Yet Another Android App

Mobile Apps
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1

I used Home-Assistant Launcher to access HA on android devices and always wanted to have device tracker built in, instead of using Zanzito/GPSLogger.
Zanzito is not maintained anymore and GPSLogger is being killed by Android randomly when it is in the background(for me on Android-O).
I tried Ariela and HA Client
Both are built around the concept of Native UI Elements, I love my Lovelace UI too much to shift to those apps. Ariela supports Lovelace but the interface is buggy and doesn’t seems to support CCH.

Introducing Halo
##First Android App by me
##Proof of concept-lots of bugs but basic functionality is working
##No native UI-Only Lovelace
##Source code available at Github Comments/contributions welcome

HomeAssistant Android app with Device tracker functionality through MQTT(Like Zanzito)
This is basically a remix of https://github.com/sjvc/Home-Assistant-Launcher and Google Location Examples https://github.com/android/location-samples

Needs MQTT accessible from outside for device tracker to work, SSL for MQTT not supported yet(I port forward an obscure port to 1883)
Apk available at github
Tested only on Pixel3

First setup your device name and HA address/port, mqtt address/port
Restart the app.

To setup device tracker

add

- platform: mqtt_json
  devices:
      pix3halo: halo/<device_name>/location

to configuration.yaml

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Access App settings by swiping Left

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Screenshot_1573955932
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Access HA settings by swiping Right

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2

Why this instead of the just-released official app? I know that doesn’t have native location tracking yet.

3

That is a good question, why anyone do something instead of something else at their free time?

I had time during the weekend and I always wanted to do an android app.
This is just a hobby, all these home automation stuff for me is a hobby, it is not saving me any money nor saving any time at home, but I enjoy doing stuff.
Honestly I didn’t realize they released the official app at the store. I had a look at it on the repo while doing this and I could not figure out head from tail with my limited experience. I wasn’t sure if they will accept if I did add device_tracker(with my code quality).
Anyway I go my merry way with this project developing as I see fit for my purpose.
I have plans to develop this to replace now defunct Zanzito + webview.

1 Like
4

I’m still using zanzito as I have yet to find anything to replace the functionality it provides (mqtt device tracking, notifications and remote management of devices are just a few things that I use daily with this app. Your app look interesting, I just need secure mqtt before I can try it out. I’ll keep an eye on your github page.

5

It is already possible to use ssl to access your mqtt server.
Enable it in mqtt settings and input the port(Either 8883 or your custom port)
Only System certificates are supported no self signed certificates.

1 Like