I’ll preface with the following:
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I don’t know if this is a BUG or a LIMITATION of the Minimal version of the Companion app for Android
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This happens EVEN WHEN I’M NOT in the car/connected to AAuto
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This happens no matter where I trigger the notify action from - automation, manual trigger from web GUI, manual trigger from within Companion app
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I have NOT tried with the GPlay/full version against this issue and I have NO intention to do so. Firebase and I do not get along due to my heavy use of notifications and the full Companion app’s tendency to terminate its server connection randomly (yes, “Always” is selected in Persistent Connection), consume my 500 daily FBase notifications, and then stop notifying me of critical events half way through my day. Using the Minimal version was the only way I could seem to get around that issue and continue to receive notifications all day long. The Minimal version doesn’t seem to ever lose its Persistent Connection, despite its “full” version counterpart dropping connection all the time
So, onto the problem. Simply put: If I use the car_ui: true option in Notify, those notifications will immediately crash the Companion app when sent.
My theory is that sending Notifications to AAuto is a more convoluted process that involves GPlay services, which the Minimal version of the Companion app doesn’t have access to. The Minimal version of the app doesn’t know how to handle this situation and simply crashes out.
My objective here is to confirm/deny this theory and reach one of the following conclusions:
- My theory is wrong, AAuto notifications should work in Minimal, and this is a bug: An Issue should be submitted
-OR-
- My theory is right, AAuto Notifications don’t work in Minimal, and this is a limitation: The Companion App Notifications and Android Auto Notifications Documentation should be updated to state this limitation for the
car_uiparameter AND the Minimal Companion App should be fixed so it doesn’t crash when receiving acar_uiparameter (that much IS a bug in my opinion)
Does anyone else use the Minimal version of the Companion app? I’m sure it is a much smaller percentage of the community, but I can’t be the only one. 
Then again, the number of people checking all the boxes - Minimal app, Notify, AAuto - I just might be the only person with this specific combination. 
Can anyone on the Dev side of things comment on the AAuto notification handling and whether this is a known (but undocumented) limitation?
I don’t need AAuto notifications. I came across the parameter in my “travels” through the docs and thought it was a nifty option. I added it to some relevant notifications, then realized I stopped getting those notifications entirely. Only through some testing several days later did I realize that my car_ui enabled notifications were never coming through and were actually crashing the app on my phone (no new notifications at all until I opened the app again). I can have the Companion App visible on my phone, send a notification with a car_ui param and watch the app crash out to my phone’s home screen. It just vanishes with no ANR or other noteworthy indicators.
So, this caught me by surprise because there was nothing in any logs (HA or Companion App) to indicate a cause. I just happened to remember my recent change to add car_ui and realized the cause-effect. If remove car_ui, those notifications work normally again and the app doesn’t crash.