jamesking
April fools?
April fools?
That’s awesome, thank you, I was afraid that this was somekind of April fools
Godspeed, my friend
I hope it’s not april fools, as already HTML5 notifications on androidstart to suck… 
I hope one of the first features would be it and coords reporting. Rest can be (at 1st release) just lovelace-webview.
good luck!
Incredible news!
There’s a pretty good app under development at About HA Client - native Android client for Home Assistant
Which, IMO, is getting it right at being fast, lightweight and reliable. Perhaps a join effort could be done?
I feel that I need to voice my position.
Home Assistant Companion 2.0 for iOS is absolutely incredible.
Ariela for Android is really great, and a $4 one-time payment for the ads-free version is totally normal. It’s rated 4.8⭐️ on Google Play with reason.
Mobile App component that you’re working on is a great foundation.
BUT I’m afraid spreading your focus on EVERYTHING will probably hurt quality and growth of the iOS app.
Competition is great when it comes to Android vs. iOS vision difference as every side can get inspiration (like cams, tre/hum sensors on Android and native integrations on iOS), but not inside one platform when the official status of the app kills innovation and already invested efforts.
I believe the better way is to overcome obscure frictions with Ariela developer @Ionut.
I will support your every decision, but that’s something to consider.
@balloob @robbiet480 Please join the discussion.
Paulus have opened up for the existing android apps to become official, but apparently that doesn’t seem to be something they want. On the latest podcast he explained what is needed of app devs to make an app official. There need to be an official app.
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Hi there, actually even few days ago i made the proposal of making Ariela open source in order to became the official Android app for Home Assistant, proposal which was rejected for a couple of reasons. Still, the idea of having an official Android app is a very best one, and if i can and if i am allowed i will like to contribute to the new application and of course support and add new features to Ariela. Having multiple apps to choose from will allow users to have best Home Assistant experience based on their needs, users being what it matters for me and i suppose for the team behind Home Assistant.
@teachingbirds I think you miss my point.
@Ionut I didn’t see it, what were the reasons for rejection?
There’s always a place for discussion.
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@mu3 the main reasons for rejection were:
Anyway, like i said before, there is no reason multiple apps couldn’t coexists for Android users. At the end users will choose the best app that suit their needs in order to have best Home Assistant experience. And of course if i can i will going to support the new official android app.
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I personally only use the web UI (Lovelace) inside Ariela on all Android-based dashboards, and obviously use all these fancy custom components.
So these reasons sound ridiculous to me. Especially, when you compare fully functional, well-known and powerful app to something that don’t even exists.
Robbie will be THRILLED to have someone else assisting him with this app. His biggest problem with the iOS app was doing everything himself and not having any help. He would welcome your assistance with both arms…
Yes, from my end its possible to resolve those issues but at the end its not my decision if Ariela can be official Android app or not
I’ve tested most of the current Android apps.
With every each of them I have issues either regarding visual side or vision for development.
I’ve just looked up HA App in Apple Store (as I don’t own apple device) - and it’s exactly what I would require from app! It supports GPS, notifications and pure webview.
I like my lovelace UI, why does all the devs try to do anything with that…
I hope to see just an clone from iOS on Android and called ‘official’ so it’s always up to date with the API and growing with HA.
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Still no issues with this one: Ariela - Home Assistant Android Client
Really great app!
I’m using Ariela and very happy with it, but generally, I think having more options is a good thing so I welcome the news.
I’d love to try an Android app with HA, but I’m sort of stuck on justifying it. I mean, I can already use the browser into Lovelace, and it works great.
I can certainly see the benefit of carrying around an HA client in your pocket, if you’re doing presence or location detection, but I haven’t gotten into that yet.
Is there some other killer feature an app offers which would bring me into the fold?
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The features of Ariela I like most are
These are just the main features for me that make the app better than just using the webui
If “official” Android app implies it must be open-source then that narrows the field of available options.
The inherent risk of elevating a closed-source app to “official” status is the app’s developer may ‘go dark’ (looking at you Zanzito). Without access to the developer or the source code, the community has no ability to update it and must find another “official” app.
An open-source app may be chosen as the official one but that doesn’t necessarily eliminate the market for a paid, closed-source app that offers superior functionality and performance. Competition breeds innovation and users will be drawn to whatever serves them best.
All in all, there’s room for more than one.
I’ve highlighted my point in bold:
It is the same person who is developing iOS app, mobile component and now an Android app.
