Managing permissions for the Homey mobile app

To ensure Homey works as expected on your mobile device, the app may request access to certain permissions, such as Bluetooth, Location, Notifications, and Critical Alerts. Below, you can find what each permission does and how to manage them on iOS and Android.

Worth knowing
If you deny permissions, certain features may not work as expected. You can always update permissions later in your device’s settings or check your status in the Homey app.

Understanding app permissions

Permission	Purpose
Bluetooth	Used to discover and connect with nearby devices or compatible add-ons when adding them to Homey.
Location	Used for Home/Away Detection and Presence-based Flows, such as when you leave home.
Notifications	Lets the Homey app send notifications to your device, such as push notifications from Flows you’ve created.
Critical Alerts	Allows high-priority alerts, such as security warnings from smart fire alarms. Bypasses Do Not Disturb modes.

Critical Alerts are available for Android 8 and above and iOS 12 and above
If you use an older version, this setting won’t appear in the Permissions overview.

Viewing permissions 

You can quickly check which permissions you’ve granted from within the Homey app by going to More (…) → Permissions. Simply tap Allow to grant permission or, if already allowed, tap Settings to update your preferences.

Permission status

Homey shows whether a permission status is Not Allowed, Partly Allowed, or Allowed. These statuses help you understand whether the app has the necessary access to function properly. 

More on Location Access

Homey uses your location to discover nearby devices and for Home/Away Detection. For example, it can automatically trigger Flows when you come home.

iOS and Android have different levels of Location Access. For Presence-based features to work reliably, the Homey app needs continuous access to your location. It’s recommended that you set it to “Always” on iOS or “Allow all the time” on Android for the best experience.

Verifying your Location Access
The Homey app cannot detect if Location Access is limited to “While using the app” on iOS or “Allow only while using the app” on Android. It will still show as “Allowed,” even though setting it to “Always” on iOS or ”Allow all the time” on Android provides the best experience.

More on Critical Alerts for Android

Android doesn’t natively support Critical Alerts. Instead, the Homey app sends high-priority notifications that override Silent and Do Not Disturb modes. These alerts will appear as full-screen notifications even when your device is locked. To make this work, the Homey app needs three permission types:

• Notification permission
• Notification channel permission
• Full-screen intent permission

When you first tap Allow in the Permissions overview, a dialog will appear asking for notification permission. On most devices, granting this will automatically enable the full-screen intent permission. Otherwise, a second dialog will guide you to the correct settings page. Once you receive your first Critical Alert, the “Critical Alert notifications” channel is created, and permission is automatically granted.

Troubleshooting Critical Alerts

If Critical Alerts aren’t working, check their status in the Permissions overview.

• If it shows “Not Allowed,” either the notification permission or the notification channel permission is disabled. To fix this, tap Allow and then Open Settings in the dialog to go straight to your notification settings.

• If it shows “Partially Allowed,” the full-screen intent permission is disabled. In this case, tap Allow and then Open Settings to go directly to the full-screen intent setting.

• If it shows “Allowed,” tap Settings to go to the notification settings and check if the “Critical Alert notifications” channel exists. If it doesn’t, this means you haven’t received your first Critical Alert notification yet. Usually, this indicates an issue with your Flow instead of the permission settings.

Exception for Samsung devices

While Critical Alerts are designed to break through Silent and Do Not Disturb modes, this behavior can vary across Android devices, especially with certain brands like Samsung.

Starting with One UI 6.1, Samsung disables notification channel controls by default, which means you might not be able to customize Critical Alerts unless you manually enable them.

To ensure Critical Alerts work as expected, open your device’s settings and navigate to Notifications → Advanced settings → Manage notification categories for each app.

In some cases, you’ll also need to manually allow exceptions for Homey in your Do Not Disturb settings. Start by opening Settings → Sound & vibration → Do Not Disturb.

Next, go to Exceptions or Apps allowed to interrupt. Finally, add Homey to ensure critical push notifications still come through.