Recipe - Someone's at the Door¶

Purpose¶

Have the speakers say that someone is at the door, then add a picture from the porch camera for the phones. A good first automation after the Quick Start, and the first two steps need no Supernotify configuration at all.

Implementation¶

Step 1 - Announce on the Speakers¶

Create an automation with the doorbell as its trigger, and a supernotify.notify action that uses a spoken delivery.

If you have Alexa Devices, the alexa_devices_announce_all delivery is already there. For other speakers, use a TTS delivery.

Doorbell Automation

alias: Someone at the door
triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.front_doorbell
    to: "on"
actions:
  - action: supernotify.notify
    data:
      message: Someone is at the front door
      delivery: alexa_devices_announce_all

Step 2 - Add a Picture from the Porch Camera¶

Use the Camera selector on the notification action to add the camera, and mobile_push to the deliveries.

Camera Selector

If you were to edit the YAML for the automation, the action would look like:

Doorbell Action with Camera Snapshot

  - action: supernotify.notify
    data:
      title: Front door
      message: Someone is at the front door
      media:
        camera_entity_id: camera.porch
      delivery:
        - alexa_devices_announce_all
        - mobile_push

Supernotify takes one snapshot from the camera and gives it to each delivery that can show a picture. The speakers still just say the message, and the phones show the picture with it.

Snapshots are stored for a while on the file system, so check the Multimedia Basic Configuration if the picture doesn't arrive.

Variations¶

Chimes¶

Play a doorbell sound instead of, or as well as, the spoken announcement, on Alexa devices, sirens or cheap 433Mhz chimes. Set up a doorbell alias as shown in Chime, then ask for that tune:

      delivery:
        - chime
        - mobile_push
      delivery_control:
        chime:
          data:
            chime_tune: doorbell

E-mail or Text if Nobody is Home¶

A spoken announcement is no use to an empty house. Give the email and sms deliveries an occupancy of all_out, so they are only used when everyone is out:

Supernotify Config Snippet

transports:
  email:
    delivery_defaults:
      occupancy: all_out
  sms:
    delivery_defaults:
      occupancy: all_out

Then add email and sms to the deliveries in the action. The e-mail has the camera picture attached.

This needs an e-mail address or phone number for each person, see People, and for texts one of the SMS integrations.

Don't Announce to an Empty House¶

Set Spoken delivery occupancy to only_in in the integration's Configure option, under Delivery Control, so the speakers stay quiet when nobody is home. See Delivery Control.

Only Some Speakers¶

Leave out alexa_devices_announce_all, use the alexa_devices delivery, and choose the speakers as targets, by entity, area, floor or label. See Targets.

Move the Camera First¶

If the porch camera can pan, tilt or zoom, have it move to the door before the snapshot.