Actionable Notifications

Actionable notifications are a unique type of notification as they allow the user to add buttons to the notification which can then send an event to Home Assistant once clicked. This event can then be used in an automation allowing you to perform a wide variety of actions. These notifications can be sent to either iOS or Android.

Some useful examples of actionable notifications:

A notification is sent whenever motion is detected in your home while you're away or asleep. A "Sound Alarm" action button is displayed alongside the notification, that when tapped, will sound your burglar alarm.
Someone rings your front doorbell. You receive a notification with a live camera stream of the visitor outside along with action buttons to lock or unlock your front door.
Receive a notification whenever your garage door opens with action buttons to open or close the garage.

Actionable notifications allow the user to send a command back to Home Assistant.

Version Compatibility

You must use the defined-in-advance category-based method for iOS prior to iOS-2021.5 and for macOS prior to macOS-2021.10. See migration guide for more info on converting existing notifications.

Dynamic actions on watchOS require having the Watch App installed. You can do this in the system Watch app if not already installed.

Building actionable notifications

You can include an actions array in your service call.

Android Android allows 3 actions.
iOS allows around 10 actions. Any more and the system UI for actions begins having scrolling issues.

service: notify.mobile_app_<your_device_id_here>
data:
  message: "Something happened at home!"
  data:
    actions:
      - action: "ALARM" # The key you are sending for the event
        title: "Sound Alarm" # The button title
      - action: "URI" # Must be set to URI if you plan to use a URI
        title: "Open Url"
        uri: "https://google.com" # URL to open when action is selected, can also be a lovelace view/dashboard

Each action may consist of the following keys:

Key	Meaning	Notes
`action`	Required. The identifier passed back in events	When set to `REPLY`, you will be prompted for text to send with the event.
`title`	Required. The title of the button shown in the notification
`uri`	Optional. The URL to open when tapped	Android requires setting the `action` to `URI` to use this key. See notes below.

Android specific options

All of the following keys are optional.

Key	Meaning	Notes
None	There are no Android-specific keys at this time.

specific options

All of the following keys are optional.

Key	Meaning	Notes
`activationMode`	Set to `foreground` to launch the app when tapped. Defaults to `background` which just fires the event.	This is automatically set to `foreground` when providing a `uri`.
`authenticationRequired`	`true` to require entering a passcode to use the action.
`destructive`	`true` to color the action's title red, indicating a destructive action.
`behavior`	`textInput` to prompt for text to return with the event. This also occurs when setting the action to `REPLY`.
`textInputButtonTitle`	Title to use for text input for actions that prompt.
`textInputPlaceholder`	Placeholder to use for text input for actions that prompt.
`icon`	The icon to use for the notification.	Requires version 2021.10. See notes below.

Icon Values

Version Compatibility

This requires iOS app version 2021.10 or later on iOS 15 or later, or a future version of the macOS app on macOS 12 or later.

Icons for notification actions are only allowed from the SF Symbols library, which is different than other icons in Home Assistant which come from Material Design Icons library. This is due to limitations placed on these actions from Apple.

You must prefix the icon name in the catalogue with sfsymbols: (similar to prefixing with mdi: elsewhere), since we hope to expand this to support MDI in the future. For example:

action:
  - service: notify.mobile_app_<your_device_id_here>
    data:
      message: "Something happened at home!"
      data:
        actions:
          - action: "ALARM"
            title: "Sound Alarm"
            icon: "sfsymbols:bell"
          - action: "SILENCE"
            title: "Silence Alarm"
            icon: "sfsymbols:bell.slash"

`uri` values

To navigate to a frontend page, use the format /lovelace/test where test is replaced by your defined path in the defined view. If you plan to use a lovelace dashboard the format would be /lovelace-dashboard/view where /lovelace-dashboard/ is replaced by your defined dashboard URL and view is replaced by the defined path within that dashboard. For example:

- action: "URI"
  title: "Open Cameras"
  uri: "/lovelace/cameras"

Android specific

If you want to open an application you need to set the action to URI. The format will be app://<package> where <package> is replaced by the package you wish to open (ex: app://com.twitter.android). If the device does not have the application installed then the Home Assistant application will open to the default page.

