Vesana on your phone¶
Vesana can be added to the home screen of any phone — Android, iPhone and iPad. There is nothing to download and no app store: Vesana is a PWA, meaning the regular web interface, installable and able to receive push notifications.
Requirement: HTTPS with a valid certificate
Browsers only allow installation and push notifications over a secure
connection. If your instance runs over http:// or with a self-signed
certificate, neither works on any device — regardless of what you
configure inside Vesana. That is a browser rule, not a setting Vesana can
work around.
Install¶
- Open Vesana in your browser (Chrome, Edge or Firefox).
- On the Downloads page tap "Install now" — or pick "Install app" / "Add to home screen" from the browser menu (⋮).
- Launch Vesana from the new icon.
- Open Vesana in Safari. Chrome and Firefox cannot do this on iOS — Apple only exposes the required capability to Safari.
- Tap the share icon at the bottom (square with an arrow).
- Choose "Add to Home Screen" and confirm.
- Launch Vesana from the new icon.
There is deliberately no install button on iOS — Apple offers no prompt, those three steps are the only way.
Chrome and Edge show an install icon in the address bar. Vesana then runs in its own window without browser chrome.
Enable push notifications¶
Push is enabled per device, not per account: if you want alerts on your work phone but not on your desktop, that is exactly what you get.
- Go to Settings → Push in Vesana.
- Turn on "Push on this device".
- Confirm the browser prompt.
- Use "Send test notification" to verify something actually arrives.
Install first on iPhone and iPad
While Vesana only runs as a Safari tab there, the push capability does not exist — the toggle will say so. It becomes available after "Add to Home Screen".
Which alerts arrive¶
That is decided by your alert rules, not by the device. For anything to be sent at all, a notification channel of type "Push to phone" must exist and be used by a rule. Minimum severity, recovery notices and target users are configured there too — see Notification channels.
There is nothing for the operator to set up: Vesana generates the required keys (VAPID) itself when the first device registers. No Google account, no Firebase, no environment variable.
What the app can do¶
Everything the web interface can do — it is the web interface. On narrow screens tables become readable cards, navigation folds into a menu, tab bars scroll sideways, and filters and dialogs open from the bottom. Error overview, host detail with history, ACK, downtimes and bulk actions all work on the go just like on the desktop. The top bar shows the current page and a search button; in the installed app, detail pages get a back arrow.
What is deliberately view-only on the phone¶
Anything that needs a mouse, dragging or width is not offered half-working on the phone — it is shown, with the hint "Edit on desktop":
- Map — zoom, pan, tap devices; moving and connecting on the desktop.
- Dashboards — view; arranging widgets on the desktop.
- Scripts — read and scroll; writing on the desktop.
- Policy builder and profile editor — view.
Limits¶
| No offline mode | Without a connection Vesana shows a notice page. Measurements are not cached — a monitoring view from two hours ago would be more misleading than none. |
| No biometric lock | The device protects the app through its screen lock; Vesana does not add a second one. |
| iOS: installed app only | Removing Vesana from the home screen also removes the push subscription. Re-enable it once after reinstalling. |
| Editing complex views | Map, dashboard grid, scripts and policies can be viewed on the phone but not edited — see above. |
Troubleshooting¶
The "Push on this device" toggle is missing or disabled. Vesana states the reason right at the toggle. The three most common ones:
- Not available without HTTPS — the instance is not reachable over a secure connection (see the box above).
- Add to home screen first — iPhone/iPad without installation.
- Blocked by the browser — notifications were denied for this site once. That can only be undone in the browser: padlock icon next to the address → Notifications → reset.
The test notification arrives but real alerts do not. Then it is not the device but the rules: is there a "Push to phone" channel? Is it referenced by an alert rule? Is the minimum severity higher than the status that occurred?
A device stopped receiving anything. Subscriptions expire when the app is uninstalled or the browser is cleared. Vesana removes such subscriptions on the next send; simply re-enable it on the device. The device list under notification channels shows when a device last actually received something.
Related¶
- Notification channels — where alerts go
- Alert rules — when something is sent