Programme finished notification

[marklambourne]

Hi - thank you for the efforts on the plugin, but one thing is surprising me. The way this is implemented appears to result in getting notifications in HomeKit for events like door open/close (which in most cases people probably aren’t interested in seeing), but unless I’m missing something can’t do the same for program finished events, which I would guess is the top use case people would have? This is for a Bosch dishwasher.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks.

[dosubot[bot]]

Hi @marklambourne! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the homebridge-homeconnect team.

Thank you for the kind words about the plugin, @marklambourne!

Good news — programme finished notifications are possible, though they work a bit differently to what you might expect. The plugin exposes BSH.Common.Event.ProgramFinished as a Stateless Programmable Switch (an "event button") in HomeKit [1] [2]. When the dishwasher finishes a programme, it fires a SINGLE_PRESS on this button.

The key step is that you need to create a HomeKit automation triggered by that button press. HomeKit doesn't natively push notifications for button events on its own — you have to set up an automation (in the Home app or a third-party app like Eve or Controller for HomeKit) that responds to the "Program Finished" button and sends you a notification or performs another action.

To set this up:

1. Look for the "Program Finished" accessory/button associated with your dishwasher in the Home app.
2. Create a new automation triggered by that button press.
3. Configure the automation to send a notification (or trigger a scene, etc.).

Regarding the door open/close notifications you're seeing — the door state is handled as a continuous status (mapped to a Door service with position characteristics), which HomeKit may surface as state-change notifications by default [3]. Programme completion, by contrast, is a discrete event mapped to a programmable switch, so it requires an explicit automation to act upon it [4].

Both the event buttons (including "Program Finished", "Program Aborted", "Salt Low", and "Rinse Aid Low") should be enabled by default for your dishwasher [5]. If you don't see them in the Home app, it may be worth checking whether the accessories have been assigned to a room and are visible — sometimes newly created services can be easy to miss.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[marklambourne]

@dosu - how do I get the automation to send a notification?

[dosubot[bot]]

Good question — and unfortunately this is where things get a bit fiddly, because it's a HomeKit limitation rather than a plugin one.

Apple's Home app doesn't natively support "send a notification" as an automation action [1]. Notifications in HomeKit are only available at the accessory level for certain device types (like contact sensors and locks), not as something you can trigger from an automation.

There are a few common workarounds:

1. Convert the event to a sensor state change. Some users install a virtual accessory plugin (e.g. homebridge-dummy) to create a dummy switch or contact sensor. You then create an automation: "When Program Finished button is pressed → turn on dummy switch." Because contact sensors and switches can have status notifications enabled in the Home app, you'd then receive a notification when its state changes.

2. Use Shortcuts (iOS/macOS). You can create a Personal Automation in Apple's Shortcuts app triggered by a HomeKit accessory state change, and have it send you a notification or display an alert. The caveat is that Personal Automations may require confirmation to run, depending on your iOS version and settings.

3. Use a third-party HomeKit app. Apps may offer additional automation action types, though most are still bound by the same HomeKit framework limitations.

One additional tip: Apple's Home app only shows numeric labels for Stateless Programmable Switch services, making it hard to tell which button is which. The plugin wiki recommends the free Eve app for setting up automations involving these event buttons, as it displays their proper names (e.g. "Program Finished").

So in short, the plugin does its part by firing the event — but getting HomeKit to turn that into a push notification requires a small workaround. The dummy-switch-plus-notifications approach is probably the most reliable method currently.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[thoukydides]

You might find these FAQ entries helpful:

How do I get notifications for events like a program finishing?

The HomeKit Accessory Protocol (HAP) does not support arbitrary notifications or a dedicated "program finished" sensor type. HomeKit only allows notifications for a limited set of pre-defined sensor types, such as Motion Sensor, Smoke Sensor, or Contact Sensor. Implementing a workaround by using these existing types would result in a poor user experience; for example, a user would receive a "smoke detected" alert when a dishwasher finishes, which is misleading and technically incorrect.

To receive notifications, you have two main options:

• Official Home Connect App: This is the most reliable method for detailed, text-based push notifications.
• HomeKit Automations: You can trigger a notification indirectly by having the button event toggle a homebridge-dummy accessory (such as a Contact Sensor) which does support native alerts.

How can I disable HomeKit notifications for door events?

Door notifications for appliances like fridges or freezers are managed by the Apple Home app on a per-device basis. To disable them:

1. Open the Apple Home app.
2. Tap the ... icon at the top of the screen and select Home Settings.
3. Navigate to the Doors section.
4. Locate the specific appliance accessory and toggle off Activity Notifications.

Note that this setting must be configured separately on each iPhone or iPad where you want to silence the notifications. Alternatively, you can use the per-appliance configuration options in the plugin to remove the Door service entirely if you do not require its state information in HomeKit.