How to get notifications

So, I've discovered that email and text messages are not supported natively. Unfortunate. But from my reading here it seems I should be able to get notifications on the phone app: Tools -> Notifications. I have 2 flood sensors that are up and working, but when I test them, I get no notifications. If I: Tools -> Connect to hub => Devices -> {sensor} -> Events the tests correctly show up. I have created a Notification for the sensors as well as a "Send Notification" in a Basic Rule app that turns on a Siren. The Siren goes on fine, but no Notification. My guess is that I missed a basic setting somewhere along the way. Any help with where to look and what to set would be very much appreciated.

Welcome to Hubitat.
In order to get notifications, you must have a device previously set up that supports notifications.

  1. Audio notifications: Perhaps the easiest of all notifications is the audio notifications to Sonos devices, using the built in driver/app. Audio notifications to alexa & google home devices also work, but usually require a 3rd party add on.
  2. Text notifications. This can be done via a variety of ways.
    a) Twillio - low cost 3rd party add on
    b) standard Linux SendMail on a RPI (this is what I use from @erktrek)
    Email Notifications Driver using Node/sendmail on a PI
    c) SendMail on the Hubitat (see SendMail from @kahn-hubitat) ; usually requires a email address on a local provider
    Sendmail - Send email and text notifications, (notification device) no local server needed
    d) Pushover driver
    e) In order to get notifications to the Hubitat mobile app, the mobile app should setup a device for you - use that device to send notifications
    I think that should get you started on the road that is most appropriate for you.
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Okay, thanks for that. Since I primarily want to know about the state of flood sensors when I'm not at home, I went the Pushover route and now I get notifications to the Pushover app on my phone.

What, if anything, does the phone app display in Tools->Notifications?

Pushover will not display anything in Tools > Notifications. Those are notifications sent to the Hubitat mobile app (which if your only goal is to get notifications when you aren't home, then there's no reason to have gone with Pushover since both can work at home or away from home and always depend on a cloud service anyway--but you do get some extra features with Pushover that perhaps you'll like). Pushover probably has its own way to view history, but I don't use it, so I can't speak to that.

In any case, you won't get a push notification unless you select your push notification device (e.g., your Pushover device, the Hubitat mobile app device, etc.) in the app you're using to send the notification.

For a display, you can run bptworld's "Follow Me" app in parallel with Pushover and send it to a text log on a menu tile.

I did select my mobile device, but no notifications.

When I first set this up last Friday and installed the app on my phone, the device (phone) showed up in the web interface with the model number (SN-G781V). I renamed it to "{my name} cell" for easier identification. On Saturday a second instance showed up with the original name. I left this device alone. I tried each device as the notification target and then both devices. No notifications (in Tools->Notifications). Perhaps the duplicate devices is the issue, but I'm not sure which one to delete.

Try using the notification button on the device page, in order to see which one is working....

Thanks for that testing tip. The second cell device (generic name) sent a push notification to my phone. I added that device to "Text notifications" list in Notifications and tested the flood sensor. That worked as well; my cell received a push notification and Pushover received it also.

So, I'm still puzzled as to what, if any, notifications, are sent to the Hubitat (for Android) cell app under "Tools -> Notifications". Any pointers on this? Is there something I need to connect either in the web interface or on the cell phone?

To be precise, the Hubitat app gives you notifications on your phone, not on the phone app. These notifications are like any other notifications you get on your phone. On my phone I get many notifications everyday from many different services (email, sports, weather, etc...), most days I don't get any notification on my phone from Hubitat. On most phones it is difficult to see a history of your notifications received, I am sure you receive notifications on your current phone, try getting a list of the last 20 received. Along with displaying phone notifications, the app also provides a notification history of the notifications the hubitat app caused your phone to display.

If you have the hubitat app installed on your phone AND it also shows up as one of your devices, then this is all you need for your phone to display hubitat notifications. The best way to test this is to go to the device page for your phone app, from there you can send as many notifications as you want. This procedure confirms everything is working as you want. On most phones it is difficult to see a history of notifications that the phone displayed, so you can open the hubitat app to see this history. (tools-notifications). Obviously, this history is not going to list all the notifications your phone displayed, but it will list a history of the hubitat notifications your phone displayed.

