Best Way To Have Homeseer Announce That I Have A New Text Message

[upstatemike]

I would like to have Homeseer announce when I get a new text message for times when my phone is sitting in another room where I can't hear the notification chime. I assume I can do this using the Tasker plugin; is that true? (It is an android phone) Is there a better way to accomplish this?

[HSAccord]

Since you're apparently using Android you don't even need to use the Tasker plugin for Homeseer. Just use the JSON api and use Tasker on your phone to directly call the TTS function. I do this (for phone calls, not texts) on our phones. The tasker task looks like:

• HTTP Get Action
  • Server:Port - the IP address of your HS instance
  • Path - JSON
  • Attributes:
    • request=speak
    • phrase="whatever-you-want-it-to-say-with-dashes-not-spaces"

One note - HS has a flaw in the TTS routine - you can't use spaces or the speech screws up. So use dashes instead.

[upstatemike]

Since you're apparently using Android you don't even need to use the Tasker plugin for Homeseer. Just use the JSON api and use Tasker on your phone to directly call the TTS function. I do this (for phone calls, not texts) on our phones. The tasker task looks like:

• HTTP Get Action
  • Server:Port - the IP address of your HS instance
  • Path - JSON
  • Attributes:
    • request=speak
    • phrase="whatever-you-want-it-to-say-with-dashes-not-spaces"

One note - HS has a flaw in the TTS routine - you can't use spaces or the speech screws up. So use dashes instead.

Thanks, I'll take a look at that.

[Guest]

I take it one step further by having Tasker announce who the caller/texter is from (assuming the caller is in my phone address book).

[Guest]

BTW and not that hyphens do not work in this situation, but the normal way to pass special characters like spaces in a HTTP string is to give the hexadecimal equivalent preceded by a percent sign (i.e for a space, substitute %20).

whatever%20you%20want%20it%20to%20say

[upstatemike]

I take it one step further by having Tasker announce who the caller/texter is from (assuming the caller is in my phone address book).

Tested doing a JSON announcement from my browser and that worked fine. Now I just need to download and learn Tasker so I can trigger a JSON call from an incoming Text. Hopefully adding the name of the texter will be obvious to achieve once I learn how Tasker works.

[Guest]

Tested doing a JSON announcement from my browser and that worked fine. Now I just need to download and learn Tasker so I can trigger a JSON call from an incoming Text. Hopefully adding the name of the texter will be obvious to achieve once I learn how Tasker works.

This might help you get started. My routine has a bunch of stuff in it for my smartwatch and stuff, which you can ignore.

The variables in Upper case are globals. The Global variables that start with SMS are tasker provided. See the tasker help file for details on the SMS variables.

    Profile: EvtSMS
    Settings: Restore: yes
        Event: Received Text [ Type:Any Sender:* Content:* SIM Card:* MMS Body:* ]

    Enter Task: Anon

    A1: Variable Set [
         Name: %buff
         To: %SMSRB
         Max Rounding Digits: 3 ]

    A2: Variable Set [
         Name: %sname
         To: %SMSRN
         Max Rounding Digits: 3 ]

    A3: Variable Set [
         Name: %sname
         To: u s g s
         Max Rounding Digits: 3 ]
        If  [ %buff ~ *ens@ens.usgs.gov* ]

    A4: If [ %buff ~ %* ]

        A5: [X] Perform Task [
             Name: KwikLog
             Priority: %priority
             Parameter 1 (%par1): %MMSRS
             Parameter 2 (%par2): y ]

        A6: Stop [ ]
            If  [ %sname ~ %SMSRF ]

    A7: Else

        A8: Stop [ ]
            If  [ %buff ~ *gerald* ]

    A9: End If

    A10: Variable Add [
          Name: %NUMSMS
          Value: 1
          Wrap Around: 0 ]

    A11: Perform Task [
          Name: SetIcon
          Priority: %priority-1 ]

    A12: Set Widget Label [
          Name: SetProfile
          Label: P: %NUMCALLS S: %NUMSMS ]

    A13: Perform Task [
          Name: WearRefresh
          Priority: %priority
          Parameter 1 (%par1): counts ]

    A14: Perform Task [
          Name: SetNotify
          Priority: %priority
          Parameter 1 (%par1): missed
          Parameter 2 (%par2): x ]

    A15: If [ %QUIET = 0 & %SCREEN !~ on ]

        A16: Say [
              Text: New Text Message Received
              Engine:Voice: default:default
              Stream: 3
              Pitch: %SPKPCH
              Speed: %SPKSPD ]

        A17: If [ %sname !~ %SMSRF ]

            A18: Say [
                  Text: from %sname
                  Engine:Voice: default:default
                  Stream: 3
                  Pitch: %SPKPCH
                  Speed: %SPKSPD ]
                If  [ %sname !~ %SMSRF ]

            A19: Perform Task [
                  Name: HSSpeak
                  Priority: %priority
                  Parameter 1 (%par1): new text message received from %sname
                  Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]

        A20: End If

    A21: End If

Hope that helps you get started. BTW the test for "gerald" is because some spammer keeps sending me messages addressed to him, and I want to just ignore them.

[upstatemike]

Thanks for the example! I'll install Tasker later this week and see if I can get it going.