Hey! This is my first blueprint, so please bear with me — and feedback is very welcome.
At the time of writing, Live Activities are still available through the TestFlight version of the Home Assistant Companion app and must be enabled through Labs. Source. They currently require iOS 17.2 or later and Home Assistant Core 2026.7.0 or later. I’m not sure when the feature will reach the regular App Store release.
This blueprint makes it easy to create a Live Activity for your washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, or another appliance with a known start and finish time.
While the appliance is running, the Live Activity can show:
- A countdown that updates locally on the iPhone
- A progress bar and percentage
- The estimated completion time
- A configurable icon and color
- Updates on multiple phones
When the appliance enters one of the configured finished states, the Live Activity changes to a completed state with a full progress bar and completion icon. It can also send a regular completion notification.
The countdown uses the Live Activity chronometer, so it continues ticking on the phone without Home Assistant having to send an update every second. The progress bar is refreshed at a configurable interval to avoid excessive push updates and iOS throttling. I have not tested this on an Android, sorry.
Required entities
The appliance must provide:
- A start timestamp sensor
- A finish timestamp sensor
- An entity that reports the appliance’s current state
Example:
start_sensor: sensor.washing_machine_start
finish_sensor: sensor.washing_machine_finish
state_entity: sensor.washing_machine_state
You then configure one or more raw states that indicate completion:
finished_states: |
finished
completed
program_ended
The start and finish sensors should contain ISO 8601 timestamps, preferably using device_class: timestamp:
2026-07-15T13:46:00+00:00
The finish timestamp is used by the iPhone’s built-in chronometer, while progress is calculated from the interval between the start and finish timestamps.
Example appearance
While running:
Washing machine, done at 16:53
01:42:18
████████░░░░ 43%
When finished:
Washing machine
Laundry is complete 🧺
████████████ 100%
(Will update with screenshots)
Blueprint
blueprint:
name: Appliance Live Activity countdown
description: >
Creates an iOS Live Activity with a locally updating countdown and a
periodically refreshed progress bar for an appliance.
When the configured appliance state changes to one of the configured
finished states, the Live Activity changes to a completed state. An
optional regular completion notification can also be sent.
REQUIREMENTS
The appliance must provide:
- A start timestamp sensor
The sensor state must be an ISO 8601 date and time. A sensor with
device_class: timestamp is recommended.
Example:
2026-07-15T13:46:00+00:00
- A finish timestamp sensor
The sensor state must be an ISO 8601 date and time. A sensor with
device_class: timestamp is recommended.
Example:
2026-07-15T16:53:00+00:00
The finish timestamp must be later than the start timestamp.
- An appliance state entity
The entity must expose a state indicating when the appliance has
completed its cycle.
Example entity:
sensor.washing_machine
Example finished states:
finished
completed
program_ended
The countdown and progress are calculated from the start and finish
timestamps. The appliance state is used to determine when the cycle has
completed.
State matching is case-insensitive and ignores surrounding whitespace.
Use raw entity states from Developer Tools > States, not translated
dashboard labels.
The running title supports these placeholders:
{appliance}
{finish_time}
This allows the title wording and word order to be customized for
different languages.
Examples:
English:
{appliance}, done at {finish_time}
Norwegian:
{appliance}, ferdig {finish_time}
German:
{appliance} ist um {finish_time} fertig
Disable older automations that control the same Live Activity tag to
avoid duplicate notifications.
domain: automation
author: Håkon Åreskjold
homeassistant:
min_version: 2024.6.0
input:
appliance:
name: Appliance
icon: mdi:washing-machine
input:
appliance_name:
name: Appliance name
description: Displayed while the appliance is running.
default: Washing machine
selector:
text:
running_title_template:
name: Running title format
description: >
Title shown while the appliance is running.
