diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index f48b8ad70..7977b1a5b 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ want to know what's different in 5.0 since 4.5.x, see :ref:`whatsnew5x`.
 Unreleased
 ----------
 
+- The ``coverage html`` command now prints a message indicating where the HTML
+  report was written.  Fixes `issue 1195`_.
+
 - Unrecognized options in the configuration file are no longer errors. They are
   now warnings, to ease the use of coverage across versions.  Fixes `issue
   1035`_.
@@ -32,6 +35,7 @@ Unreleased
   unsupported type." (`issue 1010`_).
 
 .. _issue 1035: https://github.com/nedbat/coveragepy/issues/1035
+.. _issue 1195: https://github.com/nedbat/coveragepy/issues/1195
 
 
 .. _changes_60b1:
diff --git a/coverage/cmdline.py b/coverage/cmdline.py
index 111be9f45..14921145a 100644
--- a/coverage/cmdline.py
+++ b/coverage/cmdline.py
@@ -574,6 +574,7 @@ def command_line(self, argv):
             concurrency=options.concurrency,
             check_preimported=True,
             context=options.context,
+            messages=True,
             )
 
         if options.action == "debug":
diff --git a/coverage/control.py b/coverage/control.py
index c45b12458..958c98da0 100644
--- a/coverage/control.py
+++ b/coverage/control.py
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@ def __init__(
         auto_data=False, timid=None, branch=None, config_file=True,
         source=None, source_pkgs=None, omit=None, include=None, debug=None,
         concurrency=None, check_preimported=False, context=None,
+        messages=False,
     ):  # pylint: disable=too-many-arguments
         """
         Many of these arguments duplicate and override values that can be
@@ -173,6 +174,9 @@ def __init__(
         `context` is a string to use as the :ref:`static context
         <static_contexts>` label for collected data.
 
+        If `messages` is true, some messages will be printed to stdout
+        indicating what is happening.
+
         .. versionadded:: 4.0
             The `concurrency` parameter.
 
@@ -185,6 +189,9 @@ def __init__(
         .. versionadded:: 5.3
             The `source_pkgs` parameter.
 
+        .. versionadded:: 6.0
+            The `messages` parameter.
+
         """
         # data_file=None means no disk file at all. data_file missing means
         # use the value from the config file.
@@ -205,6 +212,7 @@ def __init__(
         self._warn_unimported_source = True
         self._warn_preimported_source = check_preimported
         self._no_warn_slugs = None
+        self._messages = messages
 
         # A record of all the warnings that have been issued.
         self._warnings = []
@@ -372,6 +380,11 @@ def _warn(self, msg, slug=None, once=False):
         if once:
             self._no_warn_slugs.append(slug)
 
+    def _message(self, msg):
+        """Write a message to the user, if configured to do so."""
+        if self._messages:
+            print(msg)
+
     def get_option(self, option_name):
         """Get an option from the configuration.
 
@@ -969,7 +982,8 @@ def html_report(
             html_skip_empty=skip_empty, precision=precision,
         ):
             reporter = HtmlReporter(self)
-            return reporter.report(morfs)
+            ret = reporter.report(morfs)
+            return ret
 
     def xml_report(
         self, morfs=None, outfile=None, ignore_errors=None,
diff --git a/coverage/html.py b/coverage/html.py
index 15f35a66d..95e3aa446 100644
--- a/coverage/html.py
+++ b/coverage/html.py
@@ -363,7 +363,9 @@ def index_file(self):
             'totals': self.totals,
         })
 
-        write_html(os.path.join(self.directory, "index.html"), html)
+        index_file = os.path.join(self.directory, "index.html")
+        write_html(index_file, html)
+        self.coverage._message(f"Wrote HTML report to {index_file}")
 
         # Write the latest hashes for next time.
         self.incr.write()
diff --git a/tests/test_cmdline.py b/tests/test_cmdline.py
index b214473c9..caaa43c8d 100644
--- a/tests/test_cmdline.py
+++ b/tests/test_cmdline.py
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ class BaseCmdLineTest(CoverageTest):
     _defaults.Coverage(
         cover_pylib=None, data_suffix=None, timid=None, branch=None,
         config_file=True, source=None, include=None, omit=None, debug=None,
-        concurrency=None, check_preimported=True, context=None,
+        concurrency=None, check_preimported=True, context=None, messages=True,
     )
 
     DEFAULT_KWARGS = {name: kw for name, _, kw in _defaults.mock_calls}
diff --git a/tests/test_plugins.py b/tests/test_plugins.py
index ca0e6dac4..18c085077 100644
--- a/tests/test_plugins.py
+++ b/tests/test_plugins.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 import inspect
 import io
 import os.path
+import re
 from xml.etree import ElementTree
 
 import pytest
@@ -256,7 +257,7 @@ def coverage_init(reg, options):
         out = self.run_command("coverage run main_file.py")
         assert out == "MAIN\n"
         out = self.run_command("coverage html")
-        assert out == ""
+        assert re.fullmatch(r"Wrote HTML report to htmlcov[/\\]index.html\n", out)
 
 
 @pytest.mark.skipif(env.C_TRACER, reason="This test is only about PyTracer.")
diff --git a/tests/test_process.py b/tests/test_process.py
index 58915b876..5510efe56 100644
--- a/tests/test_process.py
+++ b/tests/test_process.py
@@ -1298,7 +1298,7 @@ def test_accented_dot_py(self):
 
         # The HTML report uses ascii-encoded HTML entities.
         out = self.run_command("coverage html")
-        assert out == ""
+        assert re.fullmatch(r"Wrote HTML report to htmlcov[/\\]index.html\n", out)
         self.assert_exists("htmlcov/h\xe2t_py.html")
         with open("htmlcov/index.html") as indexf:
             index = indexf.read()
@@ -1331,7 +1331,7 @@ def test_accented_directory(self):
 
         # The HTML report uses ascii-encoded HTML entities.
         out = self.run_command("coverage html")
-        assert out == ""
+        assert re.fullmatch(r"Wrote HTML report to htmlcov[/\\]index.html\n", out)
         self.assert_exists("htmlcov/d_5786906b6f0ffeb4_accented_py.html")
         with open("htmlcov/index.html") as indexf:
             index = indexf.read()