3 min read

This Is Not A Drill! In 2 Minutes Flat

This Is Not A Drill! In 2 Minutes Flat

Ever had a time when you absolutely, positively had to tell your application users about something critical and unexpected?

Maybe it was one of these:

  • An unanticipated breaking change you accidentally deployed (but "a fix is pending!")
  • Uh oh, our profiles microservice just went offline. "Hey user! Our apologies, your user profile is temporarily unavailable. Never fear, your data is safe. Please check back shortly."
  • "Hey user! We need you to agree to a change to our Terms and Conditions by Friday!" (or our legal team will have a hissy fit).
  • "Our core database is going to be backed up this Sunday at 2am." User, pretty please, don't try to withdraw from your checking account before 3am!
  • "Last chance to upgrade your free account to paid before we delete all your stored photos." Welp, we warned ya!

Studies show that users really only pay attention to important messages about your application when they're actively engaging with it. This is Not A Drill! can get those important messages in front of their face, in just the right spot and the right time, without creating annoyance or getting ignored.

How does it work?

  1. Create a message in the This is Not A Drill! dashboard.
  2. Schedule the message to show up now (or later), on any page (or specific pages), on all your applications (or just one or two).
  3. Save the message contents, and... you're done.

Users start seeing your message right away. There's no complex workflow or decision tree to think about and set up. It's just you -> your users, when they're most receptive.

We keep track of who saw what, so an end user doesn't get annoyed by repeating messages. (But you can still check to make sure they read them.) And of course, you never need to deploy new code to get messages out (so your engineering team can focus on their deepest work).

How do I set it up?

  • Integrate into your applications via any of these methods:
  • The simplest solution– the embed code– can work on any site or even blogs, and can be installed in minutes.

Does it fit with my application's look and feel?

  • It's very easy to style the four alert message types (toast, modal, inline, and banner) to fit right in.
  • You can test out the styling and positioning options interactively in our demo portal.

But I already use Pendo/ AppCues/ ProductFruit / UserPilot. Why would I need this too?

  • Pendo and other messaging tools are great for product announcements, user onboarding, or user education. This Is Not A Drill! can function alongside these tools, and is best suited to extremely critical messages that cannot wait.
  • This is Not A Drill! is built on SOC2-compliant, net-scale technologies. Reliability and security is at the core of everything in the service. For certain kinds of messages where very tight controls and quick timing are required, general product marketing messaging solutions are not a great fit.
  • If your budget is too tight for the large product messaging services, This is Not A Drill! can also fill the gap as a low-cost alternative with fewer bells and whistles.

What's this cost?

  • Pricing is reasonable, see our pricing page. We strongly believe the service pays for itself with just critical issue per month. (Isn't it better to get the message out when trouble happens, vs risking angry, confused users?)
  • We don't scale up pricing by your MAU. Pricing tiers are based on ticket response time, in case you have any difficulties integrating, targeting messages, etc.

Can I try before I buy?

  • We have a full demo of the service at our live demo where you can test out all the functionality.
  • There's complete documentation including setup instructions at our docs site.
  • Questions? Feel free to send us any queries on the feedback form.

Want to learn more about This Is Not A Drill! ? Just head on over to our home page.

Will Kessler