I really love and appreciate @robbiet480’s work but who was waiting for new releases for like literally years, knows what I mean when I’m talking about losing the focus.
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I don’t see how my post contradicts what you have said.
I personally welcome a free, open source app that is secure. If the developer has other responsibilities but feels that they are doing good than that is her/his choice, and I thank them. I don’t use any Android app but have used Android since the original Google phone Nexus 1. It makes sense that there should be an Android app as there is an IOS app.I just wouldn’t demand one bc I don’t know how to contribute to making one myself. I somewhat depend on the kindness of people here to scrutinize and expose security issues and this is easier with open source apps. Monetized apps still have a place to get u that special support u need or a flashier UI. I’m not sure how having both an open source official app but also the same app with a cost associated in any different form would work out.
Anyways reading the initial post, I thought this person means business and who is this super hero lol. I’m still not sure I’ll use an app tho I’m currently ok with tracking with Google location tracking and html5 notifications… Till Google starts messing around
He is free to work on whatever he pleases, regardless if people are waiting for new releases/features etc.
Its his choice at the end of the day.
Sounds like a good reason to plug on my Moto X developer edition.
Aaah, the irony. Years of “where is the official Android app?” and now here I am having to defend why there will be an official Android app 
I am not going to respond to the post about Robbie having to focus. It’s his life, his time, he can do as he pleases. And if he chooses to spend that time on building open source things that he will share with anyone, let’s not discourage him, but support him instead, please?
Most work for a mobile app that smoothly integrates with Home Assistant is actually done inside Home Assistant itself: secure token based authentication, webhooks to send data back, mobile app component to tightly integrate the data with other parts of Home Assistant. Robbie has recently put a lot of work in the mobile app part, and so in proxy, Robbie is making all other apps better, including Ariela.
About Ariela. We have talked to @Ionut and looked at Ariela and decided that it does things that we would not consider suitable for an official app.
We don’t want a native UI that is built around the Lovelace config. This is not a publicly supported format and by putting it in an official app, it would be one. The customizability of Lovelace does not translate easily to native controls, and it will be an endless catch up game until you have basically reinvented the browser rendering engine?
Putting MQTT credentials on a phone means it can bypass the permission system that we’re building, by sending to topics and influence Home Assistant directly.
I don’t expect Ariela to remove features, remove ads and become open source to become an official app. That doesn’t make sense. We have been putting a lot of effort in making Home Assistant simple and easy to use, and we will continue to do so. This is not a disconnect between developers and users, ease of use is the most frequent feedback.
Having multiple apps is not a bad thing, it’s the contrary. The great thing is that if people use one app, feel that it lacks features or disagree with choices that are made, they can switch! Yay for choice.
Totally agree, Can’t wait for the Android app:+1:
And, I am sure. you can tactfully “borrow” any good mobile app ideas that can fit within the official framework too.
Thank you for this open, flexible ecosystem.
I’ll summarise the issue to make it clear:
Do everyone understand how much resources are required to fully integrate into platform like iOS or Android and leverage all the sweet staff?
@robbiet480 went this hard way with Swift.
I mean, it’s in Beta now.
Is there a place for collaboration instead of reinventing the wheel?
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This is @balloob 's sandbox. You are free to fork and collaborate to your heart’s content. 
There is a place for collaboration, hence why the mobile app component is built in a way that it’s able to support all mobile apps. We have written very detailed instructions on how to integrate with Home Assistant and the Android mobile app will be built according to that spec.
Seems that this escalated a bit and i am sorry for that. All i wanted was to explain the statement @teachingbirds said : “Paulus have opened up for the existing android apps to become official, but apparently that doesn’t seem to be something they want” which is not actually true and in fact i offered to make Ariela open source and fix the things mentioned by @balloob.
Now, regarding Ariela and the new official app which is in developing, there is no harm if both of them could coexist and i don’t see why we cannot discuss ideas or even help coding.
Indeed, Ariela tend to be more native in displaying entities, cards etc, meaning that custom lovelace cards will not be supported without extra work. But knowing this , a Web UI mode was also added for the users who do not want to use native. Same for MQTT, device tracker and most of Ariela functions, the functions exists in the app, but at the end users will have to choose if they will enable them or not.
At the end all i can say is that if anyone want my help or have any questions regarding Android & Home Assistant, please do not hesitate to ask, this being my way of helping this wonderful community.
