
The things that come up
"URL must be a Google Chat incoming webhook URL"
A link to the space itself won't work. Copy the webhook's own link from Apps & integrations → Webhooks → More (⋮) → Copy link.
"Google Chat webhook URL is missing its key or token"
Only part of the link was pasted. Copy it again with
Copy link so everything after the
?
comes along.
Add webhooks is missing or greyed out
Your organization doesn't allow incoming webhooks, or you're signed in with a personal Gmail account. A Workspace admin can turn webhooks on for your organization.
Messages stopped arriving
If the webhook was removed from the space, deliveries start failing — the destination's delivery history in FlareWarden shows Google Chat's answer. A refused delivery is not retried, and after 10 refusals in a row (25 if the webhook has delivered before) FlareWarden turns the webhook off and emails the account owner Google Chat's reason. Add a new webhook to the space, update the URL and turn it back on.
Rate limits
Google Chat accepts about one message per second per space — far above what alerting produces. If Google Chat ever returns a rate-limit response, the delivery goes into the normal retry queue and arrives moments later.
Team on Slack, Discord or Microsoft Teams instead? See the Slack, Discord or Microsoft Teams alerts guide. To send signed JSON to your own endpoint, use a custom webhook.