What's new in Kiosk Satellite 2026.8.81
Notifications from Home Assistant get their own sounds, a volume of their own, and a way back down: the notification action now answers with an id, and a new action dismisses by it. The app launcher gains an idle-based return and a gesture, and the photo screensavers get step buttons.
Added: Notification sounds and volume
- Every notification sound comes from one folder on the kiosk,
Android/data/me.jxl.kiosk_satellite/files/sounds, the app folder the File Manager shows. Files get there through the new Add a sound row on the settings page (Browse on the device, Upload in the remote admin), the File Manager, USB or adb. MP3, OGG, WAV, FLAC, M4A and AAC are accepted, the formats every supported Android decodes natively; a video file is refused. - The
notificationESPHome action and theshowNotificationremote command gainchime_file, the name of a file in that folder to play in place of the default, so a leak alert and a laundry-done can sound different across a house full of kiosks. A name with no file behind it plays the default with a line in the log saying so. - They also gain
volume, 0 to 1, which stands apart from the media and assistant faders, since a notification is neither; 0 means the setting. - A new Notifications page under the ESPHome settings, above Bluetooth Proxy, on the device and in the remote admin alike: Notification sound is a dropdown over the folder, Built-in chime first, storing the file's name so a restored backup keeps meaning the same file; Notification volume sets the level, 70% by default; and the page names the exact action for this kiosk with a Test button that sends a notification through it.
Added: Dismissing notifications from Home Assistant
- The
notificationaction now answers with the kiosk's id for the card,{"id": 7}, read in an automation throughresponse_variable. This rides ESPHome action responses, which Home Assistant supports since 2026.1; an older Home Assistant still runs the action and simply gets no answer. - A second action,
esphome.<node>_notification_dismiss, takes that id down again, or clears the screen when given0. A door-open card can now come down the moment the door closes without touching another door's card, and a leak alert can be cleared everywhere once the condition clears. - A Notifications dismiss all button on the ESPHome device is the same clear as a dashboard tile.
Added: Screensaver slide buttons
- Screensaver next slide and Screensaver previous slide buttons on the ESPHome device step a showing Home Assistant Media, Local Media, Photo Gallery or Immich Media slideshow by one, forward or back, and the new slide holds for its full interval instead of what was left of the old one; a video stepped past no longer ends the slide that replaced it. With any other mode up, or no screensaver at all, a press does nothing, so an automation or a dashboard button can send them at any time. The remote API carries the same two as
nextScreensaverSlideandpreviousScreensaverSlide.
Added: App Launcher returns when the other app goes idle, and opens by gesture
- Return automatically now waits for the other app to go idle. Return after used to be a countdown from the moment the app opened, so someone in the middle of a recipe or a call was pulled back to the kiosk regardless; it now counts the time the other app goes untouched, and every touch in it starts the count over. Android has no way to ask when the screen was last touched, so while the clock runs the app keeps a one-pixel, invisible, untouchable window over the other app that Android tells about every touch that lands elsewhere, which rides the same Display over other apps grant the return itself needs.
- A Required system permissions group appears under the switch while it is on, on the device and in the remote admin alike, listing that grant and Unrestricted battery with what each one is for and a button to give it. An app that hides overlay windows, as some banking apps do, keeps its touches to itself; there the clock runs plain and the kiosk comes back after the time as before, with a log line saying so.
- Open the app launcher is now a gesture action, under the Kiosk Satellite group of the action chooser, on the device and in the remote admin alike. It runs through the launcher's own command, so the App Launcher has to be enabled with at least one app picked, and it does not consult the menu's Apps allowed action: switch that entry off under Kiosk Mode and the launcher stays reachable through a gesture only you know, hidden from casual users.
Changed: Documentation
- The docs now describe every Home Assistant entity and control on the ESPHome integration, ahead of the MQTT integration's removal. The MQTT doc is the one place MQTT is still covered.