Never Miss a Critical Alert: The Ultimate Guide to Home Assistant Phone Calls (2026)

Last updated on January 30, 2026

Ever worried that a critical smart home notification might get lost in a sea of group texts, Slack messages, or email spam? Let’s face it: a simple text alert just doesn’t cut it when you’re dealing with a water leak, a potential break-in, or a smoke detector going off. For those high-stakes moments, you need a system that cuts through the noise and grabs your attention, no matter what. That’s exactly where a Home Assistant phone call comes in.

In this definitive 2026 guide, we’re diving deep into the modern methods for receiving alerts you simply can’t ignore. We’ll cover everything from the native app’s critical notifications, to free voice calls with Telegram, all the way to real-deal phone calls to any number. Forget outdated methods; I’ll walk you step-by-step through the most current and efficient setups, complete with practical examples to bulletproof your home’s security today.

Why Use Phone Calls & Critical Notifications in Home Assistant?

Standard push notifications are great, but they have one massive flaw: they respect your phone’s “Do Not Disturb” mode. A phone call or a critical notification, on the other hand, is engineered to bypass that barrier. This type of Home Assistant phone alert is essential for situations that demand your immediate attention:

• Home Security: Get a loud, unmissable alert if a door or window opens while your Alarmo security system is armed.
• Disaster Prevention: Be instantly notified of a water leak from an Aqara flood sensor, preventing thousands in damages.
• Personal Safety Alerts: Receive urgent notifications for dangerous carbon monoxide levels or if an elderly family member presses a panic button.
• Critical Monitoring: Get alerts if your deep freezer’s temperature rises, a critical server goes offline, or your solar panels stop producing power.

Alerting Methods in 2026: A Head-to-Head Comparison

There’s no single perfect solution; the best choice depends on your specific needs and budget. I’ve put together this comparison table to help you pick the right tool for the job.

Method 1: Native Critical Notifications (The Easiest & Best Start)

The simplest and most robust way to get started is with Home Assistant critical notifications, a feature baked right into the official Home Assistant Companion App for iOS and Android. These notifications are designed to play a sound even if your phone is on silent or in “Do Not Disturb” mode.

The setup is incredibly easy and can be done entirely from the UI. No need to touch YAML files unless you want to.

Example: Critical Notification Automation

Let’s say a Zigbee door sensor is triggered while your alarm is armed. Here’s how you’d create the alert:

1. Navigate to Settings > Automations & Scenes and create a new automation.
2. Trigger: The state of the front door sensor changes to “Open”.
3. Condition: The alarm control panel (alarm_control_panel.alarmo) is in the state “armed_away”.
4. Action:
   • Action Type: Call service.
   • Service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone_name.
   • Data: This is where the magic happens. Configure your title and message as usual, then add the data for the critical notification.

In the visual editor, you can switch the Action section to YAML mode and paste this in:

service: notify.mobile_app_my_iphone
data:
  message: Security Alert! The front door has been opened.
  title: "⚠️ INTRUSION DETECTED ⚠️"
  data:
    push:
      sound:
        name: default
        critical: 1
        volume: 1.0

The `push` block, and specifically `critical: 1`, is what tells the Home Assistant app that this notification is top priority and must make a sound. It’s that simple!

Method 2: Free Voice Calls with CallMeBot (The Modern `rest_command` Way)

The Home Assistant Telegram integration via CallMeBot remains an excellent free option. However, the implementation has evolved. Forget the old `notify: rest` platform. The modern, flexible way to do this in 2026 is with a `rest_command`, which allows us to easily pass dynamic data from our automations.

Step 1: Get Your CallMeBot API Key

This part hasn’t changed. To prevent spam, you need to authorize the bot.

1. In Telegram, search for and contact the @CallMeBot_io_bot.
2. Send the /start command.
3. From the menu that appears, tap “Create a new API”.
4. Follow the prompts, and the bot will give you a link to generate your API key. Save this somewhere safe, ideally in your secrets.yaml file.

Step 2: Configure the `rest_command`

Now, instead of a notifier, we’ll define a RESTful service. This gives you far more control. Add the following block to your configuration.yaml file:

rest_command:
  telegram_critical_call:
    url: "https://api.callmebot.com/voice.php"
    method: POST
    content_type: "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
    payload: "apikey={{ states('input_text.callmebot_api_key') }}&source=hass&lang=en-US-Standard-C&text={{ message }}"

Security Pro-Tip: In this example, I’ve taken it a step further. Instead of using !secret directly, I created a Text Helper (input_text.callmebot_api_key) from the Home Assistant UI (Settings > Devices & Services > Helpers). I pasted my API key there. This allows me to change the key from the UI without a restart and keeps it out of my config files.