- action: "URI"
  title: "Open Twitter"
  # Name of package for application you would like to open
  uri: "app://com.twitter.android"

With action set to URI you can also trigger the More Info panel for any entity. The format will be entityId:<entity_ID> where <entity_id> is replaced with the entity ID you wish to view. Ex: entityId:sun.sun

- action: "URI"
  title: "View the sun"
  uri: "entityId:sun.sun"

specific

You can also use application-launching URLs. For example, to make a telephone call:

- action: "CALL"
  title: "Call Pizza Hut"
  uri: "tel:2125551212"

Or to launch a page in your default browser:

- action: "OPEN"
  title: "Open Safari"
  uri: "https://example.com"

Building notification action scripts

There are some important things to keep in mind when building actionable notifications:

Your script or automation could be run multiple times
The actions for your notification are shared across all notifications

To avoid issues, you can create unique actions for each time your script is run. By combining context and variables, this can be fairly straightforward:

# inside a automation actions or script sequence
- alias: "Set up variables for the actions"
  variables:
    # Including an id in the action allows us to identify this script run
    # and not accidentally trigger for other notification actions
    action_open: "{{ 'OPEN_' ~ context.id }}"
    action_close: "{{ 'CLOSE_' ~ context.id }}"
- alias: "Ask to close or open the blinds"
  service: notify.mobile_app_<your_device>
  data:
    message: "The blinds are half-open. Do you want to adjust this?"
    data:
      actions:
        - action: "{{ action_open }}"
          title: Open
        - action: "{{ action_close }}"
          title: Close
- alias: "Wait for a response"
  wait_for_trigger:
    - platform: event
      event_type: mobile_app_notification_action
      event_data:
        # waiting for the specific action avoids accidentally continuing
        # for another script/automation's notification action
        action: "{{ action_open }}"
    - platform: event
      event_type: mobile_app_notification_action
      event_data:
        action: "{{ action_close }}"
- alias: "Perform the action"
  choose:
    - conditions: "{{ wait.trigger.event.data.action == action_open }}"
      sequence:
        - service: cover.open_cover
          target:
            entity_id: cover.some_cover
    - conditions: "{{ wait.trigger.event.data.action == action_close }}"
      sequence:
        - service: cover.close_cover
          target:
            entity_id: cover.some_cover

The above sends a notification, waits for a response, and then performs whichever action is being requested. You can control how automations or scripts run when an existing one is already executing by changing the automation mode.

When the notification action is performed, the mobile_app_notification_action event fires with the following data:

{
    "event_type": "mobile_app_notification_action",
    "data": {
        "action": "OPEN_<context_id_here>",
        // will be present on:
        // - Android and iOS, when `REPLY` is used as the action identifier
        // - iOS when `behavior` is set to `textInput`
        "reply_text": "Reply from user",
        // iOS-only, will be included if sent in the notification
        "action_data": {
          "entity_id": "light.test",
          "my_custom_data": "foo_bar"
        },
        // Android users can also expect to see all data fields sent with the notification in this response such as the "tag"
        "tag": "TEST"
    },
    "origin": "REMOTE",
    "time_fired": "2020-02-02T04:45:05.550251+00:00",
    "context": {
        "id": "abc123",
        "parent_id": null,
        "user_id": "123abc"
    }
}

You can also create automations that trigger for any notification action. For example, if you wanted to include a SILENCE action on a variety of notifications, but only handle it in one place:

automation:
  - alias: "Silence the alarm"
    trigger:
      - platform: event
        event_type: mobile_app_notification_action
        event_data:
          action: "SILENCE"
    action:
      ...

Migrating from iOS 2021.4 and macOS 2021.8 and earlier

note

Initially upgrading to 2021.5 may require a restart to allow dynamic actions to show up. This will only be necessary once.

