Notification Solutions​

How to allow ​​IoT projects to send alerts, for example to smartphones? Here come the notification solutions.
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Since July 2019 when this page was initially published, many changes have affected the notification solutions.
​I tried
  • Pushed runs on iOS and Android, and has a free plan limited to one channel;
  • Pushover runs on iOS, Android and selected browsers for desktops, has a 7-day-long trial period and requires one licence per platform after;
  • Pushbullet runs on iOS, Android, selected browsers for desktops, and on Windows, and has a free plan;
  • IFTTT runs on iOS and Android, and has a free plan.
I also tried
  • Boxcar is said to be the reference, but I couldn't manage to get it work;
  • Zapier doesn't feature its own notification system, but relies on Pushover or Pushbullet instead.
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UPDATE Boxcar is no longer available.

Receiving Notifications

On an iPhone, 
  • ​Pushed displays the title and the message;
  • Pushover displays the title in bold and the message on a separate line, with an icon and an optional link;
  • Pushbullet displays the title only;
  • IFTTT displays the title in bold and the message on a separate line, with an icon​ and an optional link.
Keeping the application alive reduces the battery life

On a desktop,
  • ​Only Pushbullet offers native applications for desktops. Pushbullet (free) and InstaBullet (commercial with free trial) run on Windows. Noti (free) and PushPal (commercial, no free trial, not tested) run on macOS.
Two solutions, Pushover and Pushbullet, bring plug-ins for selected browser for desktops.
Pushbullet and InstaBullet on Windows
Noti and PushPal on macOS

Sending Notifications 

Each solution has its own vocabulary, with specific concepts and terms.

Some of the solutions offer a dedicated node for Node-RED:
  • Pushover with 5 fields,
  • Pushbullet with 3 fields,
while others rely on the standard HTTP request node:
  • Pushed with 7 fields through the API,
  • IFTTT with 3 fields through a web-hook.

I enjoyed the excellent Pushed documentation, with snippets available for CURL, PHP, Perl, Ruby and Python. 

Same for the IFTTT ease of use when configuring the HTTP request.

Conclusion

Two solutions clearly emerge:
  • Pushover offers a clean interface, albeit being commercial;
  • IFTTT requires to use the web-hook service and is free.

Links


Posted: 06 July 2019
​Updated: 23 Nov 2021