WTH Doorbell Systems Communication?

Month of "What the heck?!"
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I learned the hard way that HA does not (yet) support bidirectional voice communication. Given the rising availability of door bell systems with HA integration like Reolink, Ring, etc, it strikes me odd that HA cripples them to mere video surveillance systems.

Example: I use a Reolink E1 Outdoor Pro, but to communicate with the door, I must launch the Reolink App. A Bosch and a Ring camera were returned. To do that on the phone I had to specify launchers for the app on touching the video image. For the “control panels” I must split screen removing half the space for nothing but adding the App to allow to “talk”.
Neither solution is “convenient” or “intuitive”.

Side issue: The camera works live (in App or Web-App). Inside Home Assistant the camera image updates every 10 seconds only. So doorbell camera systems are not yet “competitive” inside HA.

And yes, I’ve seen WIP - DoorDroid - Smart Doorbell with Lovelace integration, video and 2-way audio, without cloud by rdehuyss, but IMHO it just confirms my opinion/points.

And yes, I’ve also seen WTH can't I make a proper video doorbell using Home Assistant? (with two-way audio like Ring and Nest)) by DIY-techie addressing this in WTH 2020, but still practically unresolved with last activity May '22?

No offense intended, implied or taken, but I thought this is my 2024 What the Heck?!-moment to trigger a discussion. And I am no programmer, just a bloody user trying to “smartify” his home…

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It might not be supported by the official API for Ring devices, just like the default Alexa integration doesn’t support using them as media players.

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Also brought it up last year because Home Assistant then finally supported voice input via the app: Voice chapter 3 - Is it finally possible to have two-way audio via the Home Assistant app (for DIY video doorbells)?

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I am with you. I remember reading somewhere around here a while ago that video wasn’t a priority for HA. Personally, I would rate it far higher than anything involving talking to/from HA, but what do I know. There is some hope with the recent addition of RTC technology into HA camera system, but they likely need a full on revamp of stream.

I fought with it for years, but finally settled on using Scrypted to get all my cameras (unifi protect) into HomeKit. Through Homekit I get real-time video and two-way audio to everything, including the doorbell. With the added benefit of getting pop-ups on the Apple TV.

I use the Go2RTC container to get real-time video for screen-pops on my HA kiosks.

I would love to see cameras/video get more love in the coming year.

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Not having 2-way audio support is probably the biggest barrier to HAF for HA in my home.

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Voted. Honestly surprised at the low vote count, given practically every home has an intercom these days

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Is this a duplicate of this WTF

Also doesn’t go2rtc cover 2 way comms. It isn’t clean or easy I feel but 2 way is possible.

Something better is definitely needed

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No. That is a feature request, not a WTF.

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Naw, I don’t think that’s a duplicate. The other (not WTH) is a (rather specific) feature request, I address a similar issue but as my (main) WTH-experience 2024. As I also addressed other posts that address the issue. But this is my WTH moment and I hope for a generic improvement on camera and bi-directional voice in HA. So not a specific feature request, as I have “my” workaround.