Edge and Local Control via API or App

Forgive me if I missed it somewhere… But what does Edge mean for local (manual) control of devices via app or API?

Specifically I am not referring to automations and devices within the ST ecosystem running locally, but either the ST app making a direct connection to the hub (when on the same LAN) or exposing APIs for direct access (e.g. Home Assistant, Hubitat, Homebridge (if a new dev remakes that integration), etc. connecting straight to the hub)?

Tagging @TAustin

There’s no mobile app access directly to the hub. But any Edge driver can implement whatever interface it wants to for connection to things on the LAN. However this is typically limited to device-specific interactions, not general SmartApp type capabilities (like subscribing to, and controlling any other SmartThings device.)

So anything that could be treated as a ‘device’ from those other platforms could certainly be implemented via an Edge driver using any kind of LAN-based protocol you wish - thereby having local integration and execution with SmartThings.

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Got it. Thanks. That’s too bad on local manual control of devices. Would make me consider keeping ST around as a Z-Wave / Zigbee hub and and at least be able to do manual local control through a future LAN based Home Assistant or Homebridge integration. So sick of staring at this…

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Wish Smartthings would just acknowledge and fix it.

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yeah i have no idea why smartthings don’t change this app to local, I would say that is more important then edge drivers. People’s first impression is that stupid connecting to the smartthings server message unlike the beautiful and super fast Phillips hue app. I am not sure if they will do this, I don’t remember reading in their press releases about edge drivers anything about a local app, although fun fact if you access your smartthings through the website its surprisingly faster.

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The current plan is for the ST app to continue to require the SmartThings cloud even after the transition to Edge drivers. Here’s the official view:

Since both Apple and IKEA are going to offer Matter compatible apps that do run locally I suppose eventually there may be some market pressure on SmartThings to do the same, we’ll just have to wait and see. But it’s not in the current plans. :thinking:

This may be addressed elsewhere, but I was wondering if there is a local API, ie calls a RPi could make to the hub to obtain device information, specifically the humidity reported by a sensor.

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You can use MQTT devices driver for local communication.

Data transfer is possible from hub to RPi and from RPi to hub.

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TapioX I am happy to report the combination of your JSON script to copy the humidity changes to TAustin’s MQTT devices and TAustin’s awesome work have solved my issue. I know have a script that accepts the MQTT traffic and uses it to compute the rate at which the humidity is increasing in the bathroom. When the humidity increases by 5 or more percent in a 5 minute period the bathroom fans kick on and remain on until the humidity has returned to the pre-increase baseline humidity level.

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