Unable to broadcast intent without package name

[mikitaliaukovich]

Home Assistant Android app version(s):
2025.11.4-minimal
Android version(s):
13

Device model(s):
EC30_KL1026 (Chinese Smart Carplay Screen)
Home Assistant version:
2025.12.4

Last working Home Assistant release (if known):
N/A – feature never worked for this use case

Description of problem, include YAML if issue is related to notifications:

The Home Assistant Companion App does not support sending implicit broadcast intents, despite documentation implying general broadcast support.

The app requires intent_package_name to be present for command_broadcast_intent, and then forces the package on the Intent, which makes it impossible to deliver broadcasts to dynamically registered BroadcastReceivers.

If the action doesn't include the package name, like this:

service: notify.mobile_app_ec30_kl1026
data:
  message: "command_broadcast_intent"
  data:
    intent_action: "zqc_navigationbar_action"
    intent_extras: "cmd:hide"

Then It should perform the same broadcast as the following shell command:

am broadcast -a zqc_navigationbar_action --es cmd hide

But when sent, the following error appears in the Companion app logs:

01-07 14:05:22:974 1817 1817 D MessagingManager$handleMessage: Processing device command
01-07 14:05:22:974 1817 1817 D MessagingManager$handleMessage: Invalid broadcast command received, posting notification to device

This breaks valid Android use cases where:

• The receiver is registered via Context.registerReceiver(...)
• The receiver is not declared in the manifest
• The broadcast must be implicit

Additional information:
The related line of code can be found in MessagingManager.kt:386. The condition there expects both intent_package_name and intent_action:

[jpelgrom]

despite documentation implying general broadcast support

Can you specify this? The first paragraph of the documentation states you must set an action and package.

Allowing this would promote less safe defaults. Your broadcast is specific enough that the package is/should be known. I don't think "must be implicit" is something apps can support?

---

Removed bug label as this is working as designed.

[mikitaliaukovich]

@jpelgrom you're right, I missed the first paragraph.

The broadcast receiver in the app I'm trying to send the action to seems to be registered implicitly, so it is improssible to trigger an action by providing the package name. So even though I know the package name (com.zqc.camera), the action works only if sent without it.

Upd: For reference, Tasker is able to send the intent with optional package name. This sends the action implicitly and it is successfully captured by the app. Same intent can be sent with adb using adb shell am broadcast -a zqc_navigationbar_action --es cmd hide

Could this be implemented in the HA Companion app?