When the team at Phonein started our smart intercom journey, we didn’t know exactly what it would look like, or what it would be able to do. We knew our main goal was to be able to open your apartment building door remotely, but everything was a mystery.
Slowly over the months, and now years, the final vision started to take shape.
Below is a list of the most-exciting features of the Phonein smart intercom. However new features are always coming, and some of our best have come from our test users and supporters. If you have any ideas about what would be great to see, please send them over by email, we would love to see them.
If you are excited about helping make this product a reality, please join our Kickstarter backer list to be notified when the project goes live and get in on the early-bird discounts! https://fire.phonein.io
Features
Remote speaking & remote open
Got someone coming over and you won’t be home, or just don’t want to bother running to the intercom? When someone rings your flat, your phone will get a push notification. Open the app, and you can either speak to the visitor, or skip that and just open the door!
Digital keys (our bread and butter)
Not sure if you’ll even be near your phone when the visitor arrives? Maybe your grocery delivery comes when you’re in a meeting, or Airbnb guests arrive late at night. Create and send a key that is only active when clicked. The key is just a link, so the visitor doesn’t even need to download an app.
Other products have ways of sending keys around, but Phonein is the most secure. The door is only active for 30 seconds after a link is clicked, and the link itself has start and end dates.
The keys can also be recurring, meaning you can create one key that’s active every Tuesday afternoon for a cleaner, or every afternoon for the babysitter, for example.
Welcome flow instructions
The digital key can be followed with a series of pictures guiding the visitor to your apartment. This way you can show them with pictures which stairway to use, which switch turns on the lights, where a hidden key is stored, or where you’d like the delivery to be left.
Send a pre-recorded message
You’re busy on a zoom call, in a movie, playing soccer, living life! You’re really not in the mood to answer the intercom, even from your phone.
But there is some information that just needs to be explained with words… For instance, my building has two entrances from the courtyard. Choose the wrong one, and finding my apartment is nearly impossible.
For this, we support pre-recorded messages! You can explain how to find your flat once, and replay that perfect message for visitors automatically. When a call is coming in, just click to send down a pre-recorded message, or you can link a pre-recorded message to a digital key ahead of time!
Speak to the user
Another feature only found with Phonein, you can speak to your visitor from your mobile phone straight through to your intercom system.
We imagine this is for when you get an expected visitor, and you want to check who it is. Or if you want to give this visitor special instructions for when they enter the building.
Manage the volume
One complaint we hear all the time is about adjusting the volume, or silencing the intercom phone. They are incredibly loud, and will wake anyone and anything sleeping in the flat.
With phonein, you can adjust the volume of your intercom from your phone anytime. So when the baby falls asleep, make sure to turn it off. Your phone will still buzz, but the device on the wall will remain silent.
Add more users
Live with others? Run an Airbnb business or small office?
With phonein you can easily share control of the device to others, so they can answer the intercom and create keys.
View the history
Last but not least, you can view the history of events. So you can see when keys were used, and when calls were missed.
I hope this is a useful overview of all the things the Phonein smart intercom can do. We’re always thinking of more clever ideas. Things like integrations, iWatch support, and more.
Share your ideas with us, and if you want to learn more and be among the first to get your hands on a Phonein smart intercom, please join our Kickstarter mailing list. We’ll keep you up-to-date with our progress, and let you know when the Kickstarter is approaching, so you can get in on the early-bird discount.
Thanks!