Setting a rule for notification?

[MadJohn123]

Hi,

I have tried a few searches, but  I couldn't find anything conclusive.  Surely there must be a 'then' rule type to send a notification either to the iOS app or to email - or to anything?  I cannot find it - it should be there bold as day, right?  What am I doing wrong?

I have a Securifi door sensor, and I want to it send me an alert if it's triggered when in away mode.

Thanks in advance for some help.

[mparadis]

No rule needed! However, email notifications aren't yet possible but hopefully they will be eventually. For now, go to your app (each independent user must do this on their app) and select devices (on the bottom) then hit the small wrench on the door sensor (or any device you want to do this with in the future) this will open a larger settings menu for that device. There you can select Notify Me Never > and change it to Always (at all times) or Away (when your Almond+ is in away mode). If you want the device to always notify when the door opens / closes set this to Always! This will have an app alert triggered on your phone (which will show up in your notifications as long as they are allowed in your settings).

[MadJohn123]

Many thanks for the answer.  It's appreciated.

I think that will go some way to achieving what I want to do.

I was hoping for something to report outside of the Almond eco-system (something that can trigger an SMS text, multiple emails etc).  I find it odd that we can't add an action to the rules where - if this event occurs, send a notification/email.  If you're using this to set up some sort of security, a notification to the App isn't really enough,

Anyway, thanks for the info - it has definitely helped!

[mparadis]

I believe they are intending on adding that functionality.

[mjs_Boston]

I'm kind of shocked there isn't an event that at the very least sends this to a log in the App. 

Notifications are a fundamental part of a home automation system.

So has anyone found a way to have my devices tell me when their batteries are low?   

[mparadis]

I'm kind of shocked there isn't an event that at the very least sends this to a log in the App. 

Notifications are a fundamental part of a home automation system.

So has anyone found a way to have my devices tell me when their batteries are low?   

The app does this with notifications. For any device select the edit icon and then tell it when you want notifications. Always, away or home.

[fillibar]

@mjs_Bosto: Assuming you do not want to get all notifications from the device or spotting a low battery warning in the app... Here is something I have done.

Use another device as a status. I have a Dresden RGBW LED strip controller. There are other companies (Fibaro and Lightify) with similar devices or RGB bulbs or such you could get. I created Rules that set it for specific colors (broadly though, I do not use multiple shades of the same color for this purpose). So if a battery is low, it turns the light on yellow. If it has been tampered with, it is orange. I use red for possible alarm/intruder scenarios. Blue for my flood sensor triggering, etc...

[pdxsk8r]

Use another device as a status. I have a Dresden RGBW LED strip controller. There are other companies (Fibaro and Lightify) with similar devices or RGB bulbs or such you could get. I created Rules that set it for specific colors (broadly though, I do not use multiple shades of the same color for this purpose). So if a battery is low, it turns the light on yellow. If it has been tampered with, it is orange. I use red for possible alarm/intruder scenarios. Blue for my flood sensor triggering, etc...

@fillibar, this is a great solution that I have also implemented to help alert me in my home of an issue.

We do really need the ability to send an email as part of the "THEN" action so we can trigger alerts outside of the home and outside of the Almond app.  Currently I have no way to distinguish between a low priority event and a high priority issue.  Do you know if there is a place we can request this?

[fillibar]

The Ideas and Features requests area is meant for such things.
I would say the following should be able to be triggered:
1) Email (even just a simple SMTP send) although this means more configuration on the Almond to have access to an email server UNLESS Securifi builds it such that their cloud sends it. But that makes it cloud-only = BAD.
2) App Notification. A way to add a flag that the app will recognize and trigger on.