I apologize for what’s probably a newbie question. I’ve got my SmartThings hub set up, and a multipurpose sensor. I’ve also got my TV, AV receiver, doorbell, etc. connected to ST.
Where I’m stuck is getting my wifi lamp plugs connected to smart things. They are connected to Google Home, and I’ve got them set up in IFTTT as well. They are controlled using the “SmartLife” app. From some of the things I’ve read, I might have to connect it through IFTTT. I’ve got SmartThings added as a channel in IFTTT. But what I can’t figure out is how to access IFTTT in the SmartThings app.
First, is there a better way? And if not, can anyone point me in the right direction as to how to get the IFTTT devices in the SmartThings app?
It’s not so much a newbie question as it is a frequently asked question. Did you search the forum first? Because you should probably have found the following FAQ, which discusses several options:
Take a look at that, and then if you still have any specific questions, let us know and we’ll see if we can help.
The first discussion link, I’m stuck on “There is an IFTTT channel, so you can just try that”. Does this mean “use IFTTT instead of SmartThings” or does it mean “there’s a way to control my devices from SmartThings using IFTTT as a mediator.”?
The knowledge base article explains how to allow IFTTT to control a SmartThings device, but I’m looking for the other direction. I want my wifi plugs to show up as devices in the SmartThings app.
It means you will be using IFTTT as the mediator. Read the FAQ again. I just updated it with the IFTTT details. Your Wi-Fi devices will never show up in the smartthings app, but you are going to create proxies for them which will then work because changing the state of the proxy will cause IFTTT to change the state of the real WiFi device.
As for the supportbase article, that’s covering both situations. Once you have IFTTT and smartthings linked, then you can use smartthings as either the “this“ or the “that“ in an IFTTT applet
If you don’t know how to create a virtual switch, it just depends on which version of the app you are using. Are you using classic or “smartthings (Samsung connect)“ ?
Very good. By “option 2”, do you mean the newly added instructions for creating a virtual device and 4 applets per switch? I’ll give it a shot. I’ll read up on how to create the virtual devices. Thanks
I’m tired now, and I can’t use the app anyway, so somebody else will have to help you going forward. Good luck. It all sounds a lot more complicated than it is once you get to actually doing it.
I’m using the newer app. I found this article which I’ve been following to create the virtual switches. I have 8 plugs, so I’m trying to make sure I don’t make things messy.
Working on getting this set up. It occurs to me that I can turn the switches on using the SmartLife app, through Google Home (“Ok Google, turn on the living room lights”) or using SmartThings. I’m guessing I need an IFTTT rules that say:
If SmartThings1 turns on, then turn on SmartLife1
If SmartThings1 turns off, then turn off SmartLife1
If SmartLife1 turns on, turn on SmartThings1
If SmartLife1 turns off, turn off SmartThings1
I’m hoping the Google Home state will stay in sync automatically, since it’s linked with SmartLife.
Edit: when I turn the light on from Google Home by voice, it might take 30-60 seconds for the virtual switch to update in the SmartThings app. I haven’t figured out at this point whether the app is slow to update, or SmartThings just doesn’t know about the change yet. If I switch the virtual device in ST, it updates everywhere else in a few seconds.
Google Home doesn’t know the state, it just gets it from whichever source is defined as controlling the device. And Google home doesn’t actually turn on the lights itself, it just passes the request over to the controller. So you don’t have to worry about that part.
I’m wondering that as well. It’s been a while since I switched over to GE zigbee wall plugs because it didn’t work that way. It seems the smart Life ifttt integration was only one way.
Sure enough I just re-downloaded ifttt and it looks like they updated it to work both ways. Bonus. I stopped using those plugs because of that limitation.
That’s a 7 cloud hop route… With a stop for voice processing. So it’s understandable that there can be a bit of lag.
Google Home to its cloud for voice processing.
Google Cloud to SmartLife cloud with turn on request.
SmartLife Cloud To device to turn on.
SmartLife device To its cloud to update status.
SmartLife cloud to IFTTT cloud to trigger applet
IFTTT cloud to SmartThings Cloud with request.
SmartThings Cloud To ST app to update status.
Remember that in your other example, where you start from ST, there’s no voice processing required and no communication to google Home, so it should run a bit faster.
This helped me, thank you. I got my Samsung Smarttthings hub last week and only tonight started merging my splattering of IoT devices. Feel like my 6year old riding with side wheels…
Next mission: get my Kasa/TP link switches to work in Smartthings.
Your Wi-Fi devices will never show up in the smartthings app, but you are going to create proxies for them which will then work because changing the state of the proxy will cause IFTTT to change the state of the real WiFi device.
