I currently have Node-Red running as an add-on in HAOS.
I also have a separate Node-Red instance on a separate windows pc, which is connected to HA. Using this, I can easily send messages to my android device using HA notifications.
However, I want to go backwards. I want to be able to send a custom message (like a text message) to the windows node-red instance. What is the easiest way to do that?
I use mqtt to send from HA to nodered.
Well to be more specific, I want to send an actual message (from my android phone), which will be interpreted by the node-red instance and typed into a window, for which I will use a keyboard emulator node (nbr-keyb-mouse).
If I understand you correctly, it sounds like I can send an MQTT message from my android device? I assume I have to “publish” it, then the node-red instance can subscribe to the message topic.
Is there a built-in way I can type a custom mqtt message through HA or some other app?
From the phone, unprompted? You can create a text helper in ha. That will give you an entity that can be placed on a desktop. When clicked gives you a text box, limited to 255 char. There is also a text input card that you wouldn’t need to click, it would display on the dash as a text box.
Edit If you want to send a message then be able to respond with text you can use actionable notifications. Set the action to reply, a text box will open when clicking the action.
Example
Are you willing to pay for the Tasker app for Android and use Join? The 2nd video on this page is about Join working with Node Red.
EDIT:
Or this video:
Unprompted is fine yea! I didn’t know about that text helper. That sounds like the absolute easiest, thank you!
Ohhh the join thing looks pretty cool too.