Skip to content
Menu

Integration guide / Camera audio

Blink Camera Messages

My integration for playing spoken messages through compatible Blink camera speakers from Home Assistant, through my BlinkBridge fork.

Install and connectProject and setup guide (opens in a new tab)
Installation
In the Marketplace catalog
Connection
MQTT to a separately running BlinkBridge
This guide
Describes the published v0.1.0 releases of the integration and BlinkBridge

Updated . Documentation checked .

What it is

Blink Camera Messages plays spoken messages through a compatible Blink camera's speaker. Home Assistant generates the audio with your chosen text-to-speech provider and sends it over MQTT to BlinkBridge, which plays it through the camera's active live-view connection. A saved button keeps the message text, camera and optional volume boost in Home Assistant.

BlinkBridge is my experimental, unofficial fork of an open-source Blink-to-RTSP bridge. It turns Blink clips into steady RTSP streams for Frigate and adds an optional Live View relay and the MQTT speaker playback this integration uses. It is not affiliated with Blink or Amazon. The built-in Blink integration can stay installed alongside it.

Design notes

This guide covers the published v0.1.0 releases. It does not describe a personal installation. The project's README records one end-to-end check on a Blink Mini, summarized below.

  • The project's Blink Mini check, November 10, 2026

    With BlinkBridge updated to v0.1.0, a saved greeting button played through a Blink Mini over MQTT: Home Assistant returned success, BlinkBridge logged the audio as sent, and the listener heard it. Frigate kept receiving that camera's video at 3.0 to 3.1 frames per second during the 30 seconds around playback, and nothing was restarted.

  • Messages from automations

    A saved button can be pressed from any automation, and the speak action takes a camera ID with plain or template text. The project's example greets a recognized face from a Frigate event.

Why this design matters

Blink cameras have a speaker but no supported way to use it from Home Assistant. BlinkBridge already keeps a live connection open for Frigate, so it can carry the audio too.

What it can do

  • Saved message buttons

    Add, edit and remove messages from the integration's Configure menu. Each one stores its camera, text of up to 240 characters and an optional boost.

  • Speak through Blink camera

    An action that takes a stable camera ID and plain or template text, for messages that change at runtime.

  • List cameras

    An action that returns the stable camera IDs BlinkBridge can play through.

  • Volume boost per message

    An optional boost from 0 to 18 dB with a peak limiter, using FFmpeg on the Home Assistant host.

  • BlinkBridge for Frigate

    Steady RTSP streams from Blink clips, retries that keep a running stream up through Blink or network failures, and an optional Live View relay that can hand over before a session expires.

Install and connect

Experimental, unofficial Live View

Live View and frequent polling can increase battery use, load Blink's service or trigger account throttling. Test your setup before relying on it, and restrict writes to the bridge's playback topic on your MQTT broker to trusted clients.

Before you start

  • BlinkBridge v0.1.0 with MQTT speaker support, running separately with Docker Compose and signed in to Blink.
  • Home Assistant 2026.11.0 or newer with the MQTT integration connected and a working text-to-speech entity. The optional volume boost needs FFmpeg on the Home Assistant host.
  • One MQTT broker reachable by Home Assistant and BlinkBridge. Allow about 2.2 MB per MQTT message for clips near the length limit.
  • A compatible Blink camera listed in BlinkBridge's live cameras, with an active live view. Only a Blink Mini has been verified. Frigate is optional.

  1. Set up BlinkBridge v0.1.0

    Check out the v0.1.0 tag, put your Blink credentials in the untracked configuration file, run the one-time interactive sign-in, and add the camera's exact Blink name to the live cameras list.

  2. Turn on speaker playback

    Create the untracked .env.speaker file next to compose.yaml with your broker's address, port, credentials and a topic prefix, usually blinkbridge, then rebuild and start BlinkBridge. Check that the camera is delivering live video first.

  3. Install from the Marketplace

    In Settings > Marketplace, search for Blink Camera Messages, install it and restart Home Assistant. If it does not appear in search yet, use Add from link with the project's GitHub repository.

  4. Connect the integration

    In Settings > Devices & services, add Blink Camera Messages, enter the same topic prefix as BlinkBridge and choose the text-to-speech provider.

  5. Add and test a message

    Open Configure, select Add message, choose the camera and enter a short phrase. Press the new button and listen at the camera before adding it to a dashboard.

Limits and caveats

  • Playback needs an active live view on that camera in BlinkBridge; without one the request fails.
  • BlinkBridge plays one request at a time. Text is limited to 240 characters and a rendered clip to 17 seconds.
  • Only a Blink Mini has been verified. Other models and configurations have not.
  • A completed request means BlinkBridge finished sending the audio, not that anyone heard it. Check audibility at the camera.
  • BlinkBridge publishes RTSP on the local machine only by default. Exposing it to other machines needs MediaMTX authentication and firewall rules first.
  • Docker environment values, including Blink credentials, are visible to anyone who administers the Docker host.

Sources and next steps