Available placeholders:
{appliance}
{finish_time}
Examples:
English:
{appliance}, done at {finish_time}
Norwegian:
{appliance}, ferdig {finish_time}
German:
{appliance} ist um {finish_time} fertig
default: "{appliance}, done at {finish_time}"
selector:
text:
completed_title:
name: Completed title
default: Washing machine
selector:
text:
completed_message:
name: Completed message
default: Laundry is complete 🧺
selector:
text:
start_sensor:
name: Start timestamp sensor
description: >
Must contain an ISO 8601 timestamp, for example
2026-07-15T13:46:00+00:00.
selector:
entity:
filter:
- domain: sensor
device_class: timestamp
finish_sensor:
name: Finish timestamp sensor
description: >
Must contain an ISO 8601 timestamp later than the start timestamp,
for example 2026-07-15T16:53:00+00:00.
selector:
entity:
filter:
- domain: sensor
device_class: timestamp
state_entity:
name: Appliance state entity
description: >
Entity whose state indicates whether the appliance is running,
finished, idle, or in another operating phase.
Example:
sensor.washing_machine
selector:
entity:
filter:
- domain: sensor
finished_states:
name: Finished states
description: >
Enter one raw entity state per line. Matching is case-insensitive
and ignores surrounding whitespace.
Example:
finished
completed
program_ended
Be careful with states such as "idle". Some appliances are idle
both before and after a cycle, which can cause false completion
detection after a restart.
default: |
finished
completed
selector:
text:
multiline: true
notifications:
name: Notifications
icon: mdi:cellphone
input:
notify_services:
name: Mobile notification actions
description: >
Enter a YAML list of mobile-app notification actions.
Example:
- notify.mobile_app_x
- notify.mobile_app_y
selector:
object:
activity_tag:
name: Live Activity tag
description: Use a unique tag for each appliance blueprint instance.
default: appliance_live_activity
selector:
text:
dashboard_url:
name: Tap destination
description: >
Home Assistant path opened when the Live Activity is tapped.
The default "/" opens the Home Assistant landing page. You may specify
a dashboard or view path instead, for example:
/lovelace
/lovelace/laundry
/dashboard-mobile/laundry
default: "/"
selector:
text:
send_completion_notification:
name: Send regular completion notification
description: >
Send a normal push notification when the appliance first enters a
configured finished state.
default: true
selector:
boolean:
appearance:
name: Appearance
icon: mdi:palette
collapsed: true
input:
running_icon:
name: Running icon
default: mdi:washing-machine
selector:
icon:
completed_icon:
name: Completed icon
default: mdi:check-circle
selector:
icon:
running_color:
name: Running color
default: "#2196F3"
selector:
text:
completed_color:
name: Completed color
default: "#4CAF50"
selector:
text:
finished_text:
name: Finished Live Activity text
default: Done
selector:
text:
behavior:
name: Behavior
icon: mdi:cog
collapsed: true
input:
update_pattern:
name: Progress update pattern
description: >
Time-pattern minute value. "/10" updates at minutes 0, 10, 20,
30, 40, and 50. The countdown itself updates locally every second.