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Thank you all for participating in the discussion 
Your time is greatly appreciated!
Thing is that I’ve even wanted to give your app second chance and it’s so not userfriendly at the beginning… I have to give WiFi name even if I have my own network configured to sort out either it’s local or remote connection… Also had issues with the token (why still bother with users with api_password as it’s deprecating)?
I didn’t even get thru first few steps to be able to try it out.
Indeed the setup process can be a little confusing but i believed that its explained enough in order to complete the connection. I know that api_password is deprecated, but unfortunately this doesn’t mean that its permanently removed so users will tend to use it. Please use the Ariela discussion thread if you want to give more details on what didn’t worked on your end to setup, in order to not spam this thread. Thank you.
The majority functionality planned to be provided by the “official app” involved some sort of Android native feature, it would not be an UI-rich apps, therefore I don’t think any cross-platform solution will help.
This just means that us iOS users need to donate more than Android users to keep @robbiet480’s focus in the right direction! 
(jk, but seriously consider donating/contributing, software doesn’t write itself)
Okay, finally getting around to replying to this…
In no way, shape, or form was this announcement targeted directly at Ariela, let alone any other Home Assistant Android app. @balloob and I are in complete agreement that any and all apps are more than welcome to integrate Home Assistant in whatever way they see fit (excepting blatant ripoff of logos or the name and egregious security decisions, and no, that list is not exhaustive and could change at any time).
Paulus and @Ionut have already expanded on the reasons why we didn’t want to accept Ariela as the “official” Home Assistant Android app, but let me add two more:
From my own technical perspective, it would take a lot of work to adapt Ariela to our vision. It would be unfair of us to ask @Ionut to do that, as well as unfair to users who may be using those features (such as the native UI or the MQTT integration). Here’s just some of the things that I believe would be necessary to align it with our standards:
mobile_app sensors (To clarify our issues with MQTT, from what we have been told and seen ourselves, Ariela does not actually have a MQTT client embedded in it. Instead, it calls the mqtt.publish service in Home Assistant, effectively faking “MQTT”. We both don’t want an official app to use MQTT as its just another barrier to entry and don’t want them using workarounds such as this.)mobile_app or something else.mobile_app notify platform that will be in 0.91 and uses Firebase Cloud Messaging as the backend, instead of HANotify.I don’t think it would be right of “us” (speaking as Home Assistant, the entity) to co-opt someone else’s work and effectively remove their name from being publicly visible. For example, the repository would need to be under the Home Assistant organization and we would probably want to transfer the app onto a Play Store developer account that is at least partially controlled by someone other than @Ionut, just in case the worst happens and he is no longer available to us (or doesn’t want to be). Full disclosure, Paulus and another friend of mine have access to my Apple Developer account for similar reasons. Obviously it’s not like we would intentionally remove @Ionut’s name and would credit where possible but he would be recognized less just due to moving stuff around.
Overall, I personally made this decision from the stance of “what is most fair to everyone involved”. What is most fair to the developers, what is most fair to existing users of the apps and what is most fair to the community. I think if you read all of the above and think about it for a minute, few people here would want to be in the position that I and Paulus would’ve been in where we ask someone randomly to effectively upend their entire app that they’ve put a lot of time and a lot of effort into for a long time and in some respects make their apps drop features in favor of a simpler experience, let alone making a developer just outright delete code entirely.
If @Ionut or @estevez wanted to go to all of that trouble, then I think we would welcome it. To be clear to both of them, the list above is probably the majority of the changes necessary but there could be more as we work through the process. I have no problems with either of them. I’ve met and spoken to them both recently, know that they’ve done good work and have been very active members of the community for a long time, doing a sometimes very thankless job (trust me, I probably know this better than anyone other than them or our BDFL @balloob).
