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Your Tesla might read SMS messages out loud. Your smart glasses might do the same. But try getting a Home Assistant alert directly into either of those—and you’ll quickly hit a wall. Most infotainment systems don’t support notifications from anything but basic SMS, and even then, only through specific, outdated channels.

So how do you get critical smart home notifications—like your garage door opening—delivered right to your car or wearable device, no app required?

Links in the Video

Home Assistant Docs – Gmail: https://tsh.li/hagmail

Home Assistant Docs – Notification Group: https://tsh.li/hanotify

List of Email-To-SMS Addresses: https://tsh.li/SMSEmail

Meet Notification Bridge: A Smarter Way to Deliver Smart Home Alerts

Notification Bridge is a Home Assistant script I built to solve this exact problem. It uses your phone’s location and Bluetooth connections to figure out where you are and then routes the message to the most appropriate place—SMS if you’re in the car, your glasses if you’re walking, or just the mobile app if nothing special is connected.

Whether you’re driving, on a walk, or working remotely, your notifications follow you.

Why You Might Need This

Most of our smart home automations are great—until they need to tell us something and we don’t get the message.

Let’s say:

• You’re driving and your garage door closes automatically.
• Or someone opens your front door while you’re on a walk.
• Or a water sensor detects a leak.

These are the kinds of alerts you need to get right away, even if your phone is tucked away or your car only supports SMS. This script solves that by detecting what device you’re currently using and rerouting messages as needed.

What You’ll Learn in the Tutorial

In the full video, I walk you through how to:

• Use Home Assistant templates
• Call scripts and pass variables
• Enable Bluetooth sensor detection from the Home Assistant Companion app
• Build notification groups using YAML
• Send SMS via email-to-text gateways
• Trigger different outputs based on where you are and what you’re connected to

What You’ll Need

To set up Notification Bridge, you’ll need:

• Home Assistant (any installation type)
• Home Assistant Companion App installed on your phone
• Bluetooth sensors enabled to detect paired devices
• An email integration like Gmail or Office365
• Your carrier’s SMS email gateway (e.g., for T-Mobile: yourphonenumber@tmomail.net)

📝 Home Assistant has solid email integration docs, and there’s a list of SMS gateways included in the video description.

How It Works

Here’s a simplified version of the logic in the script:

1. A script is triggered instead of a direct notification call.
2. The script checks:
   • Is it marked as an “emergency”? → Then send to all devices via a notification group.
   • Is your phone currently connected to your car (via Bluetooth)? → Send a message via SMS (email gateway).
   • Is it connected to your smart glasses? → Send SMS there.
   • Otherwise → Use the standard mobile app notification.

Configuring Bluetooth Detection

Inside the Home Assistant app:

1. Go to Settings > Companion App > Manage Sensors
2. Scroll to Bluetooth Sensors
3. Enable the Bluetooth Connection Sensor

Once enabled, you’ll be able to see all currently connected devices and their names or MAC addresses. These identifiers are used in the script to conditionally route your messages.

Creating Notification Groups

You can create a notify group in your YAML config file like this:

notify:
  - platform: group
    name: notify_everywhere
    services:
      - service: mobile_app_ryans_phone
      - service: mobile_app_mac_mini

Then trigger that group from your automation when emergency messages need to go everywhere at once.

Sending Notifications via SMS

To send messages that your car or glasses can read, use your carrier’s SMS gateway. For example, with T-Mobile:

yournumber@tmomail.net

For Verizon:

yournumber@vtext.com

The script sends an email to that address using Home Assistant’s email integration. The message shows up as a text—and your car reads it out loud.

Example Use Cases

• Garage alerts when driving
• Leak detection routed to every device
• Reminders that follow you from desk to car to walk
• Notifications tailored to where you are and what you’re wearing

You can even expand this to include location-based logic, like sending work alerts only if your phone is located at the office.

Try It Yourself

The full script is available in the [blog post download section below]. You can:

• Copy it directly into your Home Assistant setup
• Modify the conditions to match your own Bluetooth devices
• Customize your fallback methods and emergency conditions

Final Thoughts

With Notification Bridge, you get context-aware notifications from Home Assistant, tailored to how you move through your day. No more missed alerts, no more awkward app limitations. It’s one of the most useful automation scripts I’ve written.

If you want to follow along with the full setup process, watch the full YouTube tutorial below:

📺 Watch the Tutorial on YouTube

And if you’re looking to boost your daily focus like I do, check out Magic Mind—my go-to replacement for that second cup of coffee.

Code Examples

Notification Bridge – Script

alias: Notification Bridge
sequence:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: template
            value_template: "{{ states(emergency)|bool(true) }}"
        sequence:
          - metadata: {}
            data:
              message: "{{message}}"
              title: "EMERGENCY MESSAGE: {{title}}"
            action: notify.mobile_app
        alias: EMERGENCY MESSAGE
      - conditions:
          - alias: "Template: If Phone is in Car via Bluetooth"
            condition: template
            value_template: >-
              {{ 'MYCAR' in
              state_attr('sensor.phone_bluetooth_connection',
              'connected_paired_devices')|join(',') }}
        sequence:
          - metadata: {}
            data:
              message: "{{message}}"
              target: xxxxxxxxxx@tmomail.net
              title: "{{title}}"
            action: notify.your_email
        alias: Send SMS to Tesla
    default:
      - data:
          message: "{{message}}"
          title: "{{title}}"
        action: notify.mobile_app
mode: single
icon: mdi:bell-badge