Looking for a better cross platform notification system

Question

I'm currently looking for a better replacement for growl for windows + gntp-send for sending notifications from a headless linux box to my windows box (and others.)

Right now, GFW does a few things well - with appropriate plugins, in mostly integrates into windows in an almost native functionality. With a known host, I can send notifications. It mostly works - I use it with gntp-send.

That said, I'd like a few things more - like being able to send notifications to an android phone with an unknown IP address, and the ability to store and retry messages.

The bare minimum here would be a linux growl forwarder that allows for subscriptions and runs purely in command line. Ubuntu 16.10 would be a good target OS.

What I probably really need is a protocol that has support for multiple targets for notifications. The workflow I see is this.

1. Run a command line application that takes a title, message body and a target - and targets a system which runs a forwarder/main server - running ubuntu without a GUI.

2. This system will forward this or allow systems to subscribe to messages - Growl for windows does this, but runs on windows and has a gui

3. Storing and forwarding would be nice but optional

4. notifications are received on target systems and subscribers

I'd need windows and android support for systems receiving notifications and linux support for the system sending the messages and acting as a forwarder. I'd like the linux side purely cli and not being tied to any DE, X or wayland.

Answer 1

I cobbled together something around a matrix-synapse homeserver and the navi notification bot for it

Navi's used to send notifications to my homeserver. That's in a private room my regular user can see and as such I get notifications for my matrix clients.

I currently have riot as a webui so I can check notifications on my PC (I'd need something better eventually) and the android client on my phone.

Since Navi and synapse act on a private chat room, I can look up when a notification was made as well.

Its not perfect - GFW gives me native toast notifications but matrix is currently supported, I'm not limited to my home network, and I have a lot more flexibility. It is slightly overkill - but I suppose its necessary to get all my requirements met.