• url, method, content_type: Standard parameters for an API call.
• payload: This is where we define the data we’re sending. We use templates to make it dynamic:
  • apikey={{ states('input_text.callmebot_api_key') }}: Grabs the API key from the helper we created.
  • lang=en-US-Standard-C: I’ve set this to a standard US English voice.
  • text={{ message }}: This is the key. It will take the value of a variable named `message` that we’ll pass from our automation.

After adding this code, go to Developer Tools > YAML and click “RESTful Commands” to reload the configuration without a full Home Assistant restart.

Step 3: Use the Service in an Automation

Now, calling this service is a breeze. In your automation, the action would look like this:

- alias: 'Critical Alert - Water Leak'
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.bathroom_flood_sensor
      to: 'on'
  action:
    - service: rest_command.telegram_critical_call
      data:
        message: 'Attention! Attention! A water leak has been detected in the main bathroom.'

See? We just call our new `rest_command.telegram_critical_call` service and pass the text we want spoken in the `message` variable. So much cleaner and more flexible!

Method 3: Twilio for Real-Deal Phone Calls (The Pro-Level Option)

When you need maximum reliability or want to contact someone who doesn’t use Telegram or the Home Assistant app (like a family member or neighbor), a service like Twilio is the answer. It places actual cellular (GSM) calls to any landline or mobile number.

The setup is more involved as it requires signing up for a paid service, but it’s the most rock-solid option available for a true Home Assistant phone call.

1. Create a Twilio Account: Sign up, and get your “Account SID” and “Auth Token”.
2. Buy a Phone Number: From your Twilio dashboard, purchase a virtual phone number. This will be the number Home Assistant calls from.
3. Configure the Integration: Add the following to your configuration.yaml, making sure to store your credentials in secrets.yaml for security.

# configuration.yaml
twilio:
  account_sid: !secret twilio_account_sid
  auth_token: !secret twilio_auth_token

notify:
  - name: emergency_phone_call
    platform: twilio_call
    from_number: "+15551234567" # Your Twilio phone number

After a restart, you’ll have a new service, notify.emergency_phone_call, that you can use in your automations to call any number:

action:
  - service: notify.emergency_phone_call
    data:
      message: "Security alert. Possible intrusion detected at home."
      target: "+15559876543" # The number you want to call

Common Problems & Quick Fixes (FAQ)

• My critical notifications have no sound:
  • Double-check your phone’s settings to ensure the Home Assistant app has permission to send critical notifications and play sounds. Sometimes app or OS updates can reset these permissions.
• I’m not receiving the CallMeBot call:
  • Reload the “RESTful Commands” under Developer Tools after editing configuration.yaml.
  • Test the service directly from Developer Tools > Services. Call rest_command.telegram_critical_call and pass in a test message. If it works there, the issue is with your automation’s trigger or condition.
  • Make sure the API Key in your helper (or secrets.yaml) is correct and has no extra spaces.
• My Twilio call isn’t going through:
  • Check your Twilio dashboard to ensure you have enough credit.
  • Review the error logs in Twilio; they are very detailed and will tell you exactly what failed.
  • Verify that your Account SID and Auth Token are correct in your secrets.yaml file.

A Quick Word on Privacy and Security

When using third-party services like CallMeBot or Twilio, you are sending the content of your messages to their servers. Because of this, I strongly recommend:

• Don’t send sensitive info: Avoid putting passwords, gate codes, full names, or personal data in the messages. “Intrusion alert at the back door” is much better than “Alarm at the Smith family house on 123 Main Street.”
• Protect your API Keys and Tokens: Treat your CallMeBot and Twilio credentials like passwords. Using the secrets.yaml file or Home Assistant helpers is the best practice for keeping them secure.

Conclusion: Building Your Fail-Safe Alert System

Setting up a Home Assistant phone call capability is a massive upgrade to the reliability of your smart home. You graduate from simple notices to critical alerts that are nearly impossible to miss. With the power of automations, you can now chain these methods together: send a critical notification to your phone first, and if it’s not acknowledged within one minute, escalate to a Telegram call or even a real phone call to an emergency contact.

I hope this updated guide has been a huge help. Now it’s your turn to decide which events in your home deserve this level of critical attention. Share your ideas and most clever automations in the comments below!