A few weeks ago my internet provider had an malfunction and I lost my internet connection for a few hours. Strangly enough I could not connect to Homey, even locally via the new web function. The latter may have been my own fault / settings. I re-added a local user for my own web user and I tested again today by unplugging my modem and it worked.
This got me thinking though, what devices and corresponding apps use an api which is dependent on internet access…
One of my automations is the following: When someone presses the button on my Reolink doorbell (PoE, connected to Synology Surv. Station locally - Blocked from the internet), a snapshot is made and that snapshot including a corresponding message is sent to the mobile of me and my wife. To do the latter I use Athom’s own push notification function. Though the latter does not work when I have no internet connection…Which is not what I expected. Am I an idiot for thinking this could be handled when Homey is offline? It seems to require a cloud connecton to the athom servers?
My Homey does sent me an (automated) message when it’s offline, so it should be possible?
And if so, are there (local working) alternatives?
The default setup for push notifications is through cloud-hosted services offered by Apple and Google.
However, local push also exists, but it needs to be implemented by both the mobile app and by the platform. Home Assistant, for instance, offers this. However, there are some limitations (imposed by OS), like this only working in your local network and it using (a bit) more battery power, since it requires a persistant socket connection between your phone and the platform.
That message isn’t sent by your Homey, but by Athom’s cloud servers when they detect they don’t have a connection with your Homey.
Thanks for your reply! I guess not having push notifications when internet is down is not the worst. But if this was an option, I could and wanted to block Homey from the internet.
In search of alternativea…@robertklep are you familiar with ntfy? Has an Homey app. If I host it on my NUC within proxmox it should be able to locally do the push notifications?
Amongst some things Homey’s clock needs internet in case Homey is restarted (there’s no “bios battery”)
When the internet is down, that’s only possible when your phone uses it’s own mobile Internet data connection.
You’ll have to realize when your home is without internet, your phone can switch connections and still connect to internet (depends on your settings).
Yes, for both Android (Firebase Cloud Messaging) and iOS (APN) require a server in most cases. The only way to make this work locally is to run the app as a background service (on Android) and stay connected to the local server at all times. This drains your battery significantly and is therefore not recommended
Apps like MacroDroid can also send local push notifications, because they’re running as a background service.
