Can I Open My Gate With My Phone?

Open automated gates with your phone

With the right GSM access control system or a module to allow your phone to communicate with other access systems, your smartphone is the perfect device for opening your automatic gates.

Talk to and see who is at your gate on your phone

You can also use an iPhone or Android smartphone to see your visitors and to talk to them if you have a video intercom system installed at the gate.

Open an electric gate from anywhere in the World

As long as your mobile phone or smartphone has a signal, you can communicate with your gate access control system and open the gate from anywhere in the World.

Why you may want to open your gate with your phone

You want as much control as possible over who you let through your gates. The best way to do this is by seeing and hearing who is at your gates before deciding to let them in or not.

There are a few ways that automatic gate access can be controlled but video intercoms are the best. They allow audio communication with your visitor and visual confirmation that they’re who they say they are. 

But in order to do this, you have to be standing at the intercom panel in your home. Only then can you see what the camera at the gate sees, hear what your visitor says and speak to them from a telephone handset or built-in microphone.

If the intercom panel is in the kitchen and you’re in the bath, your visitor will just have to wait.

But what if the fixed intercom panel in your house was replaced by your phone? What if you could speak to a visitor and see who they are on your phone screen?

Let visitors through your gatesIf you keep your phone with you all the time, you can speak to visitors at your gate all the time. And you could be in any room of the house or anywhere in the garden where there’s mobile signal or WiFi.

A smartphone makes the perfect control system for your gate opener even if you don’t have a video camera or speaker for visitors. 

If you just have a buzzer for visitors to push, you can still use a mobile phone to receive the signal and send one to operate your gates remotely. 

What you will need to be able to open the gate using phones. 

The minimum requirement for a viable access control set up includes a button at the gate that sounds a bell or buzzer in the house where there's also a gate controller.

The gate buzzer tells you someone wants to come in and you can ignore them or let them in.

Access control intercom systems 

If you can't see your visitors from the house, you'd need some way to talk to them. An intercom system includes a call button and speech panel at the gate and at least one telephone handset and gate release button inside your home.

Video intercoms allow the visitor to be seen as well as heard. The gate panel has a speech unit and a video camera, and the handset or handsets inside the house include a video screen.

Intercom is short for inter-communication and covers all panels with a microphone, speaker, and possibly video camera. 

External panels can be standard or vandal resistant with colours including gold, silver, brushed steel and aluminium. Most provide only audio or audio and video communication with the house but additional access options in the shape of keypads and tag or keycard readers can be included. 

Wired Intercoms

Wired systems are connected to each other with wires which have to be run from the home intercom handsets to the call module mounted at the gate.

This will obviously require laying wires in armoured trunking underground or in conduit along walls outside the property. 

Wiring inside the house is easier but it needs to be kept neat and tidy and may have to pass through internal and external walls

Wireless gate controllers

GSM intercom systems with mobile app 

The most recent innovations in wireless intercom communication use the same GSM communication used by mobile telephones. 

With a mobile app, your smartphone replaces the wall-mounted handset and door release inside the home. It allows voice and video communication through the smartphone app as well as gate release.

If you have a non-GSM gate communication system, it is still possible to automatically control your gate openers from your smartphone via GSM. A special module can be installed to translate command signals sent from your phone via GSM into instructions the non-GSM gate controls understand.

Non-GSM wireless intercoms typically utilise radio signals or WiFi.

The most recent innovations in wireless intercom communication use the same GSM communication used by mobile telephones. 

With a mobile app, your smartphone replaces the wall-mounted handset and door release inside the home. It allows voice and video communication through the smartphone app as well as gate release.

If you have a non-GSM gate communication system, it is still possible to automatically control your gate openers from your smartphone via GSM. A special module can be installed to translate command signals sent from your phone via GSM into instructions the non-GSM gate controls understand.

Non-GSM wireless intercoms typically utilise radio signals or WiFi.

Radio wireless gate automation intercoms

Radio is used with remote transmitters (or gate control fobs) and receivers used to open and close gate automation systems and electric garage door openers.  

The control signals and voice and video data are transmitted at specific radio frequencies.

Opening electric gate with radio transmitter

Radio is used with remote transmitters (or gate control fobs) and receivers used to open and close gate automation systems and electric garage door openers.

The control signals and voice and video data are transmitted at specific radio frequencies.

Wi-Fi Intercom Systems

Wi-Fi systems use an existing Wi-Fi network, or one specifically added for intercom communication.

What are the benefits of being able to open my gate with my phone? 

GSM can be used for communicating with and controlling your gate opener from anywhere in the world where you have a 3G or 4G signal (depending on the intercom system used).

GSM requires a good GSM mobile signal at both ends but as it can be used from anywhere in the world it delivers the biggest range of advantages. 

Alternative wireless communication technologies available for gate automation intercoms are radio and WiFi. Strengths and weaknesses of these alternatives to using your smartphone and GSM communication include:

• Wired intercoms provide the highest level of system communication integrity and can be wired together over considerable distances between the gate and house.
• Radio signals sent by either the gate calling unit or house handset are usually robust but have a limited range. 
• As long as there is no interference, radio communication can be highly effective over shorter distances. 
• More modern radio intercoms have bigger ranges but need line of sight. In a clear space with no buildings, trees or bushes in the way, DECT radio intercoms can have a range of up to 300-400m.
• Wi-Fi communication is limited by Wi-Fi signal resilience and strength and has range limitations unless connected by ethernet either direct or via a Powerlink. But this changes a wireless system into a wired intercom system.
• As with all local WiFi controllers, it is important to be aware that most routers can support a limited number of devices.
• In areas where the gate is a long way from the house or the Wi-Fi signal is weak, boosters can be used. However, if the Wi-Fi signal fails, the intercom system will not function.
• Once connected to the local router via WiFi or ethernet, these devices usually connect on to the internet, allowing communication and gate control via an APP from anywhere in the world that data is available for your mobile device.

Does the ability to use my phone to open my gate impact its security? 

As with a failed Wi-Fi signal, GSM intercoms won’t work if your phone can’t access a GSM network or if there is a break in the GSM signal at the gate. Without a signal, you have no remote control over your gates. This lack of control over your gates could be seen as a lapse in security.

Controlling Smart Devices over the Internet

The ability to monitor and control smart devices in your home from apps on your smartphone, even from another country, is becoming more and more common. 

But there is a security consideration.

This ‘internet of things’, where devices are controlled in the same way websites are accessed on a mobile phone, needs strong passwords to ensure only authorised users have control.

After all, what’s the point of having automatic gates to keep undesirables out if they can hack the system and get onto your property?

You can use your phone as a gate controller - and more

Smartphones make the perfect control devices for gate openers and other automated systems around your home, like automatic garage doors. 

With a professional installation of a GSM access system in place, the rest is easy. All you need to do is download and install the free android or ios app onto your phones. 

Then you have full control over who has entry onto your property through your gate with just a few taps on the screen.

Do you remember the code? No need for remotes hand-held controls or fobs cluttering up your pocket or bag. 

No code to remember. 

It's all on your smartphone.