False vacuum decay in field theory is traditionally described using Euclidean methods adapted to systems in thermal equilibrium. I’ll discuss how to go beyond this restriction and describe the false vacuum decay from a general non-equilibrium states. As specific examples I’ll consider the catalysis of false vacuum decay by an evaporating black hole and a toy model of field theory with time-dependent boundary conditions. New observables pertaining to the real-time picture of false vacuum activation will be also discussed.