Replacement for email notifications

Thanks to those pesky spammers I can no longer use email for notifications from my different systems because they no longer allow basic authentication (ie user and password) for sending emails so this morning I had to find an alternative. I let Google’s Gemini know my problem and it provided me with multiple alternatives and I was able to implement a solution in less than an hour giving me time to make cinnamon rolls for child number 2!
Who said AI is not making us more productive¿?¿?
Read on for the details!

Context

I have an off-site “lifeboat” RasperyPi that backs up all my photos from my home network every night, and I realized I have not received an email notification of the results in I do not know how long. Using email for these notifications has been pretty much wack a mole for the last few years with it stopping to work every once in a while, requiring setting up something or other and would appear both gmail and Hotmail have now made it impossible to use email for these notifications. So I have been mulling over possible substitutes but thought: I was quite impressed with Gemini last week, why not ask it for some ideas!

Implementation details

Prompt for Gemini:
I used to use email for notifications from my different servers to inform me of results of backups, resource monitoring notifications, etcétera, but it is now imposible have a linux server send emails as gmail and Hotmail constantly are making it harder to send emails from servers so i need a new solution. please let me know the options i should consider

Solution:
Gemini gave me multiple possible solutions (see below for the full response) but the one that caught my eye due to simplicity was a service ntfy that I had never heard of but seems like an perfect solution: push notification system via HTTP posts to a specific topic. Appears it is even possible to self host the whole server if needed, which is something I may explore down the road, but for now let’s experiment with reality!

First thing I did was install their app from F-Droid on my mobile which also impressed me that it was only 7 MB:

Once installed I defined a topic:

and then sent a test message via cURL:

andrew@Taygete:~$ curl -d "Test1" ntfy.sh/JupiterStationTransmissions
{"id":"tO91Vjrpumdt","time":1761463748,"expires":1761506948,"event":"message","topic":"JupiterStationTransmissions","message":"Test1"}

and I received the test on my phone:

Wow. That was easy and painless and super powerful as I can setup a topic for each of my use cases! Switching out the current nightly notification from email to ntfy simply involved changing this crontab entry:

0 01 * * * /sd/ath/PiLifeBoat-sync 2>&1 | /usr/bin/mail -s "PiLifeBoat results" andrew@jupiterstation.net

with this one:

0 01 * * * /sd/ath/PiLifeBoat-sync 2>&1 | curl -H "Title: PiLifeBoat results" --data-binary @- ntfy.sh/JupiterStationTransmissions

and in under 30 minutes my problem was resolved! Now on to making cinnamon rolls for child number 2:

You’re right, sending email directly from a server IP is a constant battle against spam filters. Gmail and Hotmail are protecting their users, but it makes life difficult for system administrators.

The modern solution is to use services or platforms that are designed to receive automated messages. Here are the best options you should consider, moving from simple replacements to more robust systems.

1. Dedicated Push Notification Services

These services are built for one purpose: sending instant alerts from your scripts/apps to your phone. They are extremely reliable and easy to set up.

  • Pushover: This is a very popular, simple, and reliable service.
    • How it works: You buy the mobile app (a small, one-time fee). Your server then just sends a simple API request (e.g., using curl) to Pushover’s servers, which instantly push the notification to your phone.
    • Pros: Extremely simple to use from any script, very reliable, and allows for different priority levels (e.g., “critical” alerts that bypass your phone’s silent mode).
    • Cons: Not free (though the one-time app cost is low).
  • ntfy (Self-Hosted or Public): This is a fantastic open-source alternative.
    • How it works: You can use the public, free ntfy.sh server or (better yet) host your own lightweight ntfy server. You “subscribe” to a topic (just a name, like my-server-backups) in the mobile app. Your server then sends a simple message to that topic’s URL.
    • Pros: Can be 100% free and self-hosted (giving you full privacy), incredibly simple to use, and has a web app.
    • Cons: If you self-host, you’re responsible for keeping the ntfy server running.
  • Gotify (Self-Hosted): Another popular, simple, open-source, and self-hosted option similar to ntfy.

2. Chat & Messaging Platforms

If you already use a team chat tool, this is often the easiest and “free-est” option. You create a bot or a “webhook” and have your server post messages to a specific channel.

  • Telegram: This is a very common choice for server alerts.
    • How it works: You create a “Bot” (which is easy and free) and get an API token. You then find your personal chat ID. Your script can use curl to send a message to the bot’s API URL, which instantly appears in your chat.
    • Pros: Completely free, instant, and many monitoring tools have built-in Telegram support.
    • Cons: Setup is slightly more complex than Pushover (you have to create a bot and find a chat ID).
  • Slack / Discord: Both work similarly to Telegram.
    • How it works: You create an “Incoming Webhook” for a specific channel. This gives you a unique, secret URL. Any message you POST to that URL instantly appears in the channel.
    • Pros: Excellent if you already use these services. Very easy to set up.
    • Cons: Can be “noisy” if you mix critical alerts with regular team chat.

3. The “Fix Email” Option: SMTP Relay Services

This option lets you keep using email, but you solve the deliverability problem. Instead of your server sending the email directly, it hands it off to a professional service that specializes in email delivery.

  • Services to Use: SendGrid, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), or MailerSend.
    • How it works: You sign up for one of these services. Most have a free tier (e.g., 100-300 emails/day) that is more than enough for server notifications. You configure your server’s mail agent (like postfix or ssmtp) to use their SMTP credentials instead of trying to send mail itself.
    • Pros: This is the least disruptive solution. You don’t have to change any of your existing scripts that already send email. It just works.
    • Cons: It’s still email. You won’t get instant push alerts with different priorities like you would with Pushover.

The “All-in-One” Solution: Apprise

You don’t necessarily have to choose just one. Apprise is a powerful open-source library that acts as a notification “middle-man.”

  • How it works: You install apprise and configure it with the credentials for all the services you want to use (e.g., Pushover, Telegram, and your SendGrid email account).
  • In your scripts, instead of writing code to talk to Pushover or Telegram, you just call apprise with your message. apprise then instantly sends that message to every single service you’ve configured.
  • Pros: Incredibly flexible. You can start with just email, then add Pushover later without changing any of your original scripts. You just add one line to your apprise config.

My Recommendation

  1. For a quick, reliable, non-email fix: Use ntfy.sh (public) or Telegram. You can set either up in 10 minutes.
  2. For a “set it and forget it” robust solution: Pay the $5 for Pushover. It’s built for this exact job.
  3. If you don’t want to change scripts: Use a free SMTP Relay like SendGrid to fix your existing email setup.

Thanks for reading and feel free to give feedback or comments via email (andrew@jupiterstation.net).