Create Virtual Switch how to video

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
1

Hi everyone,
I wanted to make a quick how to video on creating a virtual switch in smartthings for people just starting off with smartthings. This can be very helpful if you are trying to automate a few commands with just one click.
Also more important is if you want to give a command to google home and have it do multiple tasks then you need a virtual switch to do this.
Example.
I wanted to say " ok google, good night " and i wanted to have my kids bedroom , bathroom lights to turn off and dim hallway lights down to 10 percent. Well there is no way to do this with google home but can be done if its setup on a virtual switch in smartthings.
Here is a link to the video if anyone is interested.
hope it helps someone.
virtual switch setup for smartthings

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Nice work! :sunglasses:

As you figured out, most virtual devices are called “simulated” in the IDE.

We should also note that different accounts will have different URLs depending on the shard that they are on, so you can’t just give one link for people. It won’t necessarily work for them. See the following FAQ on that:

You might also want to look at the FAQ on creating a virtual device as there are times when a momentary switch will make more sense than a binary switch. This is particularly true for voice control of modes or of AV activities rather than of device groups.

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Thank you for the advise on the linking process to access IDE. i will update my video description to reflect the correct link.

1 Like
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Hi, thanks for the video, it was helpful. However, I do have a question. I have setup the simulated switch and have created a smart lighting routine that uses my switch called good night, like yours that should turn off a number of lights. My question is how do I now make it so when I say ok Google, good night, it executes that? I noticed that on your good night virtual switch, when you briefly went into it on your video, you had some Google home or assistant item there too. How do I go about doing this? Thanks again!

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Thank you. I kept searching for “virtual” in the IDE, “simulated.” Got it!

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hi,
can virtual devices switch be just a on and not on/off