How to notify users in a way that is resilient to device changes

Configuration
1

I have several automations that notify users when stuff happens. Unfortunately I’ve found it quite unstable. For example. My wife had to reset her iphone due to an issue and the mobile app entity that I used to notify her is gone and a new one appeared. The same happens in many situations (e.g. change your device name, reinstalling the companion app, etc).

Is there a way in which I can use the actual user/person as the target instead of just the device and let home assistant handle it?

Im getting quite frustrated with this. this is not the first time it happens.

2

A couple of suggestions:

  • rename the device to the old name
  • create a group, then add / remove devices to that group when needed
  • Use find and replace in automations.yaml (find old device name, replace all with new device name).

I use a group called myname_devices which contains my devices that I want notifications on.

3

As discussed, groups might help.

Another option is for each user to have a label assigned to their notify entities and select by label in the automation.

I create an area for each user under which their portable devices and their person.xxxx entity can be placed. I can then notify based upon the ‘Spamfast’ area or whatever.

4

I see there is a request for this feature Add a "Notify person" action that targets all mobile devices assigned to a person · home-assistant · Discussion #4240 · GitHub
so from what I can see, what I want to do cannot be done now. hopefully the request will gain traction.

5

Did you add a thumbs up to that post to show your support?
Based on the response so far it is unlikely to move forward without a community member doing it.

6

To provide notifications to people, I have installed Ticker app from HACS, which allows people to “subscribe” to notifications in any given group (eg, at different priorities), & to attach devices (mobile-app, Alexa/Google speakers, etc) to each person. I’m in the process of moving over to that.