Uptime checks that reach your iPhone
DigitalOcean Uptime is a monitoring service that checks the health of any URL or IP address from up to four regions, and alerts by email or Slack. Duskwatch is an independent iPhone app for DigitalOcean, in development; it shows each uptime check's state in every region, sends a push when a check goes down and another when it is back, and keeps 30 days of alert history.
Updated
Down, and from where
An uptime check is the closest thing to what your users see: a request from outside, to the address they use. The check screen shows its state in each region it runs from, Up, Down or Checking, with when it last changed and its uptime over 30 days. The summary in the list says how far an outage reaches, such as "Down in 2/4 regions", which is often the first clue to whether the problem is your service or the network between.
| What you see | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Down | Down in every region: the service itself is down or unreachable |
| Down in 1/4 regions | A regional network path or a check in one place is failing |
| Checking | DigitalOcean reports the region as still checking |
| Paused | The check is paused in DigitalOcean, so no region is checking it |
Uptime checks HTTP and HTTPS endpoints and IPv4 addresses by ping, from up to four regions: Asia East, Europe, USA East and USA West. Alerts can cover downtime, latency thresholds and SSL expiry, and are sent by email and Slack.
DigitalOcean docs: Uptime features (external link), verified
For each region, the API reports a status of UP, DOWN or CHECKING, when it last changed and a 30-day uptime percentage, plus the check's previous outage.
DigitalOcean API reference: Uptime (external link), verified
A push when it's down, and when it's back
If you turn on alerts, a check that goes down sends a push to your iPhone with the team and how many regions see it down. When it recovers, a second push tells you how long it lasted, so you can go back to sleep without opening a laptop. The team is named on both, which matters when you watch several clients.
"client-blog is down" · acme-prod · Down in 3 regions since 02:14.
"client-blog is up again" · acme-prod · Was down for 12 min.
Quiet hours deliver pushes silently overnight, and "Let outages through" lets this one still sound. An uptime check is also the way to get a push for things that have none of their own: a Kubernetes service, a site behind a load balancer, or a static site on the Spaces CDN.
30 days of history
The Alerts tab starts with what is open now, then lists 30 days of alerts, so an outage at 02:14 and its recovery are one row each instead of an email thread. On the check itself, the regions section ends with its previous outage, and the header shows the lowest 30-day uptime across regions.
DigitalOcean's own uptime alerts, compared
The alert policies you set on a check in DigitalOcean keep working, and the check screen lists them read-only, such as "Down in any region for 5 min" sent to "Email · 2 recipients" or "Slack · #ops". A check with none says so plainly: "DigitalOcean won't notify anyone when it goes down." The app's pushes are separate and change nothing in DigitalOcean.
| Event | DigitalOcean Uptime alerts | Push from Duskwatch |
|---|---|---|
| Channel | Email, Slack | iPhone push |
| Down | Yes, with the rules you set | Yes, with the regions affected, and again on recovery |
| Latency | Yes, with a threshold you set | No |
| SSL expiry | Yes | No; certificates in your team are findings in the app |
A team can create up to 100 uptime checks; each check can have up to 5 alerts, and each alert can go to up to 9 email addresses.
What Duskwatch doesn't do here
- No response times or latency charts: DigitalOcean's API does not return response times for uptime checks, so the app shows state per region only.
- No creating, editing, pausing or deleting checks, and no changing their alert policies.
- No checks of its own: every check is one you set up in DigitalOcean Uptime.
- No SSL expiry push.
Questions
Does DigitalOcean Uptime send push notifications?
DigitalOcean Uptime alerts go by email and Slack. Duskwatch adds a push on your iPhone when a check goes down and when it is back.
Which regions run uptime checks?
Up to four: Asia East, Europe, USA East and USA West. The check screen shows the state in each one.
What does "Down in 2/4 regions" mean?
Two of the regions checking your endpoint see it down and two see it up. Partial outages often point to a network path or a regional issue rather than the service itself.
Will I hear when it is back up?
Yes. With alerts on, a recovery push says the check is up again and how long it was down.
Can I see response times?
No. DigitalOcean's API does not return response times for uptime checks, so the app shows each region's state, not latency.