Last updated January 22, 2023.
When I have my hands full with grocery or laundry bags, I don’t want to fish for my phone to activate my smart intercom. With this new method, all I have to do is press a physical button, and I’m in.
In New York, where I live, most apartment buildings have an intercom in the entryway, where you press a button, and then another intercom, inside your apartment, makes a loud buzzing noise. Whoever’s inside can then press a button to unlock the building door, and let you in.
By using smart devices, you can cut out the second step — after you press the button on your building’s intercom, it’ll automatically let you in. See what I mean below.
To do this, you’ll need to follow the steps from my last article, which explains how to make your intercom smart. Then, you’ll need a smart home hub.
You might already have a hub — they’re used to control all of the smart devices in your home. I personally use the SmartThings hub, but there are others, like Wink.
Finally, you’ll need a vibration sensor — I use the SmartThings Multipurpose Sensor, since I have a SmartThings hub.
When you’re ready, all you have to do is mount the vibration sensor on your intercom’s speaker, using the adhesive that came with it. Then, when you buzz your apartment from the building’s entryway, the noise your intercom makes will set the sensor off.
See below for my setup — the vibration sensor is on the left, and the SwitchBot is on the right.
To make the vibration sensor trigger the SwitchBot, you have to create an automation in your smart hub app. Below is what I did in SmartThings.
The smart hub has access to my phone’s location, so it knows when I leave my apartment (aka, “Whipstaff Manor”). When that happens, it switches to “Away” mode.
It stays in this mode, even when I’m right outside the building. If I buzz my apartment from the building’s intercom, and it detects that I’m there, it’ll buzz me in, and then change the mode to “Home.”
I did this to ensure that only I can let myself into the building. Otherwise, anyone who knew my apartment number could just buzz, and let themselves in.
Location detection also prevents the buzzer from going off whenever someone slams the door. My door is close to my intercom, so if someone slams it, it vibrates the intercom, setting off the sensor. If you use the automation above, this won’t happen.
And that’s it! If you have any questions about this, or just wanna say hi, send me an email. 😊