Starting in iOS version 2021.5, actions are specified inline with notifications. To migrate, do the following:

Add the actions array to each notification. For example:

# original
action:
  - service: notify.mobile_app_<your_device_id_here>
    data:
      message: "Something happened at home!"
      data:
        push:
          category: "ALARM"
        url:
          _: "/lovelace/cameras" # if the notification itself is tapped
          SOUND_ALARM: "/lovelace/alarm" # if the 'SOUND_ALARM' action is tapped
# replacement
action:
  - service: notify.mobile_app_<your_device_id_here>
    data:
      message: "Something happened at home!"
      data:
        url: "/lovelace/cameras" # launched if no action is chosen
        actions:
          # for compatibility, the YAML definition of actions can be used
          # for example, you may use `identifier` instead of `action`
          - action: "ALARM"
            title: "Sound Alarm"
            destructive: true
            uri: "/lovelace/alarm"
          - action: "SILENCE"
            title: "Silence Alarm"

Convert your event triggers to the new values

# original
automation:
  - alias: "Sound the alarm iOS"
    trigger:
      - platform: event
        event_type: ios.notification_action_fired
        event_data:
          actionName: "SOUND_ALARM"
    action:
      ...
# replacement
automation:
  - alias: "Sound the alarm iOS"
    trigger:
      - platform: event
        event_type: mobile_app_notification_action
        event_data:
          action: "SOUND_ALARM"
    action:
      ...

macOS before 2021.10 and iOS before 2021.5

In advance of sending a notification:

Define a notification category in your Home Assistant configuration which contain 1-4 actions.
At launch iOS app requests notification categories from Home Assistant (can also be done manually in notification settings).

When sending a notification:

Send a notification with data.push.category set to a pre-defined notification category identifier.
Push notification delivered to device.
User opens notification.
Action tapped.
Identifier of action sent back to HA as the actionName property of the event ios.notification_action_fired, along with other metadata such as the device and category name.

How the iOS device and Home Assistant work together to enable actionable notifications.

Definitions

Category - A category represents a type of notification that the app might receive. Think of it as a unique group of actions.
Actions - An action consists of a button title and the information that iOS needs to notify the app when the action is selected. You create separate action objects for distinct action your app supports.

Category parameters

Name	Default	Description
`name:`	required	A friendly name for this category.
`identifier:`	required	A unique identifier for the category. Must be lowercase and have no special characters or spaces (underscores are ok).
`actions:`	required	A list of actions. See below.

Actions parameters

Name	Default	Description
`identifier:`	required	A unique identifier for this action. Can be entirely either upper or lower case (but should not mix the two) and have no special characters or spaces (underscores are ok). Only needs to be unique to the category, not unique globally.
`title:`	required	The text to display on the button. Keep it short.
`activationMode:`	optional	The mode in which to run the app when the action is performed. Setting this to `foreground` will make the app open after selecting. Default value is `background`.
`authenticationRequired:`	optional	If `true`, the user must unlock the device before the action is performed.
`destructive:`	optional	When `true`, the corresponding button is displayed with a red text color to indicate the action is destructive.
`behavior:`	optional	When `textInput` the system provides a way for the user to enter a text response to be included with the notification. The entered text will be sent back to Home Assistant. Default value is `default`.
`textInputButtonTitle:`	optional*	The button label. Required if `behavior` is `textInput`.
`textInputPlaceholder:`	optional	The placeholder text to show in the text input field. Only used if `behavior` is `textInput`

Here's a fully built example configuration:

ios:
  push:
    categories:
      - name: Alarm
        identifier: 'alarm'
        actions:
          - identifier: 'SOUND_ALARM'
            title: 'Sound Alarm'
            activationMode: 'background'
            authenticationRequired: true
            destructive: true
            behavior: 'default'
          - identifier: 'SILENCE_ALARM'
            title: 'Silence Alarm'
            activationMode: 'background'
            authenticationRequired: true
            destructive: false
            behavior: 'textInput'
            textInputButtonTitle: 'Silencio!'
            textInputPlaceholder: 'Placeholder'

Rather than defining categories using YAML within configuration.yaml, you can create them directly within the Companion App. This can be done from the Notifications page of the App Configuration Menu (accessed from the sidebar menu).

