Any good solutions for push notifications outside of BI android app?

[erkme73]

I have multiple tablets around the house (and at in-laws place) that I use exclusively for monitoring BI via UI3.

When someone breaks the IR beam at my gate, it triggers an alert for the gate camera that sends out:

1) Push notification to BI app on my cell phone (instant delivery)
2) A text-to-SMS to my (and in-laws) cell phones (anywhere from instant to HOURS delay due to Verizon laggy gateway)
3) An email to my gmail account (arrives within 1 minute)

Obviously the BI app push notification works the best - and it is the only reason I still have it installed on my phone. However, I do not want to install it on the tablets (trying to keep them as debloated and skinny as possible), and especially not on my in-laws tablet.

So the question is, is there a simple fix for android tablets that would allow the BI server to send a push notification directly without delay, minimal overhead, and simple setup?

 

[TonyR]

I got tired of extreme delays or no-shows with BI alerts via SMS/text and went to Pushover several months ago. BI can tell me within 2 seconds the nature of the alert with a custom text. It's a one-time $5 fee for up to 10,000 messages per month per “application token” and its API is well documented. ==>> Send Pushover notifications with pictures and hyperlinks

 

[wittaj]

+1 on the Pushover app!

The benefit to the Pushover app over the BI app is that you will still get images when off the LAN (unless you are doing port-forwarding now to get images from the BI push when off the LAN which you shouldn't be doing LOL)

 

[kklee]

Another +1 for Pushover. I like that it retains a history of the sent images for quick review.

 

[DLONG2]

Have your home automation trigger BI.

Use the BI's On Alert function to send an email to your upcoming PushOver.net account. It can use email to send out a text message.

I also use the same On Alert function to email me an image of the gate opening.

No need for UI3.

 

[TonyR]

Use the BI's On Alert function to send an email to your upcoming PushOver.net account. It can use email to send out a text message.

FWIW, Pushover's API can get a BI-generated alert to their free Pushover App in less than 3 seconds.

 

[DLONG2]

Another neat feature of PushOver is the use of specific notification sounds set within the API.

 

[digger11]

I really like Pushover, and its custom sounds in particular. Just from the sound I can tell which of my 2 BI servers the alert is coming from, and whether it is a person, someone in the room where my gun safe is, a bear, or any other of the selected objects.

My only issue is that I have the alert push a high res image, and the slow DSL at one of my locations causes the notification to lag sometimes by as much as 15 seconds. I suppose I could send out separate text and image notifications, but sometime in the next couple of months I should have gig fiber to the home and that issue should go away completely.

BTW, I just upgraded my phone to Android 13 and it broke Pushover custom sounds. I sent a bug notice to the developer but as yet have received no response. Having come to rely on the custom sounds I figured I'd go ahead and change the default notification sound to the one I use for most of my AI recognized alerts so I would at least know it was coming from BI via Pushover. After going into Pushover>Settings>Choose default sound and selecting the appropriate custom sound, all of my custom sounds started working again

 

[Cameraguy]

yep Pushover for sure