Switch IOS Companion App Server

Mobile Apps
1

The new multi-server support in the IOS companion app is great. However, although the 3 finger swipe works for switching servers I find it a little hard to use. Is there a way to switch servers via HA and Lovelace. I would like to use location to switch (ie default to the server based on when I am at that home) and via the Lovelace interface so that I could select the other location if desired.

3 Likes
2

Easier ways to switch servers is definitely on my radar, these gestures were late shortcuts added for it, but not the final desired state.

For now there are a few ways to switch between servers easily:

  • 3-finger swipe-up may be easier than left/right. This pulls up the list of servers.
  • The ā€œOpen Pageā€ Widget can be edited (long press, choose edit) to show e.g. 2 pages, 1 for each server.
  • Separate app icon per server with a Shortcuts.app Shortcut executing an ā€œOpen Pageā€ Shortcut. Choose ā€œAdd to Home Screenā€ when configuring the Shortcut.
1 Like
3

Thanks for the great work Zac,

I am using the separate icon per server now, just requires the user to know which one to choose. The 3 finger swipe works fine for an admin who understands what the servers are, but for a user who doesnā€™t care/know about the back end stuff, automatically switching based on either location or SSID would be awesome.

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4

Did anyone find a better solution on this one?

I would like to add a button on my dashboard that allows me to switch between my 2 servers.
In a browser a URL button is working just fine, but would be nice if it could be opened in the same page.

For the app, i have not found a solution that doesnā€™t need to set something up on the iPhone. I hoping there is a solution that only requires Home Assistant.
Looked through the Services to see if there was a call.service change server, but couldnā€™t find anything that looks like it suits my needs. :slight_smile:

1 Like
5

Iā€™d very much like to do this too. Surprised to see it not talked about here. Going to the sidebar, then the companion app, and then the right submenu is awkward. Iā€™d like to just have a button on a dashboard which switches me.

6

I am switching daily between servers, it would save lotā€™s of time when I could add a switch from the dashboard ! So also other people can switch.

I have a Pixel , no 3 finger swipe possible.
I also can not find article about Android, only this article about the apple IOS.

maybe best option for the future: adding a Android Widget so it can force start a specific server?

I anyone has a way to switch fast from server on a Google Android Pixel, please let me know.

thank you.

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7

@zacwest

Zac, it has been a while since this thread was started. Have you had any success in new ways to switch servers, preferably via a Lovelace UI element that we can put on a dashboard?

thanks

1 Like
8

As someone who manages multiple instances, it would be best to have a top level menu to switch, which could be done just in the App. I can see the value of the service so you could embed in a dashboard, but I think that would take a lot more work. The three finger swipe has resulted in me turning on lights inadvertently which was ā€¦ermā€¦not well received. :slight_smile:

Thanks!

9

Still no good solution for this? Android userā€¦

10

I am on IOS and still not good solution. IOS has the 3 finger swipe but it is very hard to use without inadvertently doing unintentional things. I have resorted to navigating the menus to swith.

11

You can add a url to your other server on the dashboard using this url handler with the ā€œ?server=ā€ query param in the iOS app ā€“ https://companion.home-assistant.io/docs/integrations/url-handler/#define-server

So for example I link to homeassistant://navigate/lovelace/0?server=Summer%20House in my main house dashboard and homeassistant://navigate/lovelace/0?server=Home on the Summer House dashboard, iā€™m also using a conditional card to only show it on Mobile and it works great.

12

Jan this looks like exactly what I want to do. I tried adding a button to a dashboard with the following.

show_name: true
show_icon: true
type: button
tap_action:
  action: navigate
  navigation_path: homeassistant://navigate/lovelace-mobile/menu/?server=Home
entity: ''
name: '1809'

Where my server name is ā€œHomeā€ and the main dashboard for that instance of HA is ā€œlovelace-mobile/menuā€

This button is on a dashboard running on a different server in the companion app. When I push the button when the other server is running and showing that dashboard, nothing happens. Am I not doing something correct to get this to work? Also, the link you showed says ā€˜betaā€™ do I need to be using a beta version of the campanion app for this to work?

Note: I installed the beta version of the IOS Companion app and nothing changed.

2 Likes
13

I finally figured this out. I was using the tap action ā€œnavigateā€ instead of ā€œurlā€. Once I switched works great.

14

Folks here may be interested in the WTH I posted: WTH changing servers in the iOS app should be easier than the three-finger swipe

Great to see thereā€™s a dashboard workaround though. I combined it with a custom card I have that shows the latest webcam image from the other location to switch over. Thanks for sharing!