ntfy/docs/index.md

Getting started

ntfy lets you send push notifications to your phone or desktop via scripts from any computer, using simple HTTP PUT or POST requests. I use it to notify myself when scripts fail, or long-running commands complete.

Step 1: Get the app

To receive notifications on your phone, install the app, either via Google Play or F-Droid. Once installed, open it and subscribe to a topic of your choosing. Topics don't have to explicitly be created, so just pick a name and use it later when you publish a message. Note that topic names are public, so it's wise to choose something that cannot be guessed easily.

For this guide, we'll just use mytopic as our topic name:

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Creating/adding your first topic

That's it. After you tap "Subscribe", the app is listening for new messages on that topic.

Step 2: Send a message

Now let's send a message to our topic. It's easy in every language, since we're just using HTTP PUT or POST. The message is in the request body. Here's an example showing how to publish a simple message using a POST request:

=== "Command line (curl)" curl -d "Backup successful 😀" ntfy.sh/mytopic

=== "HTTP" ``` http POST /mytopic HTTP/1.1 Host: ntfy.sh

Backup successful 😀
```

=== "JavaScript" javascript fetch('https://ntfy.sh/mytopic', { method: 'POST', // PUT works too body: 'Backup successful 😀' })

=== "Go" go http.Post("https://ntfy.sh/mytopic", "text/plain", strings.NewReader("Backup successful 😀"))

=== "Python" python requests.post("https://ntfy.sh/mytopic", data="Backup successful 😀".encode(encoding='utf-8'))

=== "PHP" php-inline file_get_contents('https://ntfy.sh/mytopic', false, stream_context_create([ 'http' => [ 'method' => 'POST', // PUT also works 'header' => 'Content-Type: text/plain', 'content' => 'Backup successful 😀' ] ]));

This will create a notification that looks like this:

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Android notification

That's it. You're all set. Go play and read the rest of the docs. I highly recommend reading at least the page on publishing messages, as well as the detailed page on the Android app.

Here's another video showing the entire process:

Sending push notifications to your Android phone