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Ask HN: Simple developer-friendly chat app for home automation?

7 pointsby 0x62over 3 years ago
I have various small projects and home automation systems that I want to be able to invoke remotely and receive alerts from, without setting up a web server and UI.<p>I used to use Notify17 for receiving alerts, but since this shut down I&#x27;ve been forced back to email, and am now looking for a solution to cover both receiving alerts and sending basic commands.<p>These are the options I&#x27;ve considered already:<p>* Pushover - Fine for receiving alerts, multiple recipients supported. No options to respond to them.<p>* Telegram - Sending + receiving. Might be a bit heavy for my use case, and would be better not having the bot publicly accessible. Also makes managing notifications (DND etc) more difficult when also receiving human messages.<p>* Gotify - No iOS app.<p>* Prowl - Most likely candidate for receiving notifications at the moment unless I find a duplex option<p>* Now Push - Looks promising, but too early to start developing on<p>* Threema - Ideal, but relatively expensive ($70 setup + $0.05&#x2F;msg + $0.05&#x2F;img)<p>Essentially what I&#x27;m looking for is an app with a chat-like UI which converts messages to a webhook, and allows me to send responses via an API. Ideally preshared key auth, no OAuth.<p>On a related note, if anyone else is missing Notify17 and thinking about building a replacement I&#x27;d be willing to pay up to $15&#x2F;mo for a tool that ingests webhooks, allows me to reformat the response with a templating language and sends notifications to my phone.

6 comments

phirdevover 3 years ago
As long as you only want to message just a few contacts, Threema has an unlimited plan for a limited number of recipients (15ppl&#x2F;~5€pm - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;threema.ch&#x2F;en&#x2F;broadcast&#x2F;pricing" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;threema.ch&#x2F;en&#x2F;broadcast&#x2F;pricing</a>). Only the gateway service you listed is quite expensive.
tssvaover 3 years ago
IFTTT is less than $15 a month and will allow you submit notification data via a webhook, reformat it with a template and present the notification on your phone. An existing IFTTT integration might also meet your need for data flow the other direction.
swahover 3 years ago
I use Telegram for automations like sending a message to my phone when a task on the computer ends. WIsh Whatsapp had it so I could send it directly to my colleagues..
livinglistover 3 years ago
you can always try developing your own plugins for slack or discord, maybe there’s already something for you:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;slack.com&#x2F;apps" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;slack.com&#x2F;apps</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;betterdiscord.app&#x2F;plugins" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;betterdiscord.app&#x2F;plugins</a>
gidorahover 3 years ago
Rocket.chat could be workable. I did experiment with usinging it with a bot that could call an API.
joshuover 3 years ago
Slack?