Get a Text When a Web Page Changes
Watch a page
The page watcher checks a web page for you and texts you when it changes: a price drops, “In stock” appears, a notice goes up, a sign-up opens. Nothing to install. Add the page on your account, and we stay quiet until it changes.
What the texts look like
Concert tickets: "On sale" is now on the page
Widget price: changed - now says: 15.99
Permit office: "Applications closed" is no longer on the page
Set it up (about 2 minutes)
- Open the Page watcher page.
- Give the watch a name (it starts every text), and paste the page's web address.
- Choose what to watch for:
- When anything on the page changes: best for simple pages.
- When these words appear: for example In stock, On sale, Now open.
- When these words disappear: for example Sold out or Waiting list.
- Choose how often to check: every hour, every 3, 6 or 12 hours, or once a day.
- Tick Text, Email, or both, and tap Watch it. If you aren't signed in, you sign in first (or start a free trial) and come straight back.
The first check records how the page looks now. From then on you get a text only when it changes.
Good to know
- Cost: checking costs nothing. Each alert is a normal UserAlertX alert, 1 token by text or 0.1 by email (a plan includes 50 tokens a month).
- Limits: up to 10 watches per account, and at most 4 alerts a day per watch.
- Busy pages: pages that change on every visit (ads, live counters, the time) work best with when these words appear. Clock times and long counters are already ignored for any change.
- What it can read: the page's text as it arrives from the site. Pages that need you to sign in, or that fill themselves in with JavaScript after loading, may not show what you see in your browser.
- If a page can't be reached three checks in a row, you get one text saying so.
- Pause any watch on the Page watcher page, or reply P to an alert text to pause all alerts for a while.