One of the requests we often hear is the ability for Hubitat to send SMS notifications without requiring a third-party provider, email-to-SMS gateway, or additional setup.
We're exploring whether there is enough interest in offering an optional built-in SMS service that would work directly from Hubitat. Because SMS delivery carries ongoing costs, this would likely need to be offered as a paid service rather than a free feature.
Before we spend time evaluating providers and implementation options, we'd like to hear from the community. If you are interested in such service, first vote for the feature above, then leave a comment below:
How much would you consider reasonable to pay per month or per year?
Would you prefer a subscription that includes a fixed number of messages, or a pay-per-message model?
We're not announcing a new product or feature at this time—just trying to gauge interest and better understand how popular such service might be.
how would it work? do you have a way for carriers as I thought most killed the SMs gateways. but I would pay a small yearly amount ie 30 bucks for the service . but if I had to pay separately on each of my 4 hubs probably not. I use the free pushover app messages now using my email device/app to send to pushover.
I like the idea of paying for X amount per month/year for $Y and maybe add an extra $Y for each additional or X additional over.
For me I only have a few devices I would consider semi-critical, so not sure I would want to spend too much money on it. Probably max $20-$30 per year.
I always wondered how the dev, Borja Martinez, behind the Callmebot integration - I forget his forum handle - could offer that service for free. As for SMS, all of my use cases can be handled by sending notifications to the Hubitat app (or Pushover) and acted upon by Tasker, so I’m good.
Agreed it needs to be a paid service, but question whether this would be a widely used feature. Sure beats rolling your own with IFTTT, Twilio or ClickSend, though.
I have been using Twilio for the past 3 year and, on average, have been billed about USD 90 per year. I did have a rogue process one weekend that sent thousands of SMS and I was billed USD 90 in 3 days but I fixed the process and have not had a repeat of that situation so far. That being said, I use Node-RED for my automations and not everything is related to HE (I download data for my solar panels, electric meter, thermostat etc. that all hook into the same notification process).
I would be supportive of this. As for a fee something in the $30/year maybe with a cap per month of messages seems fair. For me I am much more attentive to SMS than I am to Hubitat notifications…
Or are not interested in installing the HE app (my wife, my sons, my neighbor, etc.). Also won't install Pushover. So the only option I could use would be an actual text to their phones similar to the old email-to-SMS gateways that have been disabled.
If a third party app install is required it's a non-starter for me, unfortunately.
I'd suggest providing a built in option for existing sms services so you don't have to deal with any of it. If you want to get a sense of potential user base go look at HA sms integrations and total the installations across the handful of options. Sort of eye opening.
That would be great, what kind of services are you referring to?
I tried, but I am not seeing any major integrations that Hubitat is missing. By "eye opening" do you mean the sms are unpopular services in their world? Looks like they largely rely on push notifications from the mobile app.
Exactly why I use Twilio - as @danabw said that would be a non-starter. If HE could provide a Twilio integration (avoiding the “sign-up” process that is not for the faint of heart) maybe as a Twilio partner that may be of interest… though that would be a bit outside of HE scope of services?