Now that AT&T email-to-text service is ending 6/17/2025, I suggest Nabu Casa consider adding this to its online subscription service. I really hate the idea of paying a third party to continue using email-to-text when Nabu Casa can increase demand for its own online subscription service. I’m sure a business case will justify it based on increased subscriptions.
I use HA to send emails via my Gmail account to send texts to family AT&T subscribers for important home alerts. When this goes away, I have to pay a 3rd party to do what is now free, while paying for a Nabu Casa subscription. Seems redundant to me, and sends revenue elsewhere.
Personally I like Telegram (webhooks). I have a group for urgent system messages and a group for general notifications. You can cause things to happen on Home Assistant with actionable notifications and you can set the group to auto delete messages after x number of days.
Yeah, I tried Twilio and Click Send. I’m not sure how to send an SMS message using Telegram Webhooks after reading the docs. This is for phones that don’t have the HA app installed.
I would prefer Nabu Casa provide SMS/MMS messaging as part of their paid cloud service. Paying Twilio is extra cost for what should be core HA capability.
The use case for me would be family members that either don’t have a smart phone (yes they still make “flip” phones for those technically challenged) or have a “dumb” smart phone that can’t run apps outside a locked-down ecosystem. In both cases, the app is not an option, but both can receive SMS messages.
Signal is as private and secure as a Kwikset door lock — it keeps all but determined and skilled actors, which is better than nothing; however, I’m thinking of the case when messages are no more secure than SMS/MMS. After all, some messages may be triggered by devices that route through China.
I am thinking of cases when a user can’t, is unwilling, or I don’t want to install the HA app on the recipients device, but it is appropriate to send messages:
Spouses
Children
Relatives
Neighbors
3rd parties
PSAPs
Edit: Our family uses RCS but receives SMS/MMS messages from HA (and others)
I don’t have or want the HA app. I can connect directly to the web interface, and I don’t use HA to track people or devices, so it adds no functionality for me. My phone is already running an SMS app, waiting for notifications. Why re-invent anything?
As of now, my carrier still supports e-mailing to SMS, but I’m following this in case that changes.
Well for Twillio, I pay approx $5 a month, which includes $3.80 for the 2 numbers and 911 fee for both. So my usage cost is approx $1.20 per month. I understand your point about why you think it should be included in the Nabu Casa monthly fee, but alas, this works and is very robust. So perhaps give it another thought. I’m sure you will figure something out that suites your needs.
Good alternative for “smart” phones, but still fails to support “flip” phones or locked down “dumb” smart phones that I mentioned earlier.
These are family members that don’t live in my house, I have no desire for location tracking, but I want to send automated alerts to in certain circumstances.
