homeassistant

I utilize scripts for all of my notification needs. It allows me to utilize logic based around certain criteria, like this on that will only notify family members at home. If no one is home it will wait and notify the first person to show up. This also allows me to be able to quickly toggle notifications for my wife when I'm testing automations with notifications.

alias: Notify People at Home
fields:
  title:
    description: The title of the notification
    example: Laundry
  message:
    description: The message content
    example: Washer Finished!
sequence:
  - if:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: zone.home
        state: "0"
    then:
      - wait_for_trigger:
          - platform: numeric_state
            entity_id: zone.home
            above: "0"
    else: []
  - parallel:
      - if:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: person.bob
            state: home
        then:
          - service: script.notify_bob
            data:
              title: "{{ title }}"
              message: "{{ message }}"
      - if:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: person.mary
            state: home
        then:
          - service: script.notify_mary
            data:
              title: "{{ title }}"
              message: "{{ message }}"
mode: queued
icon: mdi:exclamation-thick
max: 10

I set up a notify group for each of us. I use notify.me and add/remove the devices as needed.

notify:
- name: me
  platform: group
  services:
   # - service: mobile_app_pixel_2_xl
    - service: mobile_app_pixel_6

- name: her
  platform: group
  services:
    - service: mobile_app_iphone

Then you can use it like any other service:

service: notify.me
data:
  message: Test
  title: Alert!

I use the notify service with a group platform. This way you add and remove devices in one place only. Here's how I set it up in configuration.yaml:

notify:
  - name: notify_all_devices
    platform: group
    services:
      - service: mobile_app_pixel_6_pro
      - service: mobile_app_pixel_3_xl

In my automation triggers, I simply call my notify_all_devices service.

Recently did this and yes it's a pain. I don't know if it's going to help until next time we change phones, but what I did this time was name the device after the person, rather than the phone model.

The idea being that I can delete the old device in the future and replace it with the new device, named the same. That way I don't have to change the device name in each automation every time. Hopefully that made sense. But I still haven't tested it in reality.

Yes notifications need an overhaul, we assign devices to people we should be able to choose notify.user as a service and choose the user to send the notification to. That way when we change devices we only have to associate the device with the user again.