How to make an "Actionable Notification" that stays visible instead of hiding to the shade?

Mobile Apps Home Assistant Companion for Android
,
#1

I have an notification (through node red presently) that pops up as I approach home to allow me to take actions (open garage, turn on lights, both), it’s exactly what I want, “buttons” on my screen overlaid on top of everything else to take quick actions.

The problem is, it comes up while I’m driving, then disappears into the notification shade - often before I have a chance to take my eyes off the road and click on it.

Perhaps actionable notification isn’t the best method for this - what are other people doing for similar functionality?

I’ve tried persistent notifications (which stay in the shade and I can’t get rid of, but not on the screen).

Any suggestions on how to get the actionable notification to remain visible and interactive, or is there some other method I should be looking at?

#2

I would think about adding more conditions so that the actions are taken by HA directly instead of presenting them to you.
If dark outside, turn on lights, else don’t.
The open garage is only when you drive I assume, so create a condition for that too some how.

#3

Thanks for the feedback.

I already have a number of conditions determining what options to give me, but I don’t necessarily want them being automatic - for example. I may not want to park in the garage if I’m going to be going out again shortly - I don’t need the garage to open automatically in this case. Or if I’m coming home late by myself, and don’t want to disturb the household, I may not want the lights to turn on - but if I’m with the family, I do want to turn the lights on.

Appreciate any feedback though so thanks.

#4

I have a Samsung Note 10 and added 2 HA widgets to the settings pull down panel - 1 for Garage Open and 1 for Garage Close (it could be just one but I have some Node-Red logic that uses separate inputs). This works but does require that I pull down the settings panel.

What would be great is to have these widgets available in Android Auto. Then it would be avaible there, eliminating the need to open my phone.

#5

The last moments before arriving home tend to require a bit more attention to driving (in my case entering neighbourhood with potential of kids sprinting across the road and turning left into my driveway, etc) so pressing buttons on my phone (which is in tray under the console) is not feasible so I went the vocal command option. I can use both Google Assistant and Alexa and does not require fumbling with phones which is also illegal here (maybe not if mounted on the windshield but I no longer do that having AA). When I was on the SmartThings platform I had buttons on AA but they were actually pretty distracting and difficult to get to (possibly because my Acura has that silly turn and press knob to navigate AA). In summary, the most efficient and safest option I found was with vocal control.

#6

Exactly the same reason why I recommended to strengthen the conditions instead.
If the case is that sometimes you don’t need the garage to open then I would rather live with the garage opening than using the phone while driving in the neighborhood.

Or just add a boolean “don’t open garage” that you can enable before driving.

If you don’t want the lights to go on in the middle of the night when family is home, then set that up as a condition.

#7

Thanks for the suggestion - I haven’t worked with the quick settings (also on Samsung), but that seems even more cumbersome than what I’m looking for - the notification pops up - I just want to keep it open. The notification is still less swiping than the Quick tiles (which requires 2 wipes down unless they are the first 4 tiles). I have a garage door opener that is easier than fumbling in the phone, but doesn’t allow me to do multiple actions - only the garage door. Though I suppose I could trigger actions from the garage door (but doesn’t help if I’m walking).

#8

I could look into the Google Voice route, but I doubt my wife will use an “OK Google” command in the car for this - still trying to prove out the whole automation to her and this was supposed to be a win for that, and needing to call on Google won’t help.

I don’t have the same issue with those distractions at the end of my commute, I’m stopping and backing into my garage in a row of other garages so I just want the notification to still be there when I stop the car before backing up.

#9

Thanks - that’s a lot of complication and logic that I wasn’t looking to get into at this point.

I just want the buttons to be easily in reach when I stop the car, rather than have to fumble for them. The boolean “before hand”, I don’t have good presence detection for the whole family, the logic would get quite complex, etc.

Just looking to see if anyone has done something similar, or confirm that I didn’t miss something obvious with the notifications.

Suggestions are still appreciated though, so thanks.

#10

Are you asking for the notification pop-up to stay on the screen longer than when it goes to the status bar? If so that is device/system behavior which is not controllable by the app so I would not try to depend on that.

Have you considered using command_webview to have the app automatically open to the garage view so you can take actions from there? You may need to look at other solutions that will make more sense for your use case or re-consisder the approach for what you want to do.

If you absolutely need an overlay you can probably use tasker to create it but you’ll need to program the whole UI.

#11

Thanks dshokouhi - staying on screen longer was definitely what I was hoping for, but I suspected the answer would be what you said. Was just looking for some confirmation or suggestions.

I’ll take a look at command_webview to see if it might work for what I want. Otherwise - back to the drawing board… Or just swipe when I stop the car.

#12

In the android accessibility settings → Timing Controls, you can set a ‘longer’ duration for those messages to clear. I think you can set to like 2 minutes. Not sure if that is enough for you. That said, it also will affect all other actionable notifications.

#13

Thanks - will have to give that a try. I’m not sure if that will be enough - or overly annoying for my other notifications - since this is specific to me, won’t update here with results.

#14

Let’s ignore price for a moment
I wonder if you could be notified via voice that you are arriving home and then it would wait for input from this button to proceed with an action or not?

#15

The might work - but I could have the same thing with my garage door opener. Am I missing something?

Once “prompted” it could just wait for me to open the garage door with the regular opener and see the door state change to opening in HA.

I admit, I didn’t put a lot of thought into evaluating what you put, not that I don’t value the input, but not at all what I was hoping for (extra hardware/devices).

#16

You said you didn’t always want to open the garage door though so no, imo this isn’t the same as it gives you different triggers you could fire without relying on conditions.

From a safety standpoint, something like this beats touching your phone by far and is on par with voice.

Granted, I’ve never used one and just found it with a quick Google so I am assuming it would even work.

I’ll have to read your requirements again but more robust HA conditions may be the best option for you.

#17

You’re right. It’s been so long since I was playing with this I forgot what I was trying to set up. I did want multiple options for actions not dependent on opening garage door.

Your buttons could very well work, but not the solution I was hoping for. However you’ve given me some ideas (i.e. use the garage door opener and if state changes take certain actions, if it doesn’t take actions after a certain amount of time if I’ve connected to the home WiFi or not (i.e. if not connected to WiFi, I probably only drove by the house and don’t want the garage open or the lights on). Then it becomes a timing issue between how long it takes to get from being detected as close to home when I want the next decision made - and how quickly I’m into WiFi range to make that determination.

It might also be worth revisiting the “voice” functionality as I never explored that.