Notify groups creation + configuration via UI (as creatingNotify groups is currently only available via YAML configuration)

Please add the ability to create and configure “Notify groups” via the UI (e.g. improve the group helper?).

This would allow users to create Notify groups to enable notifying multiple devices.

This type of “Notify group” should only be a group so not contain triggers or conditions but instead just contain a list of notify service/action, and then that group could be used and reused in automations.

Notification group use case example is creating a Notify group to send notifications to:

notify:
  - platform: group
    name: all_phones_with_ha_app
    unique_id: all_phones_with_ha_app
    services:
      - service: mobile_app_dads_iphone_14
      - service: mobile_app_moms_iphone_13
      - service: mobile_app_kid1s_ipad_se
      - service: mobile_app_kid2s_ipad_se

This would make it easer to maintain many different Notify groups where you can add, change, or remove notify entities without having to edit the automation(s) that the Notify group is being used in.

Notify groups is today a special case of groups only available via YAML configuration.

PS: FYI, there looks to be a related ongoing architecture discussions but no usable UI solution as of yet:

PPS: Seen many similar feature requests but none that has simply asked for UI config. See ex:

Documentation says that notify groups can only be created in YAML - but I can still create them in the UI, though unsuccessfully. If they really can only be done in YAML then why is the option to create in UI still existing? It’s awfully confusing.

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Notify groups can be configured in both the UI and YAML, but each method only applies to a certain group of notification integrations.

Notifications are undergoing changes to move away from being platform/service-based to being entity-based. Currently these changes have only been made for a subset of the more basic notification integrations. The notify groups that can be created in the UI will only work for this subset.

The majority of notification integrations are still platform-based, so their groups must be configured in YAML. It seems highly unlikely that anyone will waste the development time it would take to build a separate UI method for platform-based notification integrations, and that such a thing would be added to core, when that time could possibly be used to help with the ongoing migration efforts.

FYI, developers been discussing it here before:

For new uses like me, this is very confusing.

here it says it only manual creation… Group - Home Assistant

but when you go into Helpers → Groups → Notify, it looks like you can create one but you only get this telling you there are no entities (screenshot below)

but the help icon takes you here… Notifications - Home Assistant
… which says if you have Notify Entities, it should work?

This is literally an apples to oranges situation…

  • Those that say “only manual creation” are the older Group integration.
  • The ones in the UI are the recently updated (but still a work in progress) Notify integration.

At some point in the future there may only be the Notify integration, but for now we have both.

Go to your Entities menu… search for notify. … do you have any notify entities? If you do, you can group them using the Helper, but based on the screenshot you shared, you don’t.

FWIW, it is very unlikely that you have any because there are literally less than 5 notification integrations that have been converted.


I don’t know what else to tell you… These types of incremental/partial updates are pretty common.

Thank you for explaining. I only have the ‘HA-NotifyHelper update’ Notify Entity installed Seems odd they would have ported the HA Companion App notifications over first.

on this page they state there are Notify Groups and Legacy Groups (which should not be used), but they do not show an example of the proper group usage.

I have 3 phones I want to place in a group. Would the YAML be this?

notify:
  - platform: group
    name: "All Devices"
    services:
      - action: html5
        data:
          target: "device_tracker.sm_s911u1"
      - action: html5
	      data:
          target: "device_tracker.pixel7"
      - action: html5
	      data:
          target: "device_tracker.sm_t870"

Th devs could remove the confusion using Groups → Notify UI generate and install the YAML code that is needed. Then when the other services are ported to the new method, they just make that UI convert to use the new method.

My YAML looks like this - no need for the html5 part.
This is all under your notify: key.

- platform: group
  name: "All family phones"
  services:
    - service: mobile_app_phone1
    - service: mobile_app_phone2
    - service: mobile_app_phone3
    - service: mobile_app_phone4
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