Budget around 75 minutes. Example entities: switch.pedestrian_gate_strike_pulse, binary_sensor.pedestrian_gate_closed, binary_sensor.doorbell_button, camera.intercom. Adjust these to match your own hardware.

A Problem from Real Life: The Courier Rings, and You're at Work

A courier presses the doorbell. Nobody's home. Without an integration, you get no information at all: the package heads back to the depot, or gets left at the door in the rain. With an integration, you get a notification with a snapshot from the intercom camera, and you make a deliberate call: open the pedestrian gate remotely, or don't. This is a line HA shouldn't cross on its own: opening on a doorbell press with no human in the loop is an open invitation to anyone who figures out how to press a button.

Three Elements, Three Different Risk Levels

A Doorbell as a Binary Sensor, Not Just a Chime

A classic wired doorbell gets wired through a module like a Shelly 1 Gen3 in input mode (not output), treating the button as a binary_sensor. Ready-made video doorbells (some lines with native ONVIF integration or a dedicated HA integration) give you a doorbell-press entity together with the camera out of the box: check the specific model's documentation for whether the integration is local or requires the manufacturer's cloud, since that affects both response time and privacy.

Automation: A Notification with a Snapshot on Doorbell Press

automation:
  - alias: "Doorbell: notification with intercom snapshot"
    id: doorbell_notification_intercom_snapshot
    mode: single
    triggers:
      - trigger: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.doorbell_button
        to: "on"
    actions:
      - action: camera.snapshot
        target:
          entity_id: camera.intercom
        data:
          filename: "/config/www/intercom_latest.jpg"
      - delay: "00:00:01"
      - action: notify.mobile_app_your_phone
        data:
          title: "Someone's at the gate"
          message: "The doorbell was pressed. Check the image before deciding."
          data:
            image: "/local/intercom_latest.jpg"
            tag: "doorbell-gate"
            channel: "Doorbell"
            importance: high
            actions:
              - action: "URI"
                title: "See the live view"
                uri: "/lovelace/outdoor"

camera.snapshot saves a single frame: it's not a recording of the event. If your intercom supports short video clips (say, through a Frigate-style recording setup integrated with HA over RTSP), consider adding a clip instead of a single frame: the exact configuration depends on the camera model and is a separate topic beyond this course.

The Electric Strike: A Pulse Only After Deliberate Confirmation

script:
  pedestrian_gate_send_strike_pulse:
    alias: "Pedestrian gate: send strike pulse"
    icon: mdi:door-open
    mode: single
    sequence:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: input_boolean.remote_gate_control_enabled
        state: "on"
      - action: switch.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: switch.pedestrian_gate_strike_pulse
      - action: logbook.log
        data:
          name: "Pedestrian gate"
          message: "Strike pulse sent after manual confirmation."

Put the dashboard button that calls this script behind a confirmation prompt: "Are you sure you want to open the gate?" It deliberately reuses the same input_boolean.remote_gate_control_enabled from Lesson 5: one master switch for remote-opening readiness across every entrance on the property, easy to flip off before a vacation.

The Intercom: Integrate the Video, Not the Talk Logic

Modern video intercoms often ship with their own app that handles live two-way audio: HA rarely replicates that feature as well. A sensible split: the intercom manufacturer's app for live voice and video, Home Assistant for notifications, event logging, and tying into the rest of the system (dashboard, a porch light triggered by an evening doorbell press). Don't build your own "stand-in" for two-way talk inside HA if the manufacturer already provides it: you'd be adding complexity with no upside.

A Safe Automation: The Doorbell Rings, and Nobody Has to Answer

automation:
  - alias: "Doorbell: porch light after dark"
    id: doorbell_porch_light_after_dark
    mode: single
    triggers:
      - trigger: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.doorbell_button
        to: "on"
    conditions:
      - condition: sun
        after: sunset
    actions:
      - action: light.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: light.porch
        data:
          brightness_pct: 100
      - delay: "00:05:00"
      - action: light.turn_off
        target:
          entity_id: light.porch

This is a safe automation: the light doesn't grant access, it just improves visibility for both sides. Notice it isn't conditioned on input_boolean.remote_gate_control_enabled: lighting up the porch for a doorbell press makes sense regardless of whether remote opening is enabled.

Video Doorbells with Local RTSP: What Changed in 2025

Since April 2025, most Reolink doorbells and cameras carry an official Works with Home Assistant certification: full native integration, no HACS and no intermediary integrations. A Reolink doorbell, once you enable RTSP and ONVIF in the device's network settings (Settings, Network, Advanced), runs 100 percent locally, even with no internet access, and pressing the button fires an event in Home Assistant with no dependency on the manufacturer's cloud.

That's a real difference from older, popular options like Ring, where every event and every live view routes through the manufacturer's servers, with added lag and dependence on their service's uptime (and usually a subscription requirement for full recording history). If you're choosing a doorbell with this course's approach in mind, a model with Works with Home Assistant certification and local RTSP saves a lot of trouble down the line.

Analog vs. Digital Intercoms: Adapting Them to a Smart Home

Many older intercom installs use a 2-wire (analog) system, where integrating with Home Assistant requires an additional gateway module (an analog-to-Wi-Fi/IP signal converter, for example), while newer digital (IP) intercoms often have a built-in API or an RTSP stream directly available on the local network. Before planning an intercom integration, check the exact model and generation of your install: for older 2-wire systems, the realistic options usually come down to picking up the doorbell signal with a simple electronic add-on, without full audio-video integration.

Integrating with 2-Wire Systems: Realistic Expectations

For 2-wire intercoms with no native IP support, the most common approach is wiring in a simple module that detects the doorbell signal (through a relay reacting to the electrical pulse, for instance) and passing it to Home Assistant as a binary sensor, exactly like the automation in this lesson. Full video from these systems usually requires replacing the entire outdoor panel with a digital model, which is an investment beyond a simple integration and is worth treating as its own project, not a quick automation.

Battery vs. Hardwired Video Doorbells

Integrating with an Electronic Lock System

The electric strike described in this lesson is the simplest form of remote gate opening, but for the home's front door (not the pedestrian gate), it's worth considering a full smart lock with its own Home Assistant integration, offering an access history, unique codes per household member, and a temporary code for a guest or a delivery driver, all going well beyond the simple opening pulse an electric strike offers.

Gate Usage Stats and Year-Round Traffic Patterns

Data collected by the gate's reed sensor and the doorbell event log, gathered over time, reveals seasonal patterns: more courier visits before the holidays, more foot traffic in summer than in winter. A history graph for this entity, stretched across a full year, gives an interesting, practical view of the rhythm of life at the entrance, useful, for instance, for planning when to schedule renovation work that limits access.

Backward Compatibility: Integrating an Old Doorbell Without Replacing It

Not every home needs a full doorbell replacement to go smart: a simple Zigbee module that detects sound (through a microphone) or vibration (through a sensor clipped to the chime mechanism) can pick up a ring from a traditional, analog doorbell with no changes to its electrical wiring, giving you basic integration (knowing someone rang) with no hardware swap or costly rewiring.

How to Test This Lesson

Common Mistakes

Practical Task

Key Takeaways

What's Next

Next lesson: The Garage, Driveway, and Car Presence: Garage Door, Lighting, Sensors, and Plan B. The third and last high-risk zone in this module, this time with an added vehicle-presence angle.