How do you decide what notification system to use?

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So I have various kinds of notifications for washing machine, waste collection etc. I also have three different system I can use:

  • Smartphone notifications using the companion app
  • PC notifications using hass.agent
  • Telegram notifications

What I’m interested in is how you decide what system to use for your different types of notifications. Do you stick to one system or do you switch depending on the notification? That kinda stuff

I’ve been using Telegram for notifications that are more important as I can’t accidently swipe them away but I could use persistent smartphone notifications for that…

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I usually try and guess where the notification suits best.

So washing machine is only TTS.
When our son leaves home for school or is on the way home is both notifications on phone and on work PC.
Tomorrows appointments are sent to my phone as notification.
I don’t have waste collection, but if I did I would send it to a e-paper screen on the fridge

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Basically what makes most sense to your household and the situation.

I use Alexa TTS to make announcements if we are home. Some are just not made if we are not, like it announces if one of us arrives home but if no one else home, it doesnt bother.

Then, depending on if we are home or not, some notifications are Alexa if home or Whatsapp if not.

And then whatsapp and Alexa for when someone detected at the door (from Ring motion) as this also sends an image from our cctv in the whatsapp and a link to the cameras on HA.

Chose these as they are the things we use and therefore just fits in to our normal life.

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How I announce changes with what the situation calls for.

My washer/dryer notification are TTS if someone is within earshot, but then also a text message via Twilio if they are not.

Security messages are TTS, email, text and in-app notifications.

Debugging messages I put into scripts or automations are in-app notifications only.

I don’t think there is a right or wrong here, just think about what the recipient is going to need to do as a result of the message.

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