It is more intuitive to think of send notification to person rather than to device. This also makes it difficult when someone changes phone/devices to then update all automation related to that device.
I believe you should be able to specify messaging devices / notify services on a per person basis to be more intuitive and easier to upkeep.
This is already possible using Notify Groups. Though they are not directly linked to the person entity, you can give them the same name as the person so that you have a single action, like notify.clint, which sends the desired message to all designated platforms.
There are already changes in the works to move notifications away from being service-based to being entity-based. This should make it much easier to group and target notifications as well as to simplify creating automation for smarter notifications.
Currently these changes have only been made for a subset of the more basic notification integrations.
Apologies but I’m not sure if the Notify Group workaround solves the problem. We still have to know ahead of time which devices the user is using unless I’m missing something? If the user logs into mobile on a new device don’t we then have to create an entry in the notify group for the new device. The desire (which is certainly what I’m looking for) is the notification should be directed at and go to the user on any device and:or webpage they are logged into.
Ideally this would be linked up with access control like most management systems so groups can be set up for access control and/or rights (like receiving certain notifications or performing certain capabilities).
Yeah, I support this!
I my self have 4 devices connected to my user. Having an option to define «this is my preferred device» when logging in, and also an action to notify proffered device connected to a user, and not having to specify the device name would be so so useful.
It would also make it possible to give out information for a guest account to guests, and include them in essential notifications without having to know their device name
Thanks - I concur a refinement that would allow filtering (or not) per user per device is useful.
I want a given user to always receive a notification no matter where they are in the world and what they are logged into (which is the more normal design for system monitoring type systems).
This is critical for a lot of notifications (I suspect a majority, but don’t want to force my thinking) - e.g. Outlook doesn’t care what machine I’m on to tell me I have an upcoming appointment nor should it nor does it send my wife’s calendar invites to her desktop if I log into it.
The same is for general alerts, alarms, notifications, etc. I’m sending to myself or other users. I actually can’t really come up with many use cases for the current HA design of locking notifications to given devices and not the user (note I’m not referring to notifications going to non-mobile or non-desktop endpoints).
Sounds like an optional further filtering refinement to prefer a device/devices for a user could be useful too for you.