Back in July we introduced Sam, the AI helper who lives in your dashboard, reads your logs so you don't have to, and fixes things when you say the word.

He has been busy since. Sam now installs onto your phone, and he taps you on the shoulder when something in your stack needs you.

He fits in your pocket 📱

Open Sam on your phone and he offers to install himself. Say yes and he lands on your home screen with his own icon, opening full screen with no browser chrome, no app store, and no account to create. On an iPhone, use Share, then Add to Home Screen.

It is the same Sam you already know, just always one tap away instead of buried in a browser tab you closed three days ago.

Your stack can now reach you 🔔

Here is the part we are most pleased with. Once Sam is on your phone, he can send you a push notification when something needs attention. Plex stops answering, a download has been stuck for an hour, a backup failed overnight: your phone tells you, the way any other app on it would.

You no longer have to be the monitoring system. No more discovering on Friday night, with guests on the sofa, that the thing quietly broke on Tuesday.

He asks before he buzzes

We have all installed something that turned our phone into a slot machine and then turned notifications off forever. Sam is built so that cannot happen.

• Nothing buzzes you until you say so. The very first alert from any app is held back, not delivered. Sam shows you what it was and asks whether you want to hear from that app at all. Say no and you never hear from it again.
• Every app gets its own switch. Tell Sam "stop telling me about Plex" and only Plex goes quiet. The rest carry on.
• Tap the alert and ask him why. The notification opens Sam with the question already written. You press send and he goes and looks, rather than leaving you to work out which app to blame.
• Missed one? It waited for you. Swiping a notification away no longer loses it. Open Sam and anything that happened while you were out is sitting there under "While you were away".

Your apps already know how

Sonarr, Radarr, Overseerr, Uptime Kuma and plenty more already have a notifications screen. They just needed somewhere to send it.

Sam now understands the notification formats those apps already speak, so pointing one at him is a single line pasted into a settings box you have probably already seen. No plugin, no script, nothing new to install. Our Sam docs have the exact line for each app, and if yours is not listed, ask in #elf-help and we will sort it out with you.

What has not changed

Sam still only ever sees your own account, and your secrets still never reach the model behind him. Notifications do not change any of that, and the full detail is still in our privacy policy.

He is also still included with every ElfHosted account, at no extra cost. There is nothing to buy and nothing to enable.

Put him in your pocket ✨

Open your dashboard on your phone, tap through to Sam, and let him install himself. Then say yes when he offers notifications, and go back to enjoying your movie night while somebody else watches the plumbing.

And when you would rather talk to a human, the crew and the community are right where they have always been, in #elf-help on our Discord.

"The beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid. (It's actually just Sonarr, but you'll want to know.)"