How to receive Amazon SNS alerts as phone calls via PushCall

Use case

You are using Amazon SNS to publish notifications from monitoring systems or applications.
Now you want to add a critical alert channel that triggers a phone call using the PushCall service.

This is helpful for incidents requiring immediate human attention — even if the person is away from the screen or sleeping.

How to setup

1. Go to the PushCall website and Sign In or register if needed.

2. Scroll down to the How to use section.

3. Enter your phone number in international format.

4. Copy the generated Webhook URL.

5. Open the Amazon SNS Console.

6. In the left menu, go to Topics and select or create a topic.

7. Click Create subscription.

8. In the subscription form:
   Protocol: select HTTPS
   Endpoint: paste the Webhook URL from PushCall

9. Click Create subscription
   ✅ Confirmation is automatic — you don’t need to confirm the subscription manually.

10. (Optional) Add a tag to identify the purpose of this subscription, e.g. PushCall Critical Alert.

You’re done! From now on, any message published to this SNS topic will trigger a phone call.

Multiple recipients

To notify several engineers at once, use multiple to parameters in your PushCall URL before pasting it to SNS:

https://pushcall.me/api/call?api_key=xxxxxxxxxx&from=1&to=10000000000&to=20000000000

See HTTP API documentation for more advanced usage.

How it works

• When SNS triggers the webhook, PushCall will instantly place a call to the configured number(s).
• There is no voice message — the fact of the incoming call from a saved contact (e.g. "Critical Alert") is the signal.
• PushCall uses a small set of fixed numbers, which you can save to your contacts.
• The call auto-ends in 10–30 seconds or upon answer.
• These calls are free for the recipient.
• Ideal for emergency cases — even during sleep, on smartwatch, or while driving.