Copy / Sync Notification Channel Sounds to all Android Devices?

Configuration
1

Is there a hack/workaround to sync device notification channel sounds?

Feature request for it here, very surprised something this basic is not already in the app.

2

How can I be the only one that care about this? No one else has families?

3

no one cares about this… I guess the companion app isnt being used much.

4

the app is unable to copy/sync whatever sound you have selected…the intention behind notification channels was to put full control in the users hand and take it out of the apps. Apps can only setup initial channel data. This is an android limitation.

5

I respectfully disagree with that premise, and if that was purposeful design, I suggest a total re-think of how people use / need this feature is in order.

Pro notification apps like Pushover allow central control. Audio can be pushed via the alert itself (to the Android device) without that file needing to be installed on the device.

There is no Android limitation on this… its the way the app is designed is the limitation.

At Minimum… allow us to sync the audio files with the server.

You have notification/alert color controls built in and the app pushes those.

Everything in HA creates -first- consistency and uniformity for all users. THEN allows customization separately in addition to… not exclusively and only.
… Make no sense to exclude ONLY notification sounds.

You can push a sound but for Android it looks like it must be installed on the device already - unless I read the docs incorrectly?

HA Dashboards are central admin/control… which are designed, pushed out and locked down – centrally.
… Great for for kids tablets and phones, wall panels, TVs, etc

Sounds should be the same

– Consistent notification sounds across all devices just makes sense. So matter what device its on (phone, tablet, wall panel, TV)… you know what it means… and your family, kids, wife, etc do also

– Do you really want to configure, update, admin 5 to 10 devices all separately, and all hands-on?.. every time you update/change/add?

6

The developer of the app is telling you that it’s a limitation of android.

2 Likes
7

I find it difficult to think an app cant download/copy files… thats kinda what web pages are.

8

By all means, prove the developer of the home assistant android app wrong by finding out how to do it.

1 Like
9

I am not saying we cant sync files what I am saying is that we cannot modify a channel settings once the channel has been created. If pushover is doing it, they are probably creating different channels in teh background or using a media player to play the file which is not hte same thing.

https://developer.android.com/develop/ui/views/notifications/channels third paragraph

After you create a notification channel, you can't change the notification behaviors. The user has complete control at that point. However, you can still change a channel's name and description.

10

Thank you, that I understand. As far as I can tell, Pushover is not using android channels. So, one suggestion (it was kind of deep in my first post) is to allow for pushing the sound files via the notification itself… like you have for iOS.

Then, like Pushover (and most apps, even notification apps) just play the audio in the background… Channels are nice for inside automations, but really not nice when you have multiple devices. It would be more flexible for people to identify a sound file to send with the notification (and not use channels).

Best case HA would have sound entities, where sound files would have a friendly name… that would allow for the simplicity o creating the automations and get past the limitations of the Android’s notification system.

11

every app after android 8 supports channels, its a hard requirement.

12

If Pushover is using channels, they are hiding it.
They allow users to centrally upload sound files to their server (via a web dashboard) and those are leveraged on any device by simply sending the name of the audio file… Pushover - Home Assistant

mode: single
triggers:
  - trigger: event
    event_type: ""
conditions: []
actions:
  - action: notify.pushover
    metadata: {}
    data:
      title: Pushover Test
      message: Pianobar sound
      target:
        - MyPhone
      data:
        sound: pianobar
        priority: 0
        url: "https://www.home-assistant.io/"
        attachment: "/tmp/image.png"