Is it possible to send some form of external message back to home assistant and make it respond in some way?
I’d really like to be able to send a text message somehow to my home assistant server and have it respond depending on the text I sent.
I see there is an SMS integration via Gammu:
Is this the recommended approach? If so, what exactly is the needed setup for this integration? I understand that I need to purchase a GSM modem and do the configuration, but does this also require a dedicated SIM card from a carrier of my choice? How does home assistant get a number it can send and receive from? Is it just like buying a line for a phone and I’d pay for messaging on that line?
Alternatively, is it possible to send data to home assistant in some other way such as an email? webhook?
I’m really looking for ways to interact with my home assistant server (sending and receiving data) when I am in an area with no data or very limited data… which is why SMS would probably be ideal.
I used SMS with IRC way back in the day before phones had data plans to notify me when stuff happened, it is still handy when there is no data available or I have it turned off to save battery (which is like, 90% of he time)
Sending back to HA is tricker, SMS is not really secure so I would recommend another method
So to make sure I understand, you’re saying it’s fine to send SMS from HA but you wouldn’t recommend allowing HA to receive SMS? I understand it’s not super secure but I’m not necessarily sending secure data. Reading the docs I linked shows how to have HA respond to an SMS.
Is there another method you are using that you can recommend?
My vote is on email, it’s more versatile than sms.
Sms is limited to phones but emails can be sent from more devices.
Most likely it’s easier to debug since you can look at the email that is received.
But in all honesty, I have not tried sms. This is only based on what I imagine.