HE natively includes a Twilio driver that allows you to send SMS messages. With recent 10DLC USA legislation it is difficult and somewhat cost prohibitive to setup a Twilio account for personal use.
"Textbelt is a no-nonsense SMS API built for developers who just want to send SMS." Textbelt was founded in 2012 and I recently stumbled upon it as I was trying to find an easy way to send SMS messages to friends and family because push notifications are more complicated for non-family/household members. No 10DLC registration, no monthly fees, minimal setup.
To get going, you can send 1 free text message per day by using the API key "textbelt" (thanks for finding this @Ranchitat). From there a minimal investment of $3 USD is required to send 50 SMS messages. All pricing is on the page referenced in step 1 below.
To utilize this driver:
- Purchase SMS credits here
- Copy the API key generated for you and store that in a safe place
- Add the container and device drivers code to your HE hub or use HPM to install the code - search for 'Textbelt SMS Notifications'
- Create a new virtual device and set the type to 'Textbelt Container'.
- Go to your new Textbelt Container device's preferences and set the Textbelt API Key and click save.
- A new State variable called "Quota Remaining" will get set to the number of SMS messages you have left to send. This state variable will automatically get updated every time a notification is sent so you can monitor your remaining usage. Consider creating a rule to notify you when this value falls below a certain number so you can purchase additional credits.
- Under commands / Create Device, enter a child Device Label and phone number and click Create Device. If you're in the U.S. or Canada, you can just send a normal 10-digit phone number with area code. Outside the U.S., it is best to send the phone number in E.164 format with your country code. Multiple child notification devices can be setup and they will all leverage the same Textbelt API Key.
- You can also send notifications from the parent container device as well and it will send a SMS message to all child notification devices.
Once this is setup, you can select this new device in Rule Machine and other apps for notifications. The messages are logged as events too!
The drivers can be found here or in HPM:
