home-assistant / home-assistant/android

Add an alternative method for setting up server endpoints in the companion app without requiring location services

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enhancement question
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Description

**Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.**

I have remote access for my Home Assistant server set up through Tailscale. Love the service, love the concept, but their mobile app for Android is a bit buggy. For example, if my phone restarts, the Tailscale app isn't automatically enabled and stuff like that, or it turns itself off randomly.

My companion app is set up with the Tailscale address as `Home Assistant URL`, which is used even when I'm at home. The reason I do this is because the `Internal connection URL` requires `Home network WiFi SSID` to be set, and that detection method requires location to be enabled all of the time. I keep location turned off on my phone because I view it as both a privacy risk and a battery drain, so turning it on for this just isn't viable for me.

**Describe the solution you'd like**

I would like an alternative method that doesn't require me to specify a `Home network WiFi SSID`. Basically, the way this alternative configuration option would work is I could specify the local/home address and the Tailscale address in a list, where the address at the top of the list is the one with the highest priority. In the background, either when a network change is detected or on a set interval, the companion app would ping each URL to see which are reachable, and connect to the first one available, or the one with the highest priority. So if I'm at home, and Tailscale deactivates itself, the companion app would detect that Tailscale was unreachable and instead try to use one of the other address(es) in the list.

**Describe alternatives you've considered, if any**

Can't think of any.

**Additional context**

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

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