---
title: "Home Assistant Live Activities on iPhone"
description: "Live Activities keep a running process on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. The official Home Assistant app shows them for notifications you send with live_update and a tag; it needs Home Assistant 2026.7 and iOS 17.2 or newer. Vulpo ships ready-made monitors with buttons for appliances, vacuums, solar, climate and people."
canonical: "https://vulpo.app/guides/home-assistant-live-activities"
url: "https://vulpo.app/guides/home-assistant-live-activities.md"
last-updated: "2026-10-02"
version: "1.3"
---

# Home Assistant Live Activities on iPhone

> Live Activities keep a running process on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. The official Home Assistant app shows them for notifications you send with live_update and a tag; it needs Home Assistant 2026.7 and iOS 17.2 or newer. Vulpo ships ready-made monitors with buttons for appliances, vacuums, solar, climate and people.

## With the official app

Since September 2026 the official app turns a notification into a Live Activity when its data contains live_update: true and a tag. Sending the same payload again with the same tag updates the activity in place, and the clear_notification message with that tag ends it, so one automation can start, update and end a washing machine cycle. The documentation lists the requirements: Home Assistant 2026.7 or newer and iOS 17.2 or newer. Live Activities run on iPhone only (an Apple limitation), end after at most 8 hours, and iOS limits how often they can update.

- Good for: anything you can describe as a notification, with your own wording and progress
- You write: the automation and the notification payload for each update
- Tapping it: opens the app at a URL you choose

## With Vulpo

Vulpo ships five monitors: appliances (dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, oven or any other appliance), vacuums with progress, battery and current room, solar production, climate and a person's arrival. You pick an entity in the app and Vulpo writes the Home Assistant automations that start, update and end the activity. Each one has buttons to pause, resume or stop an appliance or vacuum and to adjust a thermostat, without opening the app. Live Activities are part of Vulpo Pro and do not need Nabu Casa. Vulpo is made by the publisher of this site.

## Which one to use

If you already write notification automations and want full control over the text, the official app's Live Activities are free and flexible. If you want a washing machine or vacuum on the Lock Screen with working buttons and no payloads to maintain, Vulpo's monitors do that for you.

## Why did my Live Activity disappear?

iOS ends Live Activities after at most 8 hours, and they also end when the app or automation that runs them ends them. Start a new one when the next cycle begins.

## Do Home Assistant Live Activities work on iPad?

No. Apple does not offer Live Activities on iPad, so they appear on iPhone only.

## Sources

- [Live Activities (Home Assistant Companion documentation)](https://companion.home-assistant.io/docs/notifications/live-activities/)
- [Home Assistant iOS app releases](https://github.com/home-assistant/iOS/releases)

Vulpo 1.3. Last updated 2026-10-02. Source: https://vulpo.app/guides/home-assistant-live-activities

---

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