Pushover is a separate notification service. It is not required if you have the hubitat app installed on your phone. Many user still use pushover for a variety of reasons, some of these reasons include:

  1. They don't want to install the HE app, but still want notifications on their phone.
  2. They want notification redundancy.
  3. Pushover has some extra features and is arguably better if sending notifications to many devices.

As you posted this thread in the "Getting Started" section, I would suggest you simply try to get the HE app working for notifications on your phone and for the moment don't worry about having any "push notifications". The device that is created by the Hubitat android app, does not send any push notifications, it just sends notifications, pushover is not required. Once you have the HE app working, and your phone displaying Hubitat notifications, and you realize how you can see a history of these notifications that were displayed by your phone by opening the hubitat app; then I would try some of the other notification options.

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Thanks for this explanation Stephan.J. I completely agree with:

My problem is that no notifications are displayed at all in "tools-notifications" history. I can send all the test or real (flood sensor) messages I want and they show up as "phone" notifications, but not in the HE app notifications history. Showing up there would be the most useful.

I should probably try uninstalling and reinstalling HE app. Question what about the 2 phone devices that are displayed. Manually remove them? After uninstalling and before reinstalling?

I would first check which one of these is successfully sending notifications to your phone. From the device page you can send a test notification, I would try both and see which one works.

The above image is my phone showing up in devices. From this device page if I enter a text in the box labelled "Text" and push the "deviceNotification" button, a notification is sent to my phone.

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Yes, I've done that. Only the second "mobile app device" sends notifications to my phone. That is the one that mysteriously appeared the day after I installed the app on my phone. The first one showed up soon after I installed the app. (I had renamed it to "{name}'s cell". It does not send notifications to my phone. The second (generic device name) only sends notifications to my phone. Nothing is shown in "tools-notification" in the app. By that I mean nothing at all from the HE since I powered it up for the first time last Friday.

I was experiencing the exact same issue today and resolved it by uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Hopefully that works for you too. I also made sure to accept the notifications when prompted by the app during setup.

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That did it. Uninstalled and reinstalled and now receive phone and app notifications. Thanks to all for the help.

Well, I'm going to have to remember that solution.
Always reboot. remove and reinstall.

Point taken jtmpush18. I built my first computer from a kit in 1975. I was in the industry for 40 years before I retired in 2015. I should have known better. Thanks for gentle nudge.

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I had this same issue but I uninstalled the HE app mobile app on my Iphone and it worked. Also you can try using Webcore for notifications. I use that as well to get notifications every morning at a certain time to let me know when that the leak sensors are dry. I also have written a few scripts for if the leak sensors are wet to send me and notification and a email.

So this looks like the same problem I am having - with additional details...
Set up notifier to my generic Zigbee contact sensor (ThirdReality Zigbee contact sensor) on the garage door. Sensor reports correctly in the device just fine. Set up rule to send notification to my phone (with the Hubitat app installed) but no notifications appear.
Sidenote 1 - in the app, when I click on "Tools -> notifications" all I see is a spinning wheel of death, waiting for eternity to come to pass.
Sidenote 2 - Uninstalled and reinstalled the app... or at t\least trying to now... and at the initial login screen, I am stuck on "Fetching users data" with that same too familiar wheel of death :scream: :skull: :ghost: !

UPDATE: Finally got the app to open, wheel never went away, I just closed and reopened it and VOILA! my interface was there. However, going to "Tools -> Notifications after sending a test notification in the phone device page still yields the little red death spiral!
No notification came through for my phone.
NEW GLITCH: When I go to "Devices" all I get is a little green house in a tornado (another different-colored wheel of death...
Before you ask, App version is 1.6.8., build number 128

FURTHER UDPADED: I went to connect to my Hub from my phone, and I get ERRORS:
The first attempt was " okhttp3.ResponseBody$1@73e75a7 "
clicked OK and tried again, got: " okhttp3.ResponseBody$1@87e1891 "
This is completely Greek and not very helpful to me... :woozy_face:

@moncho1138, Macguyver above is getting some weird errors on the phone app.

@Macguyver I don't see if you are using iOS or Android, it probably would help if you could list that.

My bad, Android on Samsung S21