Preventing Duplicate Incidents When an SOS Is Triggered

When someone presses the SOS button, you should see one clear incident to manage and respond to. If you are seeing duplicate incidents for a single SOS, it is usually due to how thresholds, templates, and workflows are configured, not a system error.

Why this happens

Duplicate incidents can appear for an SOS press in a few common situations:

• Multiple activation paths use the same SOS incident template. For example, a Mobile Safety CEM workflow may create an incident via API while an SOS threshold or Safety Message Alert also creates an incident using the same template at nearly the same time.
• Duplicate or overlapping Safety thresholds. Two Safety thresholds that both match the same SOS conditions can each trigger the same incident template when the SOS button is pressed.
• Configurations that create both a regular and a test incident. In some SOS setups, a regular Employee SOS incident and a Test incident can be created at the same timestamp; only the incident whose threshold or designation truly matches the SOS button is acted on, but both records can appear in lists.

Overview of the resolution

To prevent duplicate SOS incidents, you will:

1. Identify all activation paths that use your SOS incident template.
2. Decide which single path should create the SOS incident.
3. Remove or separate duplicate triggers (or assign distinct templates).
4. Fix duplicate Safety thresholds in Interactive Visibility.
5. Test your SOS configuration to confirm the issue is resolved.

Step 1: Identify all activation paths using your SOS template

Start by finding every place your SOS incident template is referenced. Duplicate incidents occur when more than one of these paths fires for the same SOS event.

• List all CEM workflows that are configured to create an incident from SOS activity (for example, Mobile Safety workflows that call the Incident API).
• Review your SOS thresholds that can launch incidents.
• Check any Safety Message Alert triggers that are configured to create incidents using the same SOS template.

Review existing SOS incidents and look at the “sent via” or source metadata to see which activation paths are currently firing and generating incidents for SOS presses.

Step 2: Decide which single path should create the SOS incident

Once you know all the paths that are using the SOS template, choose the one that should be your primary incident creator for an SOS.

• If you want only one incident per SOS, pick a single activation path (for example, a Mobile Safety CEM workflow or a specific SOS threshold) to handle incident creation.
• If you need different formats for different use cases, plan to use different templates for each activation path instead of sharing the same one.

Step 3: Remove or separate duplicate triggers

Option A: Disable or remove the extra triggers

To prevent duplicates when you only want one incident per SOS, disable or remove the extra triggers that are currently using the same SOS template.

• Deactivate or edit duplicate CEM workflows that create incidents from SOS if they are not the chosen path.
• Turn off or adjust Safety Message Alert triggers that also create incidents with the same template.
• Disable any unneeded test thresholds that create Test incidents for the same SOS conditions if you do not need those incident records.

Option B: Use separate templates for each activation path

If you require multiple activation paths but want to avoid “duplicate” incidents in the same format, assign distinct templates to each path:

• Keep your main SOS template for the primary activation path.
• Create separate incident templates for additional workflows, thresholds, or Safety Message Alerts so each path generates its own clearly differentiated incident type.

Step 4: Fix duplicate Safety thresholds in Interactive Visibility

Duplicate Safety thresholds are a frequent cause of two incidents being launched for one SOS press. To correct this in the Everbridge UI:

1. Go to Settings > Interactive Visibility > Safety > Thresholds.
2. Look for duplicate thresholds that use the same incident template and have overlapping SOS conditions or groups. They may have nearly identical names or differ only by letter case.
3. Delete or otherwise remove the duplicate threshold so that only one threshold remains for that SOS condition.

If you also see a threshold associated with a Test incident that you no longer need, you can remove that threshold so only the intended SOS incident type is created and published.

Step 5: Test your SOS configuration

After making configuration changes, always validate that duplicates have been eliminated:

1. Trigger a test SOS using the same method your users would.
2. Confirm that only one incident is created for that SOS press.
3. Verify that the incident shows the expected source or “sent via” value, confirming that the correct activation path is the one firing.

If you still see multiple incidents, repeat the review of workflows, thresholds, and Safety Message Alert triggers to ensure no additional paths are creating incidents from the same SOS activity.