Budget around 65 minutes. This lesson is mainly about extending Module 21's automations with calls to this module's scripts, not new logic from scratch.

Why Push Isn't Always Enough

A push notification requires you to actually see the phone: sitting on a charger in another room, silenced, or simply out of view while you're cooking, none of that satisfies that condition. A voice through a speaker reaches everyone within earshot, with no need to look at a screen. This isn't an argument for removing push (it's still essential when you're away from home), just for adding a parallel channel while you're home.

Extending the Doorbell Automation From Module 21

automation:
  - alias: "Doorbell: a voice announcement in addition to the intercom photo"
    id: doorbell_voice_announcement_and_photo
    mode: single
    triggers:
      - trigger: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.doorbell_button
        to: "on"
    actions:
      - action: script.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: script.notify_by_presence
        data:
          variables:
            message: "Someone's at the gate"
            urgent: false
      # the intercom camera photo from Module 21, Lesson 6
      # keeps getting sent independently, as before

This automation extends the existing logic from Module 21, Lesson 6 (a notification with a photo), adding a voice announcement as a parallel channel, triggered by the central notify_by_presence script from Lesson 9. It doesn't duplicate the photo logic: it just adds the voice.

A Gate Left Open at Night: A Critical Announcement

automation:
  - alias: "Garage door: nighttime critical announcement (extension)"
    id: garage_door_night_critical_announcement
    mode: single
    triggers:
      - trigger: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.garage_door_closed
        to: "off"
        for:
          hours: 1
    conditions:
      - condition: time
        after: "22:00:00"
        before: "06:00:00"
      - condition: state
        entity_id: input_boolean.outdoor_alerts_enabled
        state: "on"
    actions:
      - action: script.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: script.critical_announcement
        data:
          variables:
            message: "The garage door has been open for over an hour tonight"

This is the alert from Module 21, Lesson 7, now extended with voice: instead of just a push that could go unread while you're asleep with the phone in airplane mode, this module's critical announcement overrides silence and actually wakes you. This is one concrete example of why we built two announcement tiers back in Lesson 1: for exactly this kind of situation.

A Package at the Door: Non-Urgent Information

automation:
  - alias: "Mailbox: a voice announcement about the mail"
    id: mailbox_voice_announcement
    mode: single
    triggers:
      - trigger: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.mailbox_open
        to: "on"
    conditions:
      - condition: time
        after: "10:00:00"
        before: "16:00:00"
    actions:
      - action: script.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: script.notify_by_presence
        data:
          variables:
            message: "The mail was probably just delivered"
            urgent: false

This extends the automation from Module 21, Lesson 10, with a voice channel. Notice the consistent use of urgent: false: news about the mail isn't important enough to interrupt the house's calm with a critical announcement, even if you're away, where it'll just arrive as a regular push anyway.

Local Video Doorbells With No Cloud: What Changed in 2025

Since April 2025, most Reolink camera and doorbell models carry an official Works with Home Assistant certification, meaning full native integration: no HACS, no third-party integrations. A Reolink doorbell exposes a local RTSP stream and a button press triggers an HA event regardless of internet availability, as long as you enable RTSP and ONVIF in the device settings (Settings, Network, Advanced).

That's a meaningful shift from older solutions built entirely around the manufacturer's cloud (Ring-style), where every notification and every live view passes through external servers, with latency and dependency on that service's availability. If you're planning to buy a new doorbell with this course's integration in mind, a model with local RTSP and Works with Home Assistant certification saves a lot of trouble during the setup covered in Module 21's camera lesson.

Integrating With Package Locker Systems and Shipment Tracking

Beyond simply detecting a courier's presence at the door, some carriers and package locker services offer integrations (official or community-built) letting you track a shipment's status directly in Home Assistant, as a sensor showing Out for Delivery or Delivered, for example. Tying a sensor like that into the home announcement script from earlier lessons allows for a more precise announcement: not just that someone's at the door, but that it's specifically the package you were expecting.

A History of Front-Door Events: A Log and Review

It's worth considering a simple front-door event log, built automatically on every doorbell press: the time, an optional camera photo, and whether anyone responded. A log like that, implemented as an input_text updated by an automation, or as a separate, simple record in a helper, makes it easy to answer "who rang the doorbell today and when," without digging through camera footage or the phone's notification history.

Integrating With the Mailbox From Module 21

The mailbox reed sensor, covered in Module 21 alongside its specialty outdoor sensors, fits naturally into the announcement matrix built in this module: new mail in the mailbox is non-urgent information, much like a package at the door, so it's worth routing it to the same low-priority channel (a log, and optionally a quiet push, say), instead of engaging speakers or urgent notifications for something that can wait until evening.

Visit Statistics: Who Rings the Doorbell, When, and How Often

The simple doorbell event log built in this lesson can be extended with basic statistics: the number of doorbell presses in a given week, the most common time of day, the share of unanswered visits. That view, while not critical for security, gives an interesting glimpse into the rhythm of activity at the front door, and helps spot unusual patterns, like a sudden spike in courier visits during the holiday season.

Integrating With Building Management Systems in Multi-Unit Buildings

For units in multi-family buildings with a central intercom system managed by the building administration, Home Assistant integration is often limited to the doorbell signal itself, with no full control over unlocking the building's front door, which depends on a system shared by every resident. In cases like that, a realistic integration scope is a visit notification and, if the system supports it, a live view, but no remote control over the building's main door lock.

Integrating With a Digital Intercom With an Open API

Newer digital intercoms, unlike the older two-wire systems covered in Module 21, increasingly offer an open API allowing full integration: not just detecting a doorbell press, but a live video view directly in Home Assistant, with no separate manufacturer app involved. When choosing a new intercom for a multi-family or single-family home, it's worth carefully checking the extent of the supported API before settling on a specific model.

How to Test This Lesson

Common Mistakes

Practical Task

Key Takeaways

What's Next

Next lesson: Multimedia Scenes: Movie, Music, Cooking, Cleaning, Guests, Night, and Wake-Up. From reacting to events, we move to actively shaping the atmosphere.