PushWard HACS integration — send HA automations to iPhone Live Activities

Third party integrations
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Hi all — long-time HA user, first time posting an integration here. I built a HACS custom component that lets any Home Assistant automation fire an iPhone Live Activity using Pushward.

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The HA companion app is great for regular notifications, but i always wanted to follow washing machine, dishwasher, 3D printer, package delivery live. Activities stay live and update in place: countdowns tick down, gauges move with the sensor, timelines fill in.

Install

Add as a HACS custom repository, then Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → PushWard and paste your integration key.

Services

Five services you can call from any automation:

  • pushward.send_notification — title/body with optional severity
  • pushward.create_activity — spawn a Live Activity (slug, name, priority, TTLs)
  • pushward.update_activity — 20+ update fields across all 6 templates
  • pushward.end_activity — graceful close with completion message
  • pushward.delete_activity — hard delete

The integration auto-suggests a template based on the entity domain — washer/dryer → countdown, timer → countdown with remaining_time, sensor → gauge with min/max — so common cases need almost no YAML.

Templates

Six render styles available on the iPhone side:

  • Generic — progress bar + state
  • Countdown — server-managed timer
  • Steps — pipeline stages
  • Alert — severity colors
  • Gauge — value + min/max + unit
  • Timeline — multi-series sparkline with 30-minute history

Example automation

alias: Washer started
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.washer_state
    to: "on"
variables:
  activity_slug: "washer-{{ now().timestamp() | int }}"
action:
  - service: pushward.create_activity
    data:
      slug: "{{ activity_slug }}"
      name: Washing in progress
      priority: 5
  - service: pushward.update_activity
    data:
      slug: "{{ activity_slug }}"
      state: ONGOING
      template: countdown
      end_date: "{{ (as_timestamp(now()) + 43*60) | timestamp_utc }}"

FAQ

Is the iPhone app open source?

The HACS integration is open source (MIT). The iPhone app and the APNs gateway service are not — Apple’s APNs provider auth requires a provisioned developer account and the iOS binary ships with pinned TLS certs, so there isn’t a self-host path for that piece. The HA integration is auditable end-to-end on your side.

Cost?

The iPhone app is currently in TestFlight public beta and free for all beta testers. The HACS integration is free / MIT and stays free.

What about Android?

iOS only today — the whole point of the project is ActivityKit / Dynamic Island, which is iOS-specific.

Site: https://pushward.app

I’m the developer — happy to help with setup, take feature requests, and review PRs. Service shapes can still change based on what you actually want to call from automations. Thanks for the feedback in advance!