Need clarification on firebase notifications and nabu casa subscription

Mobile Apps Home Assistant Companion for Android
1

I’ve looked through the forum search results and other online articles and can only find some indications that imply that firebase push notifications are a “free” service with or without a nabu casa subscription.

However after the free trial ended, I noticed that notifications would only be received after turning on the screen. I’m on a selfimposed very very tight budget, so $5 a month isnt a big deal, but I’d rather keep my monthly expenses barebones for a while.

Anyway, I paid the 5$ bones and it seems I’m getting firebase notifications with the screen off. Getting reliable notifications is worth it to me, but I would like a concise answer.

Are firebase push notifications a feature of the nabu casa service or a complimentary feature of homeassistant? I do not need the proxy service, or even AI assistants.

2

I don’t know the answer to your question but if you are on a tight budget there are free options, e.g. a VPN or DuckDNS.

3

Thanks, I already pay $100+ a month for my colocation network and other cloud services which is part of why I’m trying to keep any additional services to a minimum.

Something is not right, because even after setting up the service, I still do not get push notifications reliably. I get other notifications just fine from other services while the phone has been in low power for several minutes.

I still would like a clear answer on the question at hand

4

You don’t need nabucasa for the firebase messages.
It is working for me without the subscription. So firebase is free

5

Is your home assistant logged into nabu casa in any way? Even without an active subscription?

Also, do you get push notifications if your phone has been screen off for over 5 minutes?

My suspicion has been that the app is checking in to home assistant on screen on, rather than push working

6

Are you hitting the rate limit?

maximum sendable notifications per 24 hours of 150 notifications

7

No where close, all of my notification flows have a 1msg/10 minutes limitation as well.
I also only have 1 flow that can frequently generates messages, couldn’t be more that 50 a day in the extreme.

8

I‘m not logged in at all
And yes. I’m getting messages even if the device is locked

9

this has nothing to do with nabu casa, you want to use critical notifications so they show up early: Critical notifications | Home Assistant Companion Docs

firebase notifications are for any user who installs the google play store version of the app, more info here: Privacy, rate limiting and security | Home Assistant Companion Docs

1 Like
10

Rate limit has since been increased to 500 :slight_smile:

2 Likes
11

Wow, this is exactly the problem and solution. I’ll test this and mark as solution later today!