am in a search to find the best approach at controlling things like lights, TVs gaming consoles, and cameras using Voice Commands. Ive been looking at Alexa and Google Nest, but there’s a lot of unknowns. most of my home theater stuff is controlled through Logitech Hub, though it doesn’t do voice commands.
Recently Smart Things had an upgrade. I say recently because I just recently became aware of the upgrade. I use my Phone, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, as a sort of remote to control Logitech Hub, Lutron for my lights, Magic Home for LEDs, and Nest for my cameras. I’d MUCH rather be able to control all of it through Smart Things, but the ultimate goal is controlling everything with Voice Commands (preferable customizable voice commands). Is Smart things capable of doing this? I can’t find any features for voice commands in the app… infact, the apps widget options for home-screen is limited to scenes. Its very frustrating. I have to go into the app, navigate to the device, and crontol properties. More steps than its worth. Lutron allow intensity options in it home screen widge to control the lights. Also, all our TVs are newer Samsung TVs with smart features that work with Smart Things, as well as a new washer that also works with Smart things. Seems like a lot of potention that partions per device. Or am I missing something. Are there features that Im over looking?
Can art Things be programed to yaled voice commands?
What’s the best Hub for controlling Onkyo, Samsung products, Logitech Hub, Lutron Lights, and others?
Is there a way to add device shortcuts to the Samsung homescreen using Smart Things on Galaxy Note tabs and phones, not scenes scenes?
SmartThings offers account level integrations with
Amazon Alexa
Google Assistant
Samsung Bixby
But exactly which voice commands you get with any one device depends on the specific model. And they aren’t really customizable.
I myself am very dependent on voice control (I am tetraplegic), but I don’t know the answers to your specific questions on Galaxy devices or Samsung televisions, so hopefully someone else will.
DIFFERENT THINGS WORK FOR DIFFERENT PEOPLE
I personally have found that for me the best home automation voice control is a combination of Amazon Alexa and Siri with Apple HomeKit. I use both every day and look for devices like Lutron Caseta that work with both when I can find them.
One reason this is a good choice for me is that I need to use voice navigation with the home automation app, not just the smart speakers. (The current SmartThings app is sadly NOT voice navigable.) So my need for voice control goes far beyond most people’s.
Different things will work for different people. If you already use and are happy with android devices, Google Assistant is probably a better match than Alexa, for example.
I don’t have a smart TV: instead I use Amazon’s Fire TV Cube for full hands free voice control of my home entertainment system. But if you have a smart TV, you would probably use a different setup.
All of which is to say there’s no one “best” answer, it depends on many different factors.
SmartThings definitely offers more than just scene control for voice, but the details do vary from model to model.
Thank you for your response and your time. It’s deeply appreciated.
That makes a lot of sense. So. . . basically the computers dispute for the last 2 decades? lol. It sucks though that tech is split between so many… uh, okay, between 3 main competitors. Why can’t we just have Genysis? Ive heard good things.
There is a new standard being developed (I know, I know) called Matter. All the heavy hitters are on board: Apple, Amazon, Google, Hue, Lutron, Samsung including specifically for smartthings.
The goal is to make things work together better, specifically for the voice assistants. I know a lot of people have said that before, but these guys seem to be serious and we should start seeing Matter compliant products by the end of the year.
We don’t know all the details yet, but it looks promising.
Item 3 of your post is yes, Shortcuts can be added as actionable items to a home screen, at least on newer Galaxy phones, I do not have a note so cannot comment on those devices
