Best practices for implementing real-time notifications for critical field tasks in Field Maps

[JuhaHaanpera]

Hi everyone,

I’m working with a customer who needs to implement a workflow for critical task notifications within ArcGIS Field Maps. Since ArcGIS Workforce is being deprecated, we are focusing on using the new Tasking capabilities directly within Field Maps to manage their field assignments.

The requirement is that field workers must receive an immediate, high-priority notification on their Field Maps mobile device app the moment a critical task is created or assigned to them.

I would love to hear your experiences and best practices regarding the following:

1. Field Maps Tasks & Push Notifications. For those already using the new Tasking capabilities in Field Maps Designer, have you found the native push notifications for urgent assignments? Are there specific OS-level settings (iOS/Android) you recommend to ensure these aren't missed?

2. Webhooks for Redundancy. Since these tasks are critical, has anyone successfully combined Field Maps Tasks with Notebook Python code or webhooks via Power Automate or Make to trigger secondary alerts like automated SMS when a high-priority feature is added?

3. Visual Priority. What are your best tips for styling these "critical" tasks within the map view to ensure they stand out from standard maintenance tasks once the worker opens the app?

The context for this need comes from a high-priority field operations case discussed here.

Any advice or shared workflows would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards, Juha

[LizArmstrong]

Hello, 

May I ask - do you have any use cases for the tasks functionality, or are you trying to leverage tasks solely for the push notifications? From your description, it sounds like you may be trying to solve a broader notification or alerting need. I’d love to understand the workflow a bit more so we can recommend the best approach.

Just to set expectations: Tasks are designed primarily for coordinating and completing field work within Field Maps, rather than as a general-purpose, real-time push notification system. Of course, as you noted already, mobile workers do receive notifications, but only when someone else assigns a task to them. 

The Field Maps team would be happy to set up a follow-on call to discuss your requirements in more detail. Let us know if you'd like to chat. 

[apgis16]

Hi Liz,

I have a similar question. I am enabling tasks for a group of people and instead of assigning a specific user, I just separated different web maps to have filtered views for "department" (i.e. sewer, stormwater, water, fleet). That way, any employee from their department can start/complete task that has their department assigned to it. Is there a way that push notifications can be sent for any new task created without having a specific user assigned to it?

[tshafer]

We currently have a work order system that was built using Workforce and are transitioning to Field Maps using Tasks. Utilizing Task has worked well so far but we are wanting to send a notification to specific people whom the new work order is assigned to. The issue we are having is if you did not approve the two notification settings when first opening up Field Maps, you will not get them. We have tried to remove Field Maps and reinstalling the software and approving the notifications. It has worked on some Apple devices but not all. We are scratching our heads.