That’s pretty straightforward.
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avoid anything from Tuya or that works with the Smart Life app (which means it’s a rebranded Tuya device). They use a ton of proprietary code and it’s just really hard to integrate.
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if you can wait a few months, wait until there is something available with the matter logo. One of the main purposes of that initiative is to make devices easier to onboard by enforcing interoperability for basic features.
Matter - smart home connectivity standard (formerly Project CHIP)
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if you can’t wait, only choose specific models which are listed in the smartthings app when you look under add a device by brand. But always remember the first rule of home automation: “ the model number matters.“ just because one model of a brand is compatible, it doesn’t mean another one is. (This is the problem that matter is supposed to solve.)
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only buy from places that have a good returns policy. Because smartthings has a lot of quirky idiosyncrasies. The good news about smartthings is that unlike many other platforms, it doesn’t limit you to a set list of models. The bad news is that that very flexibility means it can be difficult to tell in advance What will work and what won’t. (Again, matter is supposed to solve this.)
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and you can always ask in the forum to see if other people are using a particular device and what they think of it. Be very specific in your thread title for these topics. This is a very busy forum and a lot of people will skip threads unless they know it applies to them. So threads with more specific titles actually tend to get read more.