Now, speaking for a majority rarely heard from here: I’ve been friends for a while now with, what is effectively, the Paulus of China, in that he is one of if not the actual leader of Home Assistant in China. He runs a popular forum as well as the largest Home Assistant chat group on QQ and WeChat. He believes, and I agree with him, that there is a large market of Android users in China that would like to see an official app, as what they have now is limited in functionality. Here’s the problem though, China can’t use the Play Store, or more importantly, Google Play Services (including Firebase Cloud Messaging), so alternatives have to be sought. This wasn’t going to be something to do in version 1 of the official app, but it is on my short term road map (for perspectives sake, bbs.hassbian.com saw 40,000 unique users in roughly the last 30 days. I’ve had 8,000 installs of the iOS app from China. So just assuming that every user that has installed my iOS app also has visited the forum in the last 30 days leaves us with at least 32,000 Android users in China). The iOS app already works very well in China in terms of push notifications and localization. Android will be a bit of a tougher issue because Google Play Services provides push notifications via Firebase Cloud Messaging as well as a significantly better location system over the native Android APIs. Bonus of finding alternatives to Google Play Services: Some devices don’t have them installed, namely Amazon devices or those based on AOSP, and some people just don’t want to run them. Final point on this, do not read this and think that a non-Google Play Services version of the app is happening now or ever. It’s a personal goal of mine that is a nice to have, not a must have.
I also wanted to quickly throw out there just to get ahead of it (not that i’ve had any indication that people have been thinking this, but what can I say, I have anxiety), obviously I did not build mobile_app to be able to just turn around instantly and tell Android app developers they can’t be the official app. Everything just kind of naturally came together over the last few weeks, somewhat unexpectedly, as I was finishing development of the iOS app.
Finally, everyone has been asking and worried about @Ionut and Ariela. I also wanted to throw out that we reached out at the same time as we did to @Ionut to the author of HA Client, @estevez. He expressed very similar concerns and queries as @Ionut did. Both of them should be absolutely commended for their work.
That’s all I’ve got for now, I’ll be interested to hear your feedback. Thanks as always for your support.
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Thanks for the very detailed response @robbiet480
Hi all. I want to thanks all of you who mentioned HA Client here, and @robbiet480 for his answer.
I decided to continue my work on HA Client as an third party app, not an official one. I will do my best to support highest security standards required by HA. OAuth is coming in next release by the way )
Thanks for chiming in @estevez. Also just wanted to add that we are planning to update existing mobile_app developer docs with a best practices guide covering the standards we hope all apps will adopt.
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I am also more than happy to help of course!
That’s what I really waiting for now. Thanks.
Really interesting here… Would be good to have an official app… That’s what lots of users do when they look for new software… Is there an app…?? That’s also something what I do…
Well, one suggestion for me, please include to read NFC tags, like the app “Hass NFC”
About time
Will the Android app have support for an internal URL, the same as the iOS app? It would be nice to be able to have it use the local address when I’m on my local WiFi and only use the remote URL when I’m away from home.
Built-in support for remote access via Home Assistant Cloud would also be good, so we could log in using the Nabu Casa login details and it automatically pick up the remote URL - I know we could always just enter the remote endpoint as the URL, but this would make it easier.
I don’t think that’s possible with my router. I’m with Virgin Media and use the Hub 3.
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You can put your VM superhub in modem only mode and build yourself a hardware security appliance, like pfsense or opnsense. Or alternatively just buy another decent router. I personally opted for pfsense after 1 day of using the VM superhub, it’s a terrible router!!!
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I bought Orbis and they are fantastic
Since we are talking about Android, Pie has a function called “private DNS” which forces the phone to use a external dns server and goofs up the whole plan of having your router resolve to the internal address… on my phone it was turned on by default.
I am using homehabit app for android
HA Client is excellent, ready for prime time
Adding the shortcut to your home screen pretty much treats it like an app (loading it in it’s own container instead of has a page under the chrome/other web browser).
I think it’s a little silly. The whole point of having a responsive website is so you wouldn’t have to create a whole separate app. That is why the whole “add shortcut to homescreen for websites in order to emulate an app” is a thing. A lot of people just forget this option even exists.
The only area I think an app is really necessary is when you have a fire tablet or other device that doesn’t let you place shortcuts on the home screen for websites. Then an app would be awesome.
EDIT: I guess if you want to do push notifications an app could be nice. With how many third party apps there are for this it is probably unnecessary though (I don’t see a benefit of using HA for push notifications over Matrix, Pushbullet, or any of the other services I use).
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I agree that if the new Android App was just going to be view HA and Push it’d be pointless.
But it’s also going to allow for Location Tracking and hopefully sensor tracking as well.
That’d mean I could have one less App on my phone when all it’s for is HA anyways.
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Yeah, I think the differentiator here is definitely being able to push data from the device back to Home Assistant. Sure, there are other third-party apps that can do this already, or you can even roll your own setup with something like Tasker, which is the route I’ve taken. But for those who are less tech-savvy or don’t want to deal with the hassle of that, having an officially supported solution is a big plus.
