Text changed

The Text changed trigger fires after the value of a text entityAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more] changes. It works with both Text entities exposed by your devices and integrations, and with Text helpers. Use it to react when someone enters a new shopping list note, when a device reports a new status string, or when an automation updates a stored value.

Using this trigger from the user interface

If you prefer building automations visually, Home Assistant walks you through this trigger step by step. You pick what to watch, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To use Text changed in an automation:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. In the When section, select Add trigger.
4. Select what you want to monitor. Under By target (see Targets), pick the text entity or text helper you want to monitor. You can also select an area, a floor, a device, or a label.
5. From the triggers shown for that target, select Text changed.
6. Select Save.

Using this trigger in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required.

In YAML, refer to this trigger as text.changed. A basic example looks like this:

trigger: text.changed
target:
  entity_id: input_text.shopping_note

This fires whenever the value of input_text.shopping_note changes.

Targets of the trigger

This trigger requires a target. The target is the object that Home Assistant will watch. You can select a single entityAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more], a device, an area, a floor, or a label as a target, and Home Assistant will watch every matching text entity behind that target.

• Entity: one specific text entity, such as text.living_room.
• Device: every text entity that belongs to a device.
• Area: every text entity in a room or area.
• Floor: every text entity on a floor.
• Label: every text entity that shares a label.

You can also select different target types in one trigger. For example, you can add a specific entity and an area as targets in the same trigger to monitor both of them at once.

Good to know

• The trigger does not fire when a text entity becomes unknown or unavailable, or when it recovers from those states without a real value change.
• To check that a text entity holds a specific value before continuing, use the Text is equal to condition.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Go to Settings > Automations & scenes, create a new automation, and add this trigger. Save the automation, then change the state of the targeted entity to watch the trigger fire on your actual entitiesAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more].

More examples

Real scenarios where this trigger fires in automations and scripts. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Automation: announce a new shopping note

Whenever you update a shopping note helper, send the new value to your phone so you don’t forget what you just typed.

• Trigger: Text changed
  • Target: Shopping note
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My Device (notify.my_device)
  • Message: The new note value

alias: "Announce new shopping note"
triggers:
  - trigger: text.changed
    target:
      entity_id: input_text.shopping_note
actions:
  - action: notify.send_message
    target:
      entity_id: notify.my_device
    data:
      message: "Shopping note updated: {{ states('input_text.shopping_note') }}"

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the trigger you’re using and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.