default: "/10"
selector:
text:
mode: restart
max_exceeded: silent
triggers:
- trigger: state
entity_id:
- !input start_sensor
- !input finish_sensor
id: timestamps_changed
- trigger: state
entity_id: !input state_entity
id: appliance_state_changed
- trigger: time_pattern
minutes: !input update_pattern
id: progress_update
- trigger: homeassistant
event: start
id: home_assistant_started
variables:
appliance_name: !input appliance_name
running_title_template: !input running_title_template
completed_title: !input completed_title
completed_message: !input completed_message
start_sensor: !input start_sensor
finish_sensor: !input finish_sensor
state_entity: !input state_entity
finished_states_input: !input finished_states
notify_services: !input notify_services
activity_tag: !input activity_tag
dashboard_url: !input dashboard_url
send_completion_notification: !input send_completion_notification
running_icon: !input running_icon
completed_icon: !input completed_icon
running_color: !input running_color
completed_color: !input completed_color
finished_text: !input finished_text
appliance_state: >
{{ states(state_entity) | lower | trim }}
finished_states_list: >
{{
finished_states_input
.splitlines()
| map('trim')
| map('lower')
| reject('equalto', '')
| list
}}
is_finished: >
{{ appliance_state in finished_states_list }}
previous_appliance_state: >
{% if trigger.id == 'appliance_state_changed'
and trigger.from_state is not none %}
{{ trigger.from_state.state | lower | trim }}
{% else %}
unknown
{% endif %}
previous_state_was_finished: >
{{ previous_appliance_state in finished_states_list }}
entered_finished_state: >
{{
trigger.id == 'appliance_state_changed'
and is_finished
and not previous_state_was_finished
}}
start_timestamp: >
{{ as_timestamp(states(start_sensor), 0) | int }}
finish_timestamp: >
{{ as_timestamp(states(finish_sensor), 0) | int }}
now_timestamp: >
{{ as_timestamp(now()) | int }}
has_valid_cycle: >
{{
start_timestamp > 0
and finish_timestamp > start_timestamp
}}
total_seconds: >
{{ [finish_timestamp - start_timestamp, 1] | max }}
elapsed_seconds: >
{{
[
[now_timestamp - start_timestamp, 0] | max,
total_seconds
] | min
}}
finish_local: >
{% if finish_timestamp > 0 %}
{{ finish_timestamp | timestamp_custom('%H:%M', true) }}
{% else %}
unknown
{% endif %}
running_title: >-
{{
running_title_template
| replace('{appliance}', appliance_name)
| replace('{finish_time}', finish_local)
}}
cycle_active: >
{{
has_valid_cycle
and finish_timestamp > now_timestamp
and not is_finished
}}
actions:
- choose:
############################################################
# Completed
############################################################
- alias: Show completed Live Activity
conditions:
- condition: template
value_template: >
{{ has_valid_cycle and is_finished }}
sequence:
- repeat:
for_each: "{{ notify_services }}"
sequence:
- action: "{{ repeat.item }}"
data:
title: "{{ completed_title }}"
message: "{{ completed_message }}"
data:
tag: "{{ activity_tag }}"
live_update: true
critical_text: "{{ finished_text }}"
progress: 100
progress_max: 100
alert_once: true
silent: true
notification_icon: "{{ completed_icon }}"
notification_icon_color: "{{ completed_color }}"
progress_bar_color: "{{ completed_color }}"
color: "{{ completed_color }}"
url: "{{ dashboard_url }}"
# Send only when the appliance transitions into a finished state.
- if:
- condition: template
value_template: >
{{
send_completion_notification | bool
and entered_finished_state
}}
then:
- repeat:
for_each: "{{ notify_services }}"
sequence:
- action: "{{ repeat.item }}"
data:
title: "{{ completed_title }}"
message: "{{ completed_message }}"
data:
tag: "{{ activity_tag }}_complete"
notification_icon: "{{ completed_icon }}"
color: "{{ completed_color }}"
url: "{{ dashboard_url }}"
############################################################
# Running
############################################################
- alias: Start or update running Live Activity
conditions:
- condition: template
value_template: "{{ cycle_active }}"
sequence:
- repeat:
for_each: "{{ notify_services }}"
sequence:
- action: "{{ repeat.item }}"
data:
title: "{{ running_title }}"
message: Running
data:
tag: "{{ activity_tag }}"
live_update: true
chronometer: true
when: "{{ finish_timestamp }}"
progress: "{{ elapsed_seconds | int }}"
progress_max: "{{ total_seconds | int }}"
alert_once: true
silent: true
notification_icon: "{{ running_icon }}"
notification_icon_color: "{{ running_color }}"
progress_bar_color: "{{ running_color }}"
color: "{{ running_color }}"
url: "{{ dashboard_url }}"
default: []
