I really like alerts. They are simple and straightforward to set up and turn a complex bit of automation into a really concise, state-driven config. The state-driven part is especially key to me because if I did try and write an alert as a script/automation I would have issues around restarts. Alerts survive restarts without issue and keep letting you know about an issue until you acknowledge it or the issue is resolved.
I would love to see these become UI-configurable. They feel a bit hidden away currently, I don’t see many posts about them so I don’t know how many people leverage this core feature. Making them UI-configurable would make it much more discoverable so more people could find and use it.
I 2nd this. I use them a lot for open windows, Finished laundry or trash to be put out. Love it. Turning them on/off like an automation would be a bummer.
Thanks for the blueprint. While using a blueprint is likely more flexible than alerts, I don’t know that the UX of finding that blueprint and putting it to use is really easier for new users. It seems to me that the alerts with reminders/acknowledgements would be nice basic functionality to have out of the box when you are just starting out.
I know the alert integration isn’t very flexible in terms of triggers and conditions, but the reminder and acknowledgement functionality is nice to have without having to recreate in each alert. The analytics say it is only currently used by 1.4% of home assistant users (a little over 800 installations at the time of writing). If they had a UI I think a lot more people would use them.
Yes, that´s indeed the biggest pain next to / right after the YAML only/missing UI thing.
Honestly, those two bottlenecks always make me think “Naaaah, maybe there´s another way to achieve the same result” and I end up not using the alert integration. What a pity.
