---
title: Notifications
description: Instructions on how to add user notifications to Home Assistant.
ha_category:
  - Notifications
ha_release: 0.7
ha_quality_scale: internal
ha_codeowners:
  - '@home-assistant/core'
ha_domain: notify
ha_integration_type: entity
---

The `notify` integration makes it possible to send notifications to a wide variety of platforms. To use it you have to setup at least one notification target (notifier), check the [integrations list](/integrations/#notifications) for one that fits your use case.

If you want to send notifications to the Home Assistant web interface, you may use the [Persistent Notification integration](/integrations/persistent_notification/). The Persistent Notification integration is also available as an automatically configured notifier. See [its documentation](/integrations/persistent_notification/) for more details.

{% include integrations/building_block_integration.md %}

## Service

Once loaded, the `notify` platform will expose a service that can be called to send notifications.

| Service data attribute | Optional | Description |
| ---------------------- | -------- | ----------- |
| `message`              |       no | Body of the notification.
| `title`                |      yes | Title of the notification.
| `target`               |      yes | Some platforms allow specifying a recipient that will receive the notification. See your platform page if it is supported.
| `data`                 |      yes | On platforms who have extended functionality. See your platform page if it is supported.

The notify integration supports specifying [templates](/docs/configuration/templating/). This will allow you to use the current state of Home Assistant in your notifications.

In an [action](/getting-started/automation-action/) of your [automation setup](/getting-started/automation/) it could look like this with a customized subject.

Be aware that you might want to change the actual service to whatever service you are actually using since `notify.notify` is shorthand for the first notify service the system can find and might therefore not be working as intended.

```yaml
action:
  service: notify.notify
  data:
    message: "Your message goes here"
    title: "Custom subject"
```

### Test if it works

After you setup a [notifier](/integrations/#notifications) a simple way to test if you have set up your notify platform correctly, is to open **Developer Tools** from the sidebar and then select the  **Services** tab. Choose your service from the **Service** dropdown menu, enter the sample below into the **Service Data** field, and press the **CALL SERVICE** button.

{% raw %}

```json
{
  "message": "The sun is {% if is_state('sun.sun', 'above_horizon') %}up{% else %}down{% endif %}!"
}
```

{% endraw %}

The automation equivalent would be:

{% raw %}

```yaml
action:
  service: notify.notify
  data:
    message: "The sun is {% if is_state('sun.sun', 'above_horizon') %}up{% else %}down{% endif %}!"
```

{% endraw %}