A Silent, Slack-Powered Doorbell

No one likes to feel left out. And you know what’s just as bad? Getting locked out. But the very worst is getting locked out and awkwardly waiting for someone to let you back in, a diabolical combination of both fears that plays out at least once a week in the offices of The Atlantic.

We’re a modern, security-conscious workplace: Our office doors require employees to wave a fob over a reader before letting them into the main office. That means every time an Atlanticker heads to the elevators or uses the restrooms—both of which are outside the secured zone—they have to remember to take their keys along.

And I, for one, often forget. So I’m locked out. And then comes the awkwardness. Sometimes I pretend to be on my phone until someone leaves the office, at which point I’ll theatrically end my conversation and grab the door. But when that fails, there’s no getting around it: I’m reduced to knocking on the glass and sheepishly waiting for a coworker to fetch get me.

My second #MakeEveryWeek project seeks to solve this. The Atlantic essentially needed a doorbell. But not an actual doorbell; I fear that the incessant ringing of the Westminster Chimes would drive nearby coworkers to fits. My solution instead connects to Slack, our workplace chat client, and alerts a special channel that someone needs to be let into the office.

That this was easy to do is largely thanks to Amazon’s new Internet of Things Button, a customizable variant of their Dash buttons (which are hard-coded to order specific products) that connects to WiFi and sends instructions over the internet. My code (technical explanation here) includes a random quote about doors to Slack message—not only does the variety liven things up, but it also makes it easier to tell door requests apart.

Here’s what the doorbell looks like:

This project won’t protect me from forgetting my keys. But it will save me the embarrassment of admitting I forgot my keys.

I’ll probably use an Amazon IoS button for another project at some point—any suggestions?