Pushover Notifications question

Configuration
1

Hello everyone, I am working on setting up my door and motion sensors within HA. I have the automations configured, and now I am working on the notifications portion; what I would like to do is have HA send me an SMS every time one of the alarms are triggered. I want to fine tune this later on, depending on the time/status, such that lights will turn on, camera(s) will record, and possibly a siren will go off, but that is for a later post :stuck_out_tongue:

My question is, based on everyoneā€™s experience, what are the best choices for notifications? I have narrowed my choices down to Telegram, Simplepush, Instapush and possibly Notify My Android, and I wanted to see if I could get any feedback on them before I commit. I am leaning towards Telegram or Simplepush; any reason for choosing any one of these in particular?

Thanks in advance!

2

I like using Join for internet based notifications and using Amazon SNS for texts.

I use Join daily in my life to begin with, so it makes sense to use that for push across all my devices. Phone, laptop, tablet, etc.

I like Amazon SNS because for a 100 texts a month, itā€™s free.

3

I like pushbullet, thoā€™ there is a limit (maybe 1000) a month.

4

To add to not helping you about your choices I use pushover. For a small one time fee per platform ($4.99) type you get 7500 message per month. It supports desktop/ios/android.

1 Like
5

Thanks, guys! I will add those to the list :slight_smile:

6

Believe it or not, I still havenā€™t decided :stuck_out_tongue:

Iā€™ve narrowed it down to Telegram, Simplepush and Pushover, and Iā€™m leaning towards the latter two. I am going to a 7 day trial of Simplepush to test it, and I wanted to ask you about Pushover.

How fast and reliable is the service? I noticed that it doesnā€™t use SMS/Texting to send the notifications, that it sends via the internet. Has this been an issue for you? I am a bit concerned, because I donā€™t always have good strength on my phone, so I am afraid there will be a delay in receiving the notification. Have you encountered any issues? Thanks in advance!

7

Honestly it has probably been the most stable add-on I have. I actually prefer using data as I only have a small message plan since most people who text me have an iPhone and it goes over data instead of sms anyhow. I live in Chicago so coverage is not an issue, and honestly Iā€™m usually in a wifi area anyhow (work/home). I havenā€™t noticed any messages being lost/missed. All in all itā€™s been solid for me, and Iā€™ve held on to it over native iOS notifiations for the multiplatform support.

8

Awesome, I appreciate your honesty, and continued replies. Iā€™m going to give it a both Simplepush and Pushover a shot, as they both have 7 day trials. The more I read about Pushover, though, it looks like Iā€™ll be going with them. Again, I appreciate your help and suggestion!

1 Like
9

Sorry to keep bugging you, but Iā€™ve got Pushover up and running, but I am not getting any notifications. Iā€™ve been trying to figure out what Iā€™ve done wrong, but I cannot see the error. Would you be able to help me with that?

Iā€™ve added the following to my configuration.yaml file:

notify:
  - name: fr_door
    platform: pushover
    api_key:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    user_key:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And the following to my automations.yaml (via the Automations page):

- action:
  - data:
      message: Front Door Open!
    service: persistent_notification.create
  - alias: pushover test
    data:
      message: Front Door Open!
    service: notify.fr_door
  alias: Front Door
  id: '1502846230926'
  trigger:
  - above: '1'
    entity_id: sensor.Front_Door_OpenClose
    platform: numeric_state
- action:
  - data:
      message: Movement Sensed!
    service: persistent_notification.create
  alias: Motion Sensor
  id: '1502846376976'
  trigger:
  - above: '1'
    entity_id: sensor.motion_sensor_alarm_level
    platform: numeric_state

Do you see an error? I am beginning to suspect that my phone may be the issue. I have an Huawei Ascend XT. I went through the troubleshooting page on Pushoverā€™s site and ensured that Pushover would stay awake and running no mater what. But, that didnā€™t help. Any suggestions?

10

Sure no problem.
Letā€™s ignore the automation and home assistant for a second.

Try logging into pushover.net and send yourself a notification via their website.

If that works open up HA and try the following:

Go to ā€œDeveloper Toolsā€ -> Services (first one - remote)
Select
Domain: notify
Service: fr_door
Service Data: {ā€œmessageā€:ā€œtest messageā€}

If that all works then itā€™s just an issue with the automation.

Havenā€™t really used the automation gui, but it looks like some things are a bit out of whack here. Maybe take another look at the docs.

This example should get you closer. If it doesnā€™t work check the logs for errors. Indenting is very important in the yaml config files.

-  alias: Front Door
   trigger:
       platform: numeric_state
       entity_id: sensor.Front_Door_OpenClose
       above: 1
   action:
      - service: notify.fr_door
        data:
          message: "Test Message"
1 Like
11

Thanks a lot, I will try it asap tomorrow. I havenā€™t set up a VPN connection to it yet, so itā€™ll have to wait until after work tomorrow. I tried my brain a bit too much tonight to try it now :stuck_out_tongue:

12

Okay, Iā€™ve been working on it tonight, and I followed your instruction. The pushover.net and calling the service from the Dev Tools tests both worked. So, I edited my automations.yaml a few times based on your script, as well as what I read in the docs; from the States page, if I manually trigger the Automation by clicking on ā€œTriggerā€, it works perfectly. But, if I physically move the sensor, I get nothing. Here is what my code looks like:

- action:
  - data:
     message: Front Door Open!
    service: notify.fr_door
  alias: Front Door
    trigger:
     - platform: numeric_state
       entity_id: sensor.Front_Door_OpenClose
       above: 1

Any suggestions?

EDIT: Never mind, I was able to finally get it through some more trial and error. My code now looks like this:

- action:
  - alias: Front Door Open
    data:
      message: Front Door Open!
    service: notify.fr_door
  alias: Front Door
  id: '1503544302817'
  trigger:
  - above: '1'
    entity_id: sensor.front_door_openclose
    platform: numeric_state

That seems to have done the trick. Now, I will have to copy these over to my other sensors and see if I can get them going. Thanks again for your help!

1 Like