While creating a new automation, I now see Press Identify Button as an action.
I dint believe I’ve seen that before… What does that do?
2 Likes
TL;DR it’s probably related to the new Button entity but does not mention the “Identify” aspect. The blog entry describes it at a high level too but again no mention of “Identify”
Interestingly I now have a bunch of button.<device_name>_identify entities that have shown up in my HA instance (Example: button.smart_power_strip9889_identify).
Based on the name I assume it would be used to identify the device (i.e. turn it on, vibrate it, etc) but my devices/entities don’t support that kind of action. For example I have 1 single “Identify” button that was auto-created for a smart strip device that has 4 separate sockets (each it’s own entity). When I hit Press this Identify button it does nothing to the smart strip. Similarly I now have an Identify button for most of my Zigbee contact sensors and one for my thermostat. lol. Pretty annoying to have my entities list cluttered like that without a good reason.
Edit: Confirmed my suspicion about the purpose of the Identify button. I hit Press for one of my Sengled bulbs and it blinked 4-5 times. Why that button exists for devices that can’t be identified (like contact sensors) I have no idea. Guess it’s a bulk add for all devices or entities at the integration level and doesn’t distinguish based on the features or class of the device / entity.
2 Likes
I also just noticed a bazillion of these superfluous _identify buttons. They are pretty useless and add bloat. I got rid of them this way:
- Go to Configuration > Entities
- In the search box, type “identify”
- Check the Select All box
- Click Disable Selected
5 Likes
In my case the _identify entities is auto generated when adding the IKEA Dirigiera gateway. By the “press” action on the entity card in HA it will trigger the corresponding action to the “identify” function in the IKEA mobile app. Once pressed (activated) the device (switch, lamp) will turn on for a few seconds.
This is helpful if you are unsure about how you have named your devices and have many of them…
… Or you could just turn on the switch. 
Different options for different folks. I prefer to not have all those _identify buttons. Just my preference.
1 Like
It should be noted that this seems to be created for every zigbee device, including those seemingly without support for this function. For instance, all my TH and door sensors have that, but pressing said button won’t even make their tiny LED blink, so… Indeed useless, at least for stuff that’s not a light or a switch 
1 Like
I don’t think I have any device that handles the “Identify” button. Pretty annoying to disable the entity with every device I add.
Do they only show up with battery devices? Could it be a way to trigger the device to ping the zigbee network and remind it the device still exists?
Hi,
I have TS130F (_TZ3000_ltiqubue) to control blinds. The upper button glows blue and my family want to have it dark at night. By incident I figured out after sending “identify” the LED was off. Now it makes sense to send an automated identify every evening before sleep time. Just in case for what reason ever they switched back to glowing.
Of course it would be better to have a way to control the LED directly.
HP
FYI I stumbled upon an option on the ZHA panel called “Enable identify effect when devices join the network”. From a quick search, it seems it calls the effect when the device is paired, but I’m not sure if this has any effect of disabling the pesky button.