# Severities

Severities are customizable ways of alerting in case of an incident. They are the ideal way to create a pre-set way of alerting that could then be applied to multiple escalation policies.

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#### Create an escalation policy first
Severities are used in escalation policies. Please [create an escalation policy](https://betterstack.com/docs/uptime/escalation-policies/) first.
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Severities can include any of the main alerting options:

* Call
* SMS
* E-mail
* Push notification
* Critical alert

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**Critical alert** is a mobile app notification that ignores mute switch and Do not Disturb mode.
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### Create a new severity

- Go to [Escalation policies -> Severities](https://incidents.betterstack.com/team/0/urgencies ";_blank").
- Click **Create severity**.
- Name your severity. See examples below.
- Select how you want to be alerted in case of an incident.
- Click **Save changes**.

Now you can use the severity in any of your [escalation policies](https://incidents.betterstack.com/team/0/policies  ";_blank").

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### 3 commonly used severities
- **High Severity** set to call, e-mail and critical alerts
- **Low Severity** set to e-mail and push notifications alerting
- **SMS only Severity** set to SMS alerting
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## Adjust personal alert settings

Want to customize your own notifications without changing the settings for everybody?

The severity section in your alert settings only appears once your team has at least one [escalation policy](https://betterstack.com/docs/uptime/escalation-policies/).

Customize how you'll be notified in [Settings → Alerts](https://betterstack.com/settings/push-notifications ";_blank").
Set how we should notify you when an incident with a particular severity occurs.

By default, you'll get notified as configured in [severities](https://incidents.betterstack.com/team/0/urgencies ";_blank") for your entire team.