I was looking at my Home Assistant dashboard today and had an idea for improving the Tile Card. It would be great if the card could display additional sensors from a device, not just the main entity. For example, with a door contact sensor, you typically see the binary sensor that shows whether the door is open or closed. However, you can’t easily display other related data, like battery levels, within the same card.
What I’m suggesting is an option to show everything exposed by a device or to choose which sensors to display as additional information on the card. This would provide a more comprehensive view of the device’s status in one place.
The Tile Card is designed to display a single entity per card, usually focusing on the primary state of the device (e.g., a binary sensor for a door contact).
Additional information, such as battery levels or other sensor data, is not typically displayed on the same tile, requiring users to create separate cards or use other methods to display this data.
User’s Need for Comprehensive Device Data:
The user wants a more holistic view of a device within a single card, showing not only the primary state (e.g., door open/closed) but also other related sensor data (e.g., battery level, signal strength).
This would enhance the user experience by reducing the need for multiple cards and providing a more detailed overview at a glance.
Potential Solutions:
Custom Tile Cards or Enhancements: Creating or enhancing existing Tile Cards to support displaying multiple entities from a single device. This could be done through custom Lovelace cards or updates to the Tile Card component.
Entity Aggregation: Implementing a feature that allows aggregation of related entities into a single card, where users can select which entities they want to display.
Expanding Card Customization: Allowing users to choose which additional sensors or attributes are shown on the card as supplementary information, similar to how badges work for person cards.
Home Assistant Philosophy:
Home Assistant’s current philosophy of exposing entities individually allows for high customization and flexibility, but it may not always align with user expectations for simplicity and consolidation.
Striking a balance between flexibility and usability would be key in implementing such a feature.
Conclusion:
The idea of having a Tile Card that can show multiple related entities, such as a door contact’s state and its battery level, aligns with the needs of users who seek more intuitive and consolidated interfaces. Implementing this feature would likely require custom development or contributions to the existing Tile Card component, but it could significantly improve the user experience by providing a more comprehensive view of a device’s status in a single glance.
