How to use this IOS lock screen widget. Display states from HA

Mobile Apps Home Assistant Companion for Apple
1

Hey there. First post here. Have been using HA for a couple of months and loving its robust flexibility.

Was wondering if anyone has had any luck using this IOS lock screen widget. Thought it might be helpful in displaying state of garage door on lock screen. Apologies if this is covered somewhere else. Have been holding off for a while to ask to thouroughly search but no luck.

Is this calling a template?

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Anyone able to point me in the right direction or to some docs to help with this?

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Hey there! Yes you can put a Jinja style template in there and it’ll work. If it works in developer tools template area it’ll work here.

I tried it but abandoned it because the data can be stale. As in it won’t update in real-time.

Matt

4

Thank you!

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Yeah got it to work. I see what you mean. I wonder when the data updates.

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Can anybody help me get to the last screenshot where I can enter the template text?

I‘m not that familiar with the nitty gritty of iOS and when I add the widget and click on it it just opens the companion app.

Many thanks in advance

7

Hey. With the Lock Screen active long press somewhere in the middle of the screen this should bring up a customize button at bottom of screen. Click that, select the Lock Screen option on left. Tap the widget area, then tap the widget you want to edit. This should bring up the screen you’re wanting.

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It updates every 00, 15, 30 and 45 minutes on every hour, i.e. 4 times per hour.

I wonder if we can trigger it to update at other times, though.

EDIT: scratch that, the 00, 15, 30 and 45 apparently only applies to Apple Watch Complications :frowning:

9

I tried following your instructions but am still unable to configure the widget.

then tap the widget you want to edit. This should bring up the screen you’re wanting

This just brings the widget selector up again, it does not lead to the Home Assistant facility to configure the widget.

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I had to restart my Iphone and saw that in another post too. Worked for me.

11

Has anyone found out how often iOS updates the lockscreen widget?

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12

For help with actually designing the template you will need to “write” some code. In Home Assistant, go to Developer Tools, then Template. Modify the sample code, and if the preview there works, copy that into the upper and lower text template of the ios widget

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Here an example

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Is a bit useless for me because the value is not up to date. Anyone an idea how to update the value more frequently?

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No, I don’t know why it takes so long to update the lockscreen widget. You would think it would be instantaneous, but nope. Anyone figure this out yet?

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I think the value only updates after the companion app is opened on the phone (which, I believe, defeats the purpose of the lock screen widget).

I suspect it could have something to do with background refresh restrictions.

I did a simple test:

  • Create a helper input_text.notification_upper_text.
  • Add the Details widget with the template
    {{ states('input_text.notification_upper_text') }}
  • Update the value of the text from a laptop.
    • Lock screen widget doesn’t update the text
  • Open the companion app on the phone.
  • Go back to lock screen and see the updated text.
16

It is specifcied in the companion app code Keeping a widget up to date | Apple Developer Documentation

I tried to understand the code, but I am pretty bad at software dev, so I couldnt honestly tell what the logic is…