Two-Way Audio (e.g. for doorbell, intercom, camera-systems, baby-monitors, sip, ...)

Feature Requests
1

Many doorbells and cameras support two-way-audio to talk back to the camera. :video_camera: :door: :telephone_receiver:
Unfortunately, Home Assistant is unable to capture the microphone to transfer voice. :studio_microphone:
Even if users can integrate the dorrbell or camera, they still have to use the manufacurers app (e.g. Ring, Amcrest, Dahua, …) to communicate with the visitor, baby, thief, … :man: :baby: :male_detective:
It would be awesome to be able to integrate this kind of communication to Home Assistant. :rocket:

2

interested too! especially for onvif, and maybe custom manufactures like hikvision with ISAPI support

1 Like
3

With amcrest I found https://github.com/rroller/dahua/issues/181#issuecomment-1148628524 which works to send TTS audio file to the doorbell where it is spoken aloud. Works great, but naturally a standardized voice output entity type would help standardize so media_player doesn’t need to be used.

4

There’s a number of pieces that have to happen for this. The companion app/frontend needs to be able to capture audio and either stream or save locally/upload and send to a media entity. I think that would be a first piece. If that was available each camera/doorbell integration would be more inclined to have a media entity to play it back.

3 Likes
5

I agree that it will certainly be a multi-faceted issue, but I disagree that the first step comes from the mobile app, seems more like a good solution requires a simultaneous effort from core and mobile.

Currently, the entire ecosystem has no knowledge of input audio. In order for this to be implemented in a standardized way, core needs to provide an entity type whether it is microphone entity, input_audio entity, etc. so that Android / iOS have something to interface with. Then there would also be services based off this entity for recording audio, save to file, etc.

Of course the mobile apps don’t even ask for microphone permission yet, so there’s lot’s of work for that too.

I suppose a quick fix solution could be having mobile apps have some service which just records audio to a file and then you can use that file for whatever, but I personally see a lot more value in this being its own entity type.

3 Likes
6

Pretty sure there are other FR’s for this same function but I’ve voted because I really want this.

2 Likes
7

Companion app already activates microphone, there was a PR about it a year ago, already included
I use it , because i’m using a lovelace SIP card, working great

2 Likes
8

On Android it does but not on iOS

9

that i dont know, dont use iphone :slight_smile:

3 Likes
10

Seems to be some work, but it would add nice features. It would even enable other possibilities, like leaving voice messages for other people in lovelace.

11

iPhone/iOS:
I have actually gotten 2-way SIP voice to work for iOS devices using Safari or Companion App (except I could not get to work for an old iPhone 6 which is running 12.5.5).

It is based on the following Lovelace SIP card:

I have made some modifications to the card, but from memory, the card should work as is for iOS.

1 Like
12

A quick look at this suggests ‘RTSP backchannel’ might be a possible option.

1 Like
13

for the webrtc card, there is already someting brewing for rtsp backchannel, alex is working on it

2 Likes
14

@AlexxIT has created this for 2 way audio now, it would be amazing if we could have 2 way audio within Home Assistant dashboard cards:

6 Likes
15

Technically it’s very easy. I have an example, but don’t have time to write a card.

You need to init mic. The go2rtc will do the rest.

9 Likes
16

@AlexxIT Would it be possible to use this in conjuction with @myhomeiot 's dahua vto integration?
So that whenever the doorbell button is pressed, the 2 way video & audio would start immediately.
I suppose we wont need SIP server if we just want local access?

4 Likes
17

Home assistant is great but if there is one thing i learned in the last 3 years is that when you advance to the “next level” and really want to integrate everything to home assistant then allot is missing.

Asking difficult questions almost never getting the answers and in the end this results in hours and hours of figuring stuff out yourself. Its a fun process but i guess when things get complicated no one is willing to do the work. Making 2 way communication requires a rewrite of the android and ios app so that you can trigger a ring like notification when someone hits the doorbell and the app would open with a videostream and the mic is used to communicate. i dont think things like this are comming anytime soon.

And maybe there is a whacky way to open a card and do some strange things. but what you really want is the ha app opening to the camera stream and you can talk without setting up 100 more things when someone hits the doorbell.

I guess its allot easier to just install the ring app and do it that way… (no offense)

1 Like
18

yeah but think when, for example, Dahua will suspend their app (sooner or later will happen). We will need a solution to have a private app to run our doorbell without any other 3rd party service. I agree that this will require time, but it will be an important step for this community.

19

Will this also work with Doorbird?

I am looking for a solution to send a TTS message in case nobody is home

20

Would love to have 2 way audio directly in HA :heart:

3 Likes