Android Notifications Binding with support for TV Overlay [5.0.0;5.9.9]

matt1 · June 22, 2025, 2:18am

This binding is now in an advanced beta state for the TvOverlay app, and can be used to send RTSP video urls directly from your camera onto your TV with <1 second lag. Images/Graphs and text messages are also possible and also work in all areas of the TV. Even when you’re watching Youtube or Netflix, you can get small notifications overlay-ed on the screen, plus much more.

Text notifications now work for the following apps Notifications for Android TV and Notifications for Fire TV.

Video showing what the TvOverlay app can do with this binding.

tvOverlay

Installation

upgrade to openhab 4.1 I believe it will not work on older cores so 4.0 will not work.
Setup the app of your choice first, only once it is setup, will the binding discover and add a thing to your inbox. How to setup the app, please see their github page linked below. You do NOT need MQTT.
The binding will need to have openHAB restarted after the jar is installed for the actions to be use-able. The discovery also probably will not work until after a restart is made.
If you have trouble with dependencies, the easiest fix will be to either install the ipCamera or Tellstick binding to provide the Netty Libraries. Once the binding is merged this will not be an issue.
Once you have the app setup on the TV, use the sendTestMessage channel to display a message for checking that you have it all setup correctly. Then move onto using the Actions that are explained in the readme file at my own github page. Github is linked below with examples of how to use the bindings ACTIONS in DSL rules.

If you enjoy the binding, please consider sponsoring or a once off tip as a thank you via the links. This allows me to purchase software and hardware to contributing more bindings. Also some coffee to keep me coding faster never hurts

Sponsor @Skinah on GitHub Sponsors

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Github on how to setup and use the TvOverlay app.
https://github.com/gugutab/TvOverlay

Where to download the app from the Google Play Store:

Changelog

Version 0.6

online and offline detection
resend messages when TV comes back online.

Version 0.5

Added support for multiple base64 methods for TvOverlay API, see readme for details and examples.
Above support now means you can supply any icon or graphic you wish to use not just MDI icons.
Base64 download: support means the binding can download the camera snapshot which reduces lag so people running do not leave the cameras view before the TV can display the pic.

Version 0.4

New channel pixelShift
Fixed Notifications ACTION added
BREAKING CHANGE, messageID is now a String and not an int, just need to surround in quotes like the updated readme shows.

Version 0.3

Images get updated instead of the TV using cache stopping updates from showing.
Actions now have a boolean true/false so your rules know if the notification was successful.
Discovery should work for Andriod TV, Sheild TV and Fire TV and look for any supported apps running.

Version 0.2

Text Notifications added for Notifications for Android TV and Notifications for Fire TV.

Version 0.1

Videos, Images and Text messages can be sent to your TV via TvOverlay app.
Discovery is working, please provide feedback if it does or does not find your TV.
No support for updating the controls in openHAB if you make changes in the app.
~~No online and offline detection added yet.~~ now supported
~~No support yet for the fixed style notifications.~~ Now supported

Resources

http://pcmus.com/openhab/AndroidNotificationsBinding/org.openhab.binding.androidnotifications-5.0.0-SNAPSHOT.jar

Source Code and readme are both found at my github here:

github.com/Skinah/openhab-addons

bundles/org.openhab.binding.androidnotifications/README.md

android

# Android Notifications Binding

This binding can talk with more then 1 Google Play Store app, you only need to install the one of your choice.
This binding will try to standardize the way you interact with any of the apps, so if one app disappears, gets buggy, gets caught sending data back home, or excessively nags with ads, you can switch to one of the others with minimal changes to openHAB.

To achieve this goal the other advantage will be that you do not need to learn the API of the app yourself, and can be sending notifications much faster.

The two supported apps so far are:

+ TvOverlay (working well) <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tabdeveloper.tvoverlay&hl=en_AU&gl=US>

+ Android TV Notifications (work in progress, only text based messages work for now) <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.cyberdream.androidtv.notifications.google&hl=en&gl=US>

Other apps which are not yet supported, but could be are:

+ PiPup <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nl.rogro82.pipup>

+ Push TV (might be cloud based and not local like the others) <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.andreashuth.pushtv>

+ Gotify This will push fully locally to phones.

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Constantinos_Contis · August 2, 2025, 7:56pm

first of all thank you for your work ,i just found out this binding and i tried it with a shieldTv.Everything seems to work just fine here,notifications,txt,photos,icons ,all are getting through ok.I tried to send a notification with rtsp video from my hikvision cameras and my hikvision doorbell.Tested rtsp links at vlc like “rtsp://user:password@cameraIP/Streaming/channels/101” and the feeds are working nice from the cameras and from doorbell.I use the same links to my Shinobi nvr setup with no issues including my doorbell’s camera.The thing i dont understand is when i sent a notification with rtsp from doorbell it doent play even if it plays ok on vlc.Rtsp notifications from my cameras play just fine….I think its a doorbell’s issue and a headscratching situation for me

matt1 · August 3, 2025, 3:23am

Video only works if your not playing in a TV app. If your wanting to show over the top of other material playing, then you need to do a static picture.

Constantinos_Contis · August 3, 2025, 8:50am

did not know that,thnx for the info!I have already setup to show a static pic at doorbell’s notification,thnx again mate.

Constantinos_Contis · August 10, 2025, 9:59am

i have another,can we send one picture notification to multiple screens (running tvoverlay) at the same time?

matt1 · August 10, 2025, 12:50pm

I’m sure it will work as the binding is written to do that, but you would need to run the action for each thing. There’s no way to send a group message once and have it go to two.