MAX notifications in Tracker.ru are downtime and recovery alerts delivered straight to your MAX chat. MAX is a Russian messenger developed by VK, mainly used in Russia and CIS countries. The MAX channel runs in parallel with the Telegram bot using the same logic: as soon as a check confirms a down state, a message is sent to your direct chat with the bot, including the URL, HTTP status, and incident timestamp. Connecting MAX takes a couple of minutes and is free on all plans, including Free. The current version of the MAX bot supports personal (DM) notifications only — group chats are not supported yet, so MAX is recommended as a complement to the Telegram bot rather than a replacement.
This landing primarily targets users in the RU/CIS market who already use MAX as their everyday messenger. If your team and incident response are based on Telegram or other channels, the Telegram bot remains the primary recommended channel.
What is MAX and why connect it to monitoring?
MAX is a Russian messenger developed by VK, growing as a national alternative to international platforms. Some Tracker.ru users have moved away from Telegram for personal or regulatory reasons and asked us to deliver instant downtime alerts via a messenger that is already on their phone. Connecting MAX closes the gap «receive alerts in a messenger I already use».
The set of supported events is complete: MAX delivers down/recovery, SSL expiring/renewed, APDEX degraded/recovered, screenshot diff and recovery screenshot, and Heartbeat missed/recovered for reverse monitors. The technique differs from Telegram only in the platform: binding happens via a QR code and a deeplink with a one-time 6-digit code shown in your Tracker.ru Settings. After binding, the bot starts sending alerts immediately — no further setup on the source site is required.
A secondary motivation is delivery resilience. If your primary Telegram bot fails to deliver (blocked client, revoked token, network glitch), the parallel MAX channel works independently. Tracker.ru sends alerts to both channels simultaneously when both subscriptions are enabled — duplication is treated as a feature, not a bug.
How to connect MAX
Connecting MAX takes a couple of minutes — no setup is required on the MAX side, you only need to link the bot to your Tracker.ru account.
Step 1. Open Settings in the Tracker.ru cabinet and switch to the MAX section. You'll see a Connect MAX button — click it. Tracker.ru will display a QR code and an «Open in MAX» button. Both contain a one-time 6-digit binding code.
Step 2 (primary — auto-bind). Scan the QR code with your phone camera or click «Open in MAX» on the device where the app is installed. The chat with the bot opens automatically, the bot receives the code, and the binding is confirmed — no manual input.
Step 2 (fallback — manual command). If the QR or the link doesn't work (older MAX version, opening on a different device), copy the 6-digit code from the card, open the bot chat via the same «Open in MAX» link, and send /start <YOUR_CODE> — with the leading slash and a space before the code. The bot does not understand a bare 6-digit code without /start.
Step 3. The bot confirms: «Account linked». In the cabinet on the MAX tab, the status switches from «Not connected» to «Connected», and a Disconnect option appears. From this point onwards alerts arrive automatically — the next downtime in any of your monitors will produce a message in the bot chat.
After binding, the MAX channel does not need to be enabled per URL — the binding is global for the user. Shared monitors (mounts via email or link) also deliver MAX notifications, the same way they do via Telegram.
Limits, troubleshooting and pricing
Pricing. The MAX channel is free on all plans, including Free. Plan limits are the same as for Telegram: Free — 5 monitors with check interval from 5 minutes; Basic — 20 monitors from 60 seconds; Pro — 100 monitors from 30 seconds. There is no per-message fee for MAX.
Group chats. The current MAX bot supports DM only. If your team needs group alerts, use Telegram — that bot can be added to a group. Group support for the MAX bot is on the roadmap but not available at the time of this page's release.
Troubleshooting. If the bot does not send messages: open Settings → MAX and check that the account is linked. If the status is «Not connected», click Connect MAX and re-bind (scan a fresh QR or click «Open in MAX»). If the manual fallback didn't work, make sure you sent /start <YOUR_CODE> (with the slash and a space), not the bare 6-digit code.
Reliability. During MAX platform outages (planned maintenance or VK-side incidents) messages are queued by the worker. A parallel Telegram channel will deliver alerts independently — that's why we recommend keeping both.
Sign up for Tracker.ru and connect MAX in your dashboard.
See also
- /features/multi-region — multi-region monitoring (Moscow, Frankfurt, Almaty)
- /docs/notifications/max — full setup documentation
- /docs/notifications/telegram — Telegram bot (group chats, screenshots)
- /docs/notifications/email — email alerts (HTML format)
- /docs/notifications/webhooks — webhook integration with HMAC-SHA256