Axis + Slack
Axis camera alerts in Slack
Axis cameras can email when they see something, but posting to Slack is not something the firmware has ever heard of. NVR Bridge sits in between and does the translation. Connect the workspace once, choose a channel, and every alert lands there as a message with the picture already in it — no incoming-webhook URL to copy and no bot token to paste. Axis can already POST on its own — what it can't do is host the image or wait until a person is genuinely in frame.
- You need
- A Axis camera that can email, plus a Slack workspace you can install an app into
- Setup
- About five minutes, all in a browser — no firmware changes
- What arrives
- A message in the channel: the snapshot, the camera, the time and what was detected
How it works
- 1
Add the camera
Create a camera in NVR Bridge and it gets its own private inbound address, something like k7m2p9@relay.nvrbridge.com. That address is how we know which camera an event came from.
- 2
Point Axis at it
In the camera's web UI, go to System → Events, add a recipient of type Email, then add a rule that uses it as its action. Set the recipient to the address above, and use our SMTP server and short password — or your own mail provider, if you'd rather.
- 3
Connect Slack
On the Notifications page, click Connect Slack and approve the app for your workspace, then pick the channel. You can connect more than one workspace, and send different triggers to different channels.
- 4
Trigger it
Walk past the camera. The event lands on your timeline within seconds and the Slack alert follows. Every delivery is logged with its result, so a failure is something you can read rather than guess at.
What you get
- One approval to connect — no incoming-webhook URL, no bot token to paste anywhere
- The snapshot arrives in the message itself, not as a link you have to open
- Several workspaces at once, and a different channel per trigger
- Public or private channels — we only join the ones you name
- Works with every Axis model that can send email or upload by FTP
- Optional number-plate, object and animal detection — alert only when it's a person
Questions
Do I have to be a Slack admin?
You need permission to install an app into the workspace. Many workspaces let any member do that; on a locked-down one an admin approves it once, and after that you choose channels yourself.
Can different cameras post to different channels?
Yes. A trigger says what matters and a notification says where it goes, so the back gate can post to #security while the driveway posts to #home — from the same account.
Which Axis models does this work with?
Any model with email or FTP alert settings, which is effectively all of them. We don't need ONVIF, RTSP or a particular firmware version. Axis cameras can already POST to a URL on their own. What they can't do is host the snapshot somewhere your tools can fetch it, or hold an alert back until something worth seeing is actually in the frame.
Do I need an NVR, a recorder or something running at home?
No. The camera talks to us over the same outbound connection it already uses to send email. There's nothing to install on your network and no inbound port to open.
Try it with your own camera
Add a camera, point its email at the address we give you, and watch the first event land. It takes about five minutes.
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