My hub v2 is offline (without internet connection but working), automations are working, but all my devices are in offline state and i cannot control them via app.
Why this happens if the edge drivers are local?
But my phone and my hub are connected on the same Local LAN if i’m in home. Smartthings app is not smart enough to first check if can reach the hub in the local network before trying to reach through the cloud?
That means , if i have a tablet fixed in home as a dashboard and i’m without internet i cannot control my devices anymore, even if they run locally? This doesn’t make any sense!
JKnight
(Keeping SmartThings limping along since 2013.)
4
Correct! As silly as that is… and not really that “Smart”!
Same goes for Google Home and Alexa even if you use local Matter devices and their Matter controllers / hubs, and I don’t mean voice control: their apps communicate through the cloud with the hub like SmartThings, no Internet no control.
Thanks to this behaviour I’ve been reducing dependency on the smartphone and just have local buttons for most of the manual control needed. Also, for Matter devices, they usually have their own app which can locally control devices (Nanoleaf, Tapo, WiZ, etc.) so, even if I don’t use them for day to day control, it’s my backup manual control if needed.
While true for many devices, that’s not 100% true for Alexa with Zigbee or thread devices directly connected to an echo in the home. (I’m not sure about matter over Wi-Fi, I haven’t tested that.)
This is independent of Matter. Amazon calls it “local voice processing“ and I have been using it for a couple of years with some Third Reality Zigbee devices connected to One of the echo models that has a built-in Zigbee hub. No Internet required after it’s set up the first time.
I use this as my “Plan B“ for local voice control.
See point 21 in the following official, Amazon FAQ:
21. What is Local Voice Control?
.
Local Voice Control allows Alexa to fulfill a limited set of requests on select Echo devices when the device is not connected to the internet, such as requests to control supported lights, plugs, and switches. After your Echo device regains its internet connection, the recording of your request is sent to the cloud and available to review in Settings > Alexa Account > History in the Alexa app. You can turn Local Voice control off by visiting Settings > Device Settings in the Alexa app. Learn more.
I literally wrote “I don’t mean voice control: their apps communicate through the cloud with the hub like SmartThings, no Internet no control.”
Voice control may have some degree of local control, but the app is 100% cloud based. Only the Echo Hub has local on screen control and maybe Google Home will introduce it with the upcoming Home API.
As others have said, that’s correct. They’ve been doing it that way for 10 years and they don’t seem likely to change it. Their architecture always requires the SmartThings cloud for their app, and it also expects the hub to check in with the cloud about once a day. So no Internet, no SmartThings app. This is true even if the app and the hub are on the same LAN.
They didn’t have to design it that way, but they did, and they’ve been through two major architecture changes, but still kept the app dependent on the cloud.
Maybe that will change one day if matter takes off and a lot of the competitors have an app like Apple Home which can run locally. But for now it is what it is.
The Apple Home app does run locally, no problem. And one of the requirements for HomeKit certification has been that the device can run locally. Which leads to some weird situations like the Meross nonMatter Smart plugs where the exact same device runs locally with Apple home, but requires the cloud for SmartThings.
At the present time, Siri requires the cloud, but you can do voice navigation on an iOS device of the Apple home app without needing the Internet. So you even have local hands-free control , although not as convenient as a smart speaker.
It will be interesting to see if Samsung or SmartThings do anything for themselves with the Home API. As far as local control goes it’s only a Matter thing, but it is something.
The weird thing with that diagram is that it shows the smartthings Matter controller talking to the SmartThings cloud, but not the SmartThings Matter commissioner.
But the SmartThings matter commissioner is The SmartThings app, which still requires the cloud.
And a matter commissioner typically does require an app, because it’s supposed to be able to handle QR codes.
Hmmmm….
I’d like to know what the “commissioner“ actually refers to in that diagram.
(Also, that blue box on the right makes absolutely no sense in terms of either matter or smartthings. The SmartThings matter SDK should be over with the SmartThings hub, not under the third-party device. I can’t figure out what they think that is at all.)
The SmartThings app is the small box top left. What they are showing is a third party app using the Home API to talk to a separate Home Service app on the mobile device that can handle Matter Commissioning and control locally as well as communicating with the cloud for other stuff.
The example Matter device they have chosen has been built using their Matter SDK. That’s part of the concept really. Developers build devices using a Samsung/ST Matter SDK and then build a supporting app using the Home API (similar to how Eve are apparently using the new Google Home APIs to build their Android app).
Hopefully the SmartThings app itself might also be reengineered.