Fire Tablet as notification device

📢 Feedback Feature Requests
#1

Being able to receive Hubitat notifications on my tablet devices would be extremely useful. For some notifications, such as intrusion, fire, etc. I consider to be crucial. I want to know about these events immediately and may have my phone charging in another room while I am on my tablet.

Another use case would be to have an app like Tasker monitor my Hubitat notifications and perform various actions based on those. For instance, a wall mounted tablet can be told to turn off it's screen when it's bedtime.

I know it's possible using Pushover, but it would be nice if it was something natively supported in the Hubitat app. Thanks.

#2

Why not install the hubitat app on your tablet and receive notifications via that? Another option is to use fully kiosk browser which allows you to control the tablet via hubitat.

2 Likes
#3

The Hubitat app on my tablet doesn't show up as a notification device. As I understand it, only mobile phones can be used as such with with the Hubitat app.

1 Like
#4

I have exactly the setup @welby1978 is describing, a Lenovo tablet with HE app installed as well as the app installed on my phone, both are available to send notifications. I also have an older tablet and have a tile on my dashboard showing recent notifications.

#5

Hmm... maybe it's a problem with my tablet then. I am using a Fire HD 10 (9th gen), with the Google Play store sideloaded. I've installed Hubitat from the Play store.

#6

I'm not sure why it wouldn't be working, but yes, that is the thing you need to work out.

#7

I just tried adding Hubitat to my old Shield Tablet and it isn't showing up as a "mobile app device" either. I am clicking "Create New Device" after logging into the app. Do I need to use a different account for each device?

#8

So I found a workaround for the "mobile app device" not being created when I add one of my tablets. If I log out on my phone, log back in, and create a new device with it, then it is added to my devices. Then I switch my phone back to it's original device and select the newly created device when logging into my tablet.

There is still another issue. Apps installed on a Fire Tablet from the Google Play Store can't use notifications. Only apps installed from the Amazon Appstore can. So, I'd like to change my feature request to add an Amazon Appstore version of the Hubitat app.

#9

Sorry @Derakkon, I responded to some of your earlier posts as I was heading out for the day and didn't get back to respond to your questions.

In terms of your issue and your process to resolve parts of it, I don't remember a particularly complicated setup when I purchased my Lenovo tablet close to 12 months ago. While I can't remember the specifics, I can't remember a complicated process. I would suggest following up with the HE support team (if you aren't already) and capturing the outcome here for anyone else who comes across this same issue. In particular if there is any issues with the Fire tablet it would be useful to capture that for anyone else considering purchasing that device.

1 Like
#10

For Fire Tablets, the "mobile app device" not being created isn't the only issue. Apparently when the Google Play Store is sideloaded on these, any apps installed from it can't use notifications. I tested with a number of apps including Hubitat, SmartThings, Pushover, Gmail, Docs, and YouTube. I'm planning to install LineageOS as soon as I can. Hopefully Play Store apps will be able to use notifications on it, but if not, at the very least, it will rid me of the horrid FireOS launcher which just keeps coming back from the dead.

As mentioned, my nVidia Shield Tablet is working as a notification device now after jumping through some hoops. My original assumptions about tablets were based on old information found on the forum. I should have looked at the date of the post.

Anyway, thanks for the reply. Now I just have to wait for the newer HD 10 to get hacked.

1 Like
#11

Please don't take my like as me liking your situation, that sounds complicated and frustrating, so I feel for you... I thought I had seen on some of the posts re tablets to use as wall mounted devices that some people had been using those, but I can't say for sure... Hopefully you can get some use out of them.

1 Like
#12

So it turns out newer Fire Tablets (2018 and later?) seem to have notification issues with Amazon Appstore apps as well. Even the built in Alexa app doesn't produce notifications.

There is a slight bright side though. I was able to get some notifications working by whitelisting my device as shown here: https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-fix-device-not-certified-by-google-error/

After following the steps outlined there, I am now able to get Gmail notifications on my tablet. Unfortunately they are way too delayed for it to be useful for Tasker. I can make it faster using K-9 Mail, but it's still not fast enough for turning on the screen when a motion detector detects motion.

Then I stumbled on this: Guide: Motion Activated Wall-Mounted Tablet for Newbies : tasker

With that method, I can use the built in camera on the device as the motion detector. To keep the device from immediately turning back off, add an additional "Wait" command in the task editor before the "Lock Device" command. To bypass the swipe to unlock screen, install both WallPanel and Fully Kiosk Browser and have them running in the background.

I wish I could do more, but I guess I can settle for this for now.

1 Like
#13

if you use wallpanel take a look here

#14

Download the Hubitat app