Image Push Notifications for Plex

I’ve been using Plex Media Server for years to manage and share my movie collection. It works like a private Netflix. Super convenient, especially since major streaming services regularly remove titles (and keep asking for more money). To track statistics on my Plex server, I also run Tautulli. Like many other Plex users, I run systems such as Radarr and Sonarr that automatically add movies or series to my collection. Of course, you want to get notifications when this happens, like “X has just been added! 🍿”. (Or have a physical hotel bell ring! 🛎️, see this blogpost)

I couldn’t get notifications with images working properly using built-in functionality of the Tautulli app. Some others online had the same issue, so in early 2021, I wrote an article about how to build this feature yourself. For that, I used FireNotify, the OMDb API, Node-RED, and MQTT. Let’s say that’s a bit overkill. In this article, I’ll provide a simpler option to achieve this without all that complexity using notification services.

Specifically, we want to set up push notifications on Android that display both poster art and titles whenever new media is added to the Plex library. We’ll accomplish this using just two tools: Tautulli and a service called Pushover. As a bonus, Pushover can include IMDb links directly in the notifications!

Pushover vs Pushbullet

Pushover is a system that lets you easily send real-time push notifications to Android, iPhone/iPad, and Desktop Browser clients. Pushbullet offers a similar service. Here’s a quick comparison:

• Pushbullet has a free version with 500 messages per month and a Pro version with unlimited messages. It only works with Android and Chrome but offers useful features like mirroring notifications between phone and PC.

• Pushover costs a one-time fee of $5 per platform with a limit of 10,000 messages per month per app. It supports more operating systems (Android, iOS, and Chrome) and has additional options like custom sounds and priorities, such as messages that keep repeating until you acknowledge them.

The good news is that both are integrated with Tautulli, so it depends on your preference which one you use. If you have an Android phone and stay under 500 notifications per month, Pushbullet is the free option. I use Pushover because I want to use it for services other than Tautulli as well.

Set-up

We only need to follow a few simple steps: installing Pushover and connecting it to Tautulli.

1. Create an account via pushover.net;
2. This automatically gives you a User key;
3. Install the Pushover app (Android / iOS) and link it with the code from (2);
4. Log in at pushover.net and add an Application/API Token under Your Applications. Name it “Tautulli” or something similar. This generates a new API key specifically for this application.

You can easily test if notifications arrive on your phone through the web interface. Now that the Pushover installation is complete, we can set up Tautulli. Fortunately, this is very simple.

5. Log in to your Tautulli web interface and go to Settings > Notification Agents.
6. Add a new Pushover (or Pushbullet) agent.
7. Fill in the fields Pushover API Token (from step 2) and Pushover User or Group Key (from step 4).
8. Check the Include Poster Image checkbox.
9. Under Movie Link Source, select IMDB.
10. Under Triggers, check the Recently Added checkbox.
11. You can then customize the notification text via Text under the Recently Added section.

You can test if your Tautulli notifications arrive on your phone here (Test Notifications).