person.* and device_tracker.* entities filtered out in Android Auto when "Zone only" is enabled

[Mincka]

Hello,

Not sure this is a bug so I open a new discussion to ask if it's a normal behavior or not.

I saw that when I switch on my phone from "Exact" location to "Zone only", person.julien and device_tracker.telephone_julien are immediately filtered out from "Navigation" on Android Auto and thus also no longer appear in active zone.

Since the entities are still available and the device still report a zone, I would expect this to continue to work.
It should not require the exact position to be reported here.

So, maybe the method to filter this type of entity is not correct for Android Auto.

[dshokouhi]

its actually a requirement for navigation entities to have latitude and longitude attributes in order to trigger the navigation dialog for android auto, i think when that filter is selected those entities no longer have coordinates and thus cannot be navigated to.

[dshokouhi]

android/app/src/main/kotlin/io/homeassistant/companion/android/util/vehicle/DomainChecks.kt

Lines 42 to 48 in 90beb38

	fun canNavigate(entity: Entity): Boolean {
	return (
	entity.domain in MAP_DOMAINS &&
	((entity.attributes["latitude"] as? Number)?.toDouble() != null) &&
	((entity.attributes["longitude"] as? Number)?.toDouble() != null)
	)
	}

relevant part of the code

docs could possibly use a tweak to call out attributes but I think we opted to keep it generic

https://companion.home-assistant.io/docs/android-auto/

It will also allow you to navigate to any zone, person, sensor or device_tracker* that has a location associated with it.

[Mincka]

Thanks for the quick reply.

It's rather logic when you say it's made to navigate to a specific location. A location is required.

My use case is to locate a person or device in a zone. Is X home or still at work?

I need to double check, but I think I also tried to add the entity as favorite and it was not visible without location. It could be great to add people as favorites to see their state, even when they use Zone Only mode.

[Mincka]

The navigation requirement is fine, but the issue comes from using canNavigate inside isVehicleDomain as the only way to include entities from person, device_tracker domains, but only with coordinates, since they are not in the "supported domains".

android/app/src/main/kotlin/io/homeassistant/companion/android/util/vehicle/DomainChecks.kt

Lines 36 to 40 in a6ed21c

	fun isVehicleDomain(entity: Entity): Boolean {
	return entity.domain in SUPPORTED_DOMAINS ||
	entity.domain in NOT_ACTIONABLE_DOMAINS ||
	canNavigate(entity)
	}

Since person and device_tracker rely on canNavigate, any entity without latitude and longitude is filtered out before it can even be favorited. That blocks zone only users, even though the entities still report a valid zone in Home Assistant.

Would it be possible to split the logic?

a) One check for isVehicleDomain (for all the supported things, including Android Auto favorites).
It would include person, device_tracker and zone domains, regardless the presence of coordinates.
b) One check for canNavigate that keeps the current lat/lon requirement.

This would let zone only entities show up as favorites for presence info while keeping the Navigate view limited to entities with actual coordinates.