Iphone / android notification with pushback

General
1

Hello everyone
Has anyone tried using pushback.io?
It looks very interesting.
It can be used to send notifications both to Andriod and Iphone, where you can reply back with multi reply options.
There are several program examples on their website.

www.pushback.io

I'm not the big programmer myself, I could use a little help to get started using this service.

2

@Paul-Reed @afelix

This might be of interest to you too, actionable notifications in iOS as you were talking about that in this topic.

@Hjorth-Jensen

It looks like you can use the http request node with additional headers to make this work.

1 Like
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Yes, it looks promising, especially as they have apps for both platforms.
Thanks.

4

I’ll check it out some day, thanks :slight_smile:
I’m currently solving it with a middleman web server forwarding the request body over mqtt where my node-red install is subscribing to.

Interesting note here:

So on notifications with synchronous connection and a limit on how many connections you can have open and thus number of concurrent outgoing synchronous notifications you’ve to fall back to webhooks. Which is essentially what I’ve implemented myself already through that middle server. It looks good, but I’m afraid it’s not useful for my situation. I’m behind double NAT and it’s part of a healthcare network so I’m not taking any risks there. MQTT connecting in/out with occasionally ngrok is risky enough for me.

5

Another thing to consider if you are looking for a low usage 'free' service is that pushback allow 1,000 messages in their free tier, and that's per account, not per month.
So once you hit 1,000 messages, either you must upgrade to a paid plan, or the service stops.

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It is true that this should be considered.
But I was thinking that if I could get push messages that I could answer so I could control my cottage, then $ 1 / month was cheap.
I don't have the knowledge to program it in other ways.

7

What device will you be using to receive the message, iOS or Android?
If iOS, it's worth looking at Pushcut which has lots of options.

Many users here seem to like Telegram (therefore you may get more forum support here, and there is also a Telegram node-RED node)

8

I will be using iSO
I will take a look at Pushcut and telegram. Thanks :+1:

2 Likes
9

Hey founder of Pushback here,

I've made a simple example you can import into node red https://gist.github.com/plainice/68276fdaf9014793857af36b6730c2d5

You'll need to do the following after importing the gist:

  • Set the bearer token in the "http request" node.
  • Modify the "Set payload" function to have an ID. The ID can be either a User ID or a channel ID.

You can find your Bearer token (access token) and your User ID by going to https://app.pushback.io/profile.

You'll be able to get notifications on Android, iOS, and web. The http request is using Pushback's synchronous mode so it will block until you click an action on your phone or computer. That means you don't have to open a port and it works behind any firewall.

I've also included a switch in the gist that shows how you can do different flows depending on which action you choose. You can even have a text field on your push notification which allows a free response.

You can try out Pushback without signing up. I've tried to make creating an account as painless as possible.

Let me know if you any issues or questions!

2 Likes
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Thanks, it took 2 minutes, then it was up and running.
I'll just play some more with it for the next few days.
Thanks for the help.

11

Hi Dan, welcome to the forum & thanks for the personal email & writing up an example gist.

Node-RED indexes useful gists in a library which users then generally search, should they need an example of how to do something. If you wish to add your example, please visit https://flows.nodered.org/, log in & and hit the + button top right. That will guide you and allow your gist to be indexed & publiscised on twitter, slack, etc.

I've just had a quick try of pushback, and do have a few quick questions;

  • How do you change the priority alert level sound via the api, for example, low = silent, normal = default sound, urgent = verbose/repeating.
  • Can you change how the alert is displayed, for example disappear into the notification bar, remain on screen until a reply is made, etc.

Paul

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Hey Paul,

Thanks for the tips. I'll submit a gist!

Here is the answers to your questions:

  • There currently isn't a way to adjust the priority alert level.
  • There also isn't a customization of how the notification is displayed.

Probably not the answer you were hoping for. I'll make a note of those features to see if I can add them in the future.

Dan

1 Like
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