That, and as I think someone mentioned upthread, for a lot of people, the first thing they do when looking at a piece of software is look for a mobile app. I agree that responsive websites with homescreen shortcuts are a great way to go when feasible, but a lot of people aren’t necessarily aware of this option or just have the idea of standalone apps ingrained.
Great to hear that it’s coming officially to Android. Would love to contribute, PR review or whatever to help with that.
Meant to write a update to this post, still will, but short version is iOS 2.0 is slightly behind schedule because Apple broke the ability to test watchOS apps via TestFlight (their beta testing service) and nothing can ship until then. Furthermore, as I laid out in the post, the first beta of the Android app shouldn’t be expected until early to mid summer. Summer doesn’t start until June 21 .
You should read the whole thread.
Maybe HA Client can work for me when it supports the custom layout card. Until then it is a no go for me.
@robbiet480
How do we keep up on this?
Is there an official news source for the development on this. I mean not so I can bug but to see how things are going and maybe get in on a beta test
So are you saying that subscribing to this thread is the best way to keep up?
For now, sure. Will make a thread in the next few days in the Android forum which will be the place for updates.
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Hooray, I’m very excited for this! I always thought there was a good niche spot for an official app and am looking forward to using it!
please give us link to this thread…
Extremely interested since I use android…
follow
Keep an eye out here I think https://community.home-assistant.io/c/mobile-apps/android-companion
Just saying you didn’t have to get a Pixel 3, a pixel 1 for $200 will officially run the latest Android.
Someone should close this thread.
When its ready.
The developer Robbie has had a death of a family member recently so is probably taking time out to deal with that
The mobile web does not integrate device information. Using the app for presence detection, accessing device sensor states, cameras etc. There are lots of reasons for an app.
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Ariela do already all these things, so until an official app is available you can use it 
Try homehabit on Google store …
Couple questions on the HA Mobile App for Android from Google Play store.
Will “Push” notification pop up if an event/alert is triggered? (separate from HTML5).
If yes, will this replace Pushover and other variant notification integrations?
Geofencing capability? If so, how will this play with multiple devices?
Real-time location ? (similar to Google tracking but would replace Google tracking)
I don’t see them ever replacing the notification options, only adding to them.
location tracking is already implemented, albeit with some issues right now apparently with updating frequently enough.
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Thanks…
If yes, will this replace Pushover and other variant notification integrations?
I don’t see them ever replacing the notification options, only adding to them.
Apology for not being clear enough.
Can the HA App be used for Push notifications instead of Pushover or other variant notification integrations? Basically, if I wanted to disable Pushover, will HA App provide the same functionality?
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I think that is their plan, but I don’t know. I can’t imagine them NOT implementing that feature.
This is great news the app now support Push Notification and tracking. No longer need Google tracking or Pushover app.
New feature request for the app:
Include the ability for Tracking Update time intervals. i.e. 30 sec, 1 min, 2 min, 5 min, etc, etc. (Unless its already built in. If so, what is the default?)
Include the ability for the app to know when the phone is on the home Wifi network.
Let us know when of if the feature for location update frequency can be implemented (30sec, 1min, 5min, etc).
The App currently doesnt seem to update as it should.
Yes I meant to add that I have that set.
Consolidation of requests for the App.
Include the ability for Tracking Update time intervals. i.e. 30 sec, 1 min, 2 min, 5 min, etc, etc. (Unless its already built in. If so, what is the default?)
Include the ability for the app to know when the phone is on the home Wifi network.
(other than Geo-fencing)
Include ability to have app ignore DND mode so notification come through.
Assuming you mean the official app, have you tried: https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant-android/issues
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Check that Android isnt ‘optimising battery use’ for the App.
I had the exact same issue, so checked if this option was enabled and it was.
Since removing battery optimisation my status is updating as expected.
(it registered I had left the house within 1min of leaving and marked me as being at my Work zone within 2mins of arriving this morning)
go into app details in your settings (android settings), Home Assistant, Advanced,Battery,Battery Optimisation, Click the drop down that says ‘not optimised’ and change it to all Apps, find and click Home Assistant, Dont Optimise and then back right out of everything.
(Nice and simple…Thank’s Google…)
Worth mentioning I’m on the latest version of Android 10 so menu options may change on earlier versions of android. But in theory if you are on Android 9 or greater, this is the problem.
