Building a mobile application or any software isn't a one-time task. It is an endless loop of iterations. You build, test, fix, release, collect feedback, improve, and so on. In between those phases, there are endless actions and tasks that should be performed. Here comes the importance of automation.

At Instabug, we try to save developers as much time as possible. This is why we adopted automation and applied it whenever possible. One way to achieve this objective is through Instabug's Alerts & Rules.

Simply put, the rules can automate all the repetitive actions you perform on the dashboard. 

To access your Alerts & Rules page:

From there, you can view and manage your existing Alerts and Rules or create a new one by clicking the "Create" button.

When you create a new rule, you'll be greeted with a few parameters.

Here are some common scenarios where the Rules feature comes out to be very handy and helpful:

An action that may improve the users' experience is replying to them directly after they report a bug. You can automate this step by creating a new rule, as in the following example. 

If your team is already used to a certain tracking tool, you can maintain the same process. We offer integrations with many tools, such as Zendesk, Slack, JIRA, Github, etc. For more details about how to set up the integrations, please check this section.

Again, instead of manually forwarding each report or chat, you can set up a rule that automatically sends them to your favorite tools once they are reported. You can also utilize the rules to make the forwarding more interesting. For example, based on the report category or tag, you can select the suitable tool to which the report should be forwarded. 

One of the actions that you will probably perform a lot is assigning the reports or chats to a team member. You can create rules to automate the process for you. The report gets automatically assigned to the relevant team member who should be handling it based on the conditions added to the rule.

In another scenario, you may want to change the status of a report based on the current view.

Let's look at this from the user's perspective. Suppose they take the initiative to report a problem they encountered while using an application. In that case, it will always make them feel appreciated if they get notified that what they reported was fixed. They will definitely be motivated to be more engaged and loyal to the app. Instead of having to reply manually to each resolved report, you can add a rule that sends a message to the user who reported the bug automatically once the report's status changes to closed. Here is the setting that you can follow to use the described rule.

You can easily notify your beta tester or users that they should update their app to a newer version when they report a new bug. With the message, you can embed a button that opens the application on iTunes, Google Play, or the App Store.