Two variables are available for use in the Hidden preview placeholder and Category summary. %u will give the total number of notifications which have been sent under the same thread ID (see this document for more details). %@ will give the text specified with summary: in the push: section of the notification payload.

Building automations for notification actions

Here is an example automation to send a notification with a category in the payload:

automation:
  - alias: Notify Mobile app
    trigger:
      ...
    action:
      - service: notify.mobile_app_<your_device_id_here>
        data:
          title: "Check this out!"
          message: "Something happened at home!"
          data:
            push:
              category: "alarm" # Needs to match the top level identifier you used in the ios configuration
            action_data: # Anything passed in action_data will get echoed back to Home Assistant.
              entity_id: light.test
              my_custom_data: foo_bar

If you want to navigate to a Lovelace page or launch an app for a notification, you can use the url key.

To navigate to a dashboard when tapping a notification:

action:
  - service: notify.mobile_app_<your_device_id_here>
    data:
      message: "Something happened at home!"
      data:
        url: /lovelace/cameras

To navigate to a specific dashboard when tapping a notification action:

action:
  - service: notify.mobile_app_<your_device_id_here>
    data:
      message: "Something happened at home!"
      data:
        push:
          category: "ALARM"
        url:
          _: "/lovelace/cameras" # if the notification itself is tapped
          SOUND_ALARM: "/lovelace/alarm" # if the 'SOUND_ALARM' action is tapped

You can also use application-launching URLs. For example, launch an external website using https://example.com or make a phone call using tel:2125551212.

When an action is selected an event named ios.notification_action_fired will be emitted on the Home Assistant event bus. Below is an example payload:

{
  "sourceDeviceName": "Robbie's iPhone 7 Plus",
  "sourceDeviceID": "robbies_iphone_7_plus",
  "actionName": "SOUND_ALARM",
  "textInput": "",
  "action_data": {}
}

Here's an example automation for the given payload:

automation:
  - alias: "Sound the alarm iOS"
    trigger:
      - platform: event
        event_type: ios.notification_action_fired
        event_data:
          actionName: "SOUND_ALARM"
    action:
      ...

Compatibility with different devices

iOS Specific

iOS 13 and later

All devices support notification expanding by performing a right to left swipe and pressing 'View' in the lock screen or pressing and holding, but on 3D Touch-enabled devices you may still need to apply some force to do it. If you're not in the lock screen, you can also pull the notification down to expand it.

Prior to iOS 13

For devices that support 3D Touch - a firm press on the notification will expand it, showing the action buttons underneath. Supported devices include the iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. If not in lock screen, you can also pull the notification down to expand it.
For devices that do not support "3D Touch" (such as the iPhone 6 and below, iPhone SE, iPhone XR and iPads), you perform a left to right swipe on the notification, then tap on the 'View' button. This will expand the notification and show the relevant action buttons underneath. If not in lock screen, you need to pull the notification down to expand it.

Version Compatibility

Building actionable notifications​

Android specific options​

specific options​

Icon Values​

Version Compatibility

uri values​

Android specific​

specific​

Building notification action scripts​

Migrating from iOS 2021.4 and macOS 2021.8 and earlier​

note

macOS before 2021.10 and iOS before 2021.5​

Definitions​

Category parameters​

Actions parameters​

Building automations for notification actions​

Compatibility with different devices​

iOS 13 and later​

Prior to iOS 13​

Building actionable notifications

Android specific options

specific options

Icon Values

`uri` values

Android specific

specific

Building notification action scripts

Migrating from iOS 2021.4 and macOS 2021.8 and earlier

macOS before 2021.10 and iOS before 2021.5

Definitions

Category parameters

Actions parameters

Building automations for notification actions

Compatibility with different devices

iOS 13 and later

Prior to iOS 13