Status Queue: Real-Time Photo Status Notifications

The Status Queue is an integration option that lets your organization receive real-time notifications whenever a photo submission's status changes in RemotePhoto, such as when a photo is submitted, approved, denied, downloaded, etc.

Instead of polling our system or manually checking a dashboard, you create an AWS SQS (Simple Queue Service) queue, and we push status update messages directly to it as they happen. Your systems can then consume those messages to trigger downstream workflows. This can be helpful for updating an employee/student information system, syncing an ID badge printer queue, notifying an admin team, or logging status history for reporting.

How It Works

1. You create an SQS queue in RemotePhoto under organization > Download Settings > Status Queues
   1. Choose a name similar to your organization's name (eg, RP or RemotePhoto)
   2. Choose the status you want the notification to fire a message
2. Notify RP support so that we can provide further instructions
3. Your application consumes messages from the queue at your own pace, using standard AWS SDKs or tools.

A Note on the Alternative: Status Notification Topic

For partners who prefer a push-based, fan-out model, for example, if multiple internal systems need the same status updates, we also support publishing to an SNS (Simple Notification Topic) instead. The core event data remains the same; the differences are in the delivery model (pull vs. push) and whether one or multiple subscribers need the data. If you're unsure which fits your architecture, we're happy to help you decide.

What is a Status Notification Topic?