Home Automation

Answer Skybell Automatically on Android Using Tasker

Skybell and other video doorbells ring your phone and allow you to see who’s at the door. But they require you to click on the notification and by the time you do that a minute or two may have gone by. In addition you may want to hang a tablet from a wall to act as an electronic peephole, allowing you to see at a glance who’s at the door and to communicate with them.

If you have a Skybell you can do this with Tasker.

Install Skybell, Takser, and Notification Listener Apps

  1. Make sure you have installed your Skybell app.
  2. Go to the Google Play store and purchase and install Tasker. Tasker allows you to automate tasks on Android devices. Tasker’s currently $3 and well worth the price.
  3. Also from the Google Play store install “Notification Listener” a free plugin for Tasker.
  4. Configure Tasker App To Ring A Bell

  5. In Tasker, click on Profiles tab, then the + sign, and add an Event, Tap “Plugin”, then “Notification Listener”, then “Notification Listener” again:
  6. Click “Configuration”, and change the event to “Notification to Any”, Click on the App button to select the Skybell App, and change the “Text” option to “You have a visitor at your door.”, settings should look like this:
  7. Save by clicking on the Checkmark and exiting out.
  8. Back at the Profiles screen, click on “New Task” on the dialog that pops up, name it as “Open Skybell On Ring”, Tap “+”, select “Plugin”, “Notification Listener”, and then “Gestures”:

  9. Fill out the Gestures screen by adding “%nlkey” to “Notification Key” and toggle on the “Click on notification”:

  10. Click the checkmark and make sure Tasker and the new profile is enabled. You are done. Your profile tab should have an entry that looks something like this:

    Now whenever your Skybell rings, tasker will automatically “Tap” on the Skybell notification, and the tablet should automatically open to the live streaming view of your door.

    Troubleshooting: If you are getting notifications but the Skybell app is not opening automatically, make sure you have Tasker and the event/task profile you created above is enabled, and you have permitted Tasker and Notification Listener to have access to the Android notification services (you should have allowed this during setup). If Skybell notifications are not occurring at all, try changing the tablet’s WIFI IP to a static one and use Google’s 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 DNS as described in my previous post, or uninstalling and reinstalling the Skybell app.

Charlie

View Comments

  • Thank you everything worked great. I followed your instructions inside BlueStacks android emulator running inside windows. I combined your instructions with someone else's to have the notification event call Home assistant service instead. I've used your setup also with MyQ door opener to make service calls to Home assistant.

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