Companion App for iOS 2024.9: Getting ready for iOS 18

Blog
1
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2024/09/16/getting-ready-for-ios18
3 Likes
2

I updated the new Home Assistant app on my iPhone today and of course I still have IOS 17.6.1.

Now the Apple Watch is reporting this ā€œerrorā€

incoming-26C17B76-48CC-4030-8D2A-EBADAB9F8919

I was in the Homeassistant app on my iPhone and saved the configuration according to these instructions.

But I still get this ā€œerrorā€

3

If you translate it that would probably be easier.

4

No watch configuration available. Open the iOS app and create your configuration in the Companion app settings.

5

Everything worked fine before the app update

Configuration is directly in Yaml

actions:
  - name: Aqara
    background_color: "#000000"
    label:
      text: "Aqara"
      color: "#ffffff"
    icon:
      icon: motion-sensor
      color: "#ff0000"

Looks good, but does not work on the watch

IMG_8703
IMG_87031150Ɨ1901 150 KB

6

Sorry, seems to have been resolved :wink:

Briefly went back to the iPhone, app reported like ā€œSearch serverā€ but rather because of location always allow. Then the app opened normally on the phone and it now works on the watch :v:

incoming-91274C7A-9427-4DF3-8CA3-A30071841C89

7

Hey guys, thanks so much for the hard work youā€™re putting into this! :pray:

Allow me to take this opportunity to mention my #1 issue with the iOS App: the fact that it doesnā€™t support dynamic type. The font is way too small for some people and adhering to what is configured in ā€œSettings > Display & Brightness > Text Sizeā€ would be heaven-sent in terms of accessibility! :blush:

3 Likes
8

The companion apps are literally the only apps on my devices, which are only updating after restart of the device. In every single update on every single device.

So I would like to ask, what is wrong with this app or deployment of updates here?

If I press update, the circle starts to run, most probably it is downloading, but the update is not starting at all. It gets stuck every time on every device on 3/4 of the circle. And even more curious is, that I still can use, shut down the app, etc. Every other up is then already in pause mode. And a prioritize download isnā€™t working either. And stop update (to restart it) isnā€™t working either.

Is is only working, if I restart the device and then start the update again.

As said, every update (at least the last 3-4) on every device (several (different) iPhones, iPads, ā€¦

9

Apple manages the installation process, your feedback is the first I read related to that, does it happens for iOS, watchOS and macOS? Or just one of those?

10

Good point, added to my backlog

11

Thanks so much :slight_smile:

12

If I see it correctly, there is no way to add the ā€œconfirmation requiredā€ option to existing iOS actions?

And when iOS Actions are no longer supported in the future, what is the best way to add actions/scripts server-side (with custom colors) to all iOS devices?

1 Like
13

Correct, confirmation is a feature made for newer item types such as scripts.

Currently there is no way to customize server side your scripts or scenes colors, no decision has been made yet how or if this will be added, for now if you really need this flexibility, stick to iOS Actions.

14

Thanks for the quick answer. Hope to see it in a future release!

15

First of all, thank you @bgoncal for all your hard work!

  1. I seem to be missing or misunderstanding this. Iā€™ve added the 5 buttons to the Control Center same as in the image in the blog post, but clicking on them doesnā€™t seem to do anything. The light button turns amber for a fraction, the script and scene buttons turn blue for a second and the open page does open the app

  2. In the companion app settings, watch, and configuration, there is a toggle for show assist. Iā€™ve got this on but I donā€™t see assist anywhere on the watch.

  3. The actions on the watch do not respect the label color defined in yaml instead they are all white. The background_color and icon color do seem to work.

iOS: 2024.9 HA: 2024.9.2 iOS: 18.0

16

Is there a reason why Actions cannot be used in Control Center controls? :slight_smile:

17

Hey there, so, letā€™s go one by one:

1 - Make sure you open the App at least once after updating, then when adding a control widget, while in edit mode, you can tap on it to configure and choose script/scene/light etc.
Known issue: Scenes are not activating, I am working on a fix.

2 - Currently Assist is only showing up on watchOS 10+, itā€™s a beta feature and we are improving it in small steps, but good feedback, I should mention it somewhere.

3 - Can you share your yaml? How does it looks in a home screen widget?

1 Like
18

iOS Actions is not something we will move forward with in the future, we will keep supporting it but new features will be guided over the usage of scripts instead of iOS Actions.

ā€œiOS Actionsā€ is a concept that only exist in iOS (itā€™s actually called actions, but since HA services were renamed to actions I have to call iOS Actions :smiley: ) so we are aiming to focus our efforts on cross-platform approaches such as scripts which can also be used in Android.

4 Likes
19

Super buggy right now unfortunately in my experience.

Couldnā€™t choose an icon for the script, it would load list of icons then t just kept saying ā€œcouldnā€™t loadā€ after scrolling even though app was open in background. It then didnā€™t let me add a script at all unless the app was opened. Iā€™m used to iOS actions so gonna have to migrate them all soon I guess to keep it up to date.

20

Thanks for the clarification and for the great work on the app! :slight_smile:

1 Like