My take on Notifications and what I am using and want Version 2 - Update with WORKING solution

[mkgough]

This is an update to my last post since significant progress was made. I hope this helps people solve similar issue to what I experienced.

With the recent issue with iPhone not getting notifications (Bug update coming), I have been trying to find alternatives to make sure key notifications can be detected and not missed. This is a summary of my findings and wish list for Hubitat to address:

Types of Notifications:

1. Low - Basic items - Doors opening and closing etc. Good to know when you are not home
2. Critical items - Water Leaks, sirens go off, Temp, etc.
3. Medium - Temperature alerts - So that you don't have pipes freezing and turn on heaters, etc.
4. Need to act on - Battery levels that will need to be replaced

Notification solutions Tested:

I have played with several drivers and Apps to improve notification capability:

1. Pushover - Used to let me know about Temperature items, battery levels and Leaks
2. IFTTT Pro - Call me on water leaks and "Critical" items
3. SMTP Email - I would use for Temp to plug in heaters and Battery so I can order batteries if needed
4. Hubitat Notifications - Basically works with the exception of current iPhone issue, but Critical, Temp and Battery alerts get lost among all the normal notifications
5. Node-Red - a flow replacement to Hubitat that runs on ANOTHER piece of hardware, NOT on Hubitat, so for the techies
6. GCal App Add-on that use a webhook to send emails to your Google account (Email, Calendar and Tasks) ONLY tested Email

IFTTT lacks some needed options like Battery Levels that I could have emailed if they had a trigger for. I use this for Temp to remind me to plug in a heater in my outdoor water filter box. I made a request for this when I set up Pro to get 20 Applets for phone call notifications for leaks and email for Temp issues. No change here, Nice that it has Phone Call and Email options, but you have to pay for Pro for 20 Applets

Pushover does not have an option to send you an email. You can use an email to make Pushover send a notification to your phone/device/browser, not sure what to use this for. You create a Priority Virtual Device and Normal Device that allows for higher priority items like Leak detection alerts. Does have a fee, but not much.

Hubitat SMS and email driver projects just did NOT work as you have to have a basic SMTP server at your home/location, which I have on my NAS, but I am NOT opening it to the internet for obvious security reasons. Yeah these did NOT work

Google Calendar, Email, Task and Search Project App

[RELEASE] Google Calendar, Task, and Gmail Search and Gmail Notification Device

Google Calendar, Task, and Gmail Search integrates Hubitat Elevation with your Google Calendar, Tasks, Reminders, and Gmail to automate triggers based on items found matching your search criteria: Optionally toggle a child virtual switch Send Push, SMS, and TTS Notifications Run Rule Machine rule actions Gmail email notification devices can also be created with this application which will allow you to send email notifications directly from your Hubitat Elevation hub using the Google APIs with…

This actually WORKED !!! Kudos to ritchierich for creating this application that integrates with your Google Gmail account. Setup is a bit techie and may take you a couple ties, but is worth it since it gives you Email and SMS, actually MMS capability to Email and Text your phone notifications.

Conclusion:

Pushover:

is basically the same as Hubitat notifications, but can do more than just send to your phone, you can get them to your desktop if you choose. Cheap enough, but does not really solve much except I only have Critical, Temp and Battery going to Pushover, less events so hopefully more visibility for these items. Also they stay around longer than Hubitat notifications on your phone. You can create multiple Priority Virtual Devices so more critical items can override your silent times like a leak or freezing temps. I think I will keep this since it is cheap and a backup to Hubitat Notifications and let's me prioritize alerts and allows me to split items like doors opening and closing alerts via Hubitat versus, temp, security, battery level events.

Node-Red:

Lots of capabilities with this to create Rules to trigger events and send emails, etc. and integrate with other IoT things. The issue with this solution is you would optimally need a Raspberry Pi running Node-Red as it uses an API App to integrate with Hubitat. You could use an old PC that stays on all the time as well. But seems this is perfect for a Pi. I have a Pi running my Solar monitoring solution, but do not see using this for what I want to do.

IFTTT:

Some delays to the alerting, but can give you what triggers they have, not enough though, no battery level for example, a MAJOR problem I am trying to solve. And Pro cost you for only 20 Applets to do what you want. I will likely keep this for the Phone Call option until I no longer need this functionality for alerts.

Google Cal, Email, Task, Search Project:

WINNER WINNER Chicken Dinner! Once I got it up and running, this solved TWO major issues I wanted.

1. a way to send email alerts of low and dead battery levels so I can replace them and order more. I use a LOT of motion, door, tilt and other battery devices where this is an issue to know the level and remember to change them or order more batteries. Also a reminder to plug in my freeze heaters.
2. Text Messages for critical items. I have a lot of leak sensors as well as temp sensors on my outdoor water filter that I do NOT want to freeze and so want text and email alerts to let me know.. PLUG IN THE HEATER !!!!! and I can to alert me via text when I travel that someone opened my door as well as email in addition tot he notifications which may not be working that started this whole effort.

I do use Dashboards, but do not use them regularly to monitor battery levels. Some batteries do not do a good job when they get low.. They report 100% or 0%.. no in-between, it is the type of battery issue. Maybe avoid these cells. The thick watch type batteries used in temp sensors. CR123, AA, AAA, and cylinder batteries seem to work fine.

Wish List for Notifications:

IFTTT does not have enough Hubitat options to trigger Battery levels and other device attributes to send an email to remind you to plug in pipe heaters and get and/or replace batteries. Solve this and it would be a serious option for people. I should be able to do everything Hubitat Rules can do to be a true option since you have to pay for it.

Hubitat notifications are not enough for the level of notifications we need when having a robust smart home. Hubitat badly needs an email/API option for sending secure email that is required now by email providers like GMail etc. Hell.. I would pay for it...

Hubitat - Add notification levels for Low, Medium and High notifications. Going to your phone as it does now does not provide much of an option, so would need to be another solution guessing

Hubitat - True SSL/TLS email API option to send emails for things like Battery Levels, Leaks, etc. Even charge for it ! This is solved with the Google Calendar, Email, Task, Search App though... so not sure Hubitat needs to solve this if there is a project solving it.

Pushover is worth taking a look as an option since it charges per device and is cheap and provides priority. It too has notification on iPhone issues.

Pushover - Add TLS/SSL Email API to send email for items you want alerted. It would also allow for MMS Text messages.

This is my take from testing all the options. Let me know if you have anything else working, but I hope this helps those wanting more options for notifications.

I have solved what I need for now.. so now that it is all setup...I will see how it works and if I have any more needs or comments in the coming months.

Cheers.