FAQ: Full list of buttons and remotes confirmed to work with SmartThings [Not all devices listed work with the 2020 Platform]

Yet another option: Walmart has a prepaid touchscreen android phone with Wi-Fi capability for under $20. This can be set up with smarttiles for a very nice night stand type solution, and you never have to activate the calling plan to make it work. This photo is @Navat604 's version, although he’s using a different phone model. More discussion in the following topic:

Here’s one used as a wallmount controller:

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(US and EU) And now for something with an even bigger wow! Factor, but maybe not as practical.

It is possible to put a SmartThings multisensor in a box, and because it reports three axis orientation, you can make each side of the box represent a different scene.

There’s already a smart app to do this, called mood cube, so you can build your own box around the sensor and have it work. Some people have done really beautiful implementations of this.

From a practical standpoint the problem is quickly getting to the exact side you want because if you stop to read the indicator on each side, You may pause long enough to trigger that scene.

For this reason, it’s probably most practical just to control Hue bulbs, where you can put a color.on each side and very quickly move past it to the one you do you want.

But, there’s no reason why you couldn’t make five of the six sides mean “lights on” and one mean “lights off.” Or anything else you want to do.

It wouldn’t work for me, because I can’t physically manipulate the box well enough, I would inevitably drop it and it would spin through several scenes before coming to a stop, with my luck, probably on lights out.

But it’s something to think about for some use cases. Really fun, obviously, for mood lighting. This is @pete 's version. Very elegant.

One Community member even found an Etsy store that would make a wooden cube case for the sensor with engravings of drawings sent to them on each side. Cost for the wooden cube case was about $90, but if you want to do as little as possible yourself, or you want something to match a specific decor, this is another good option.

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(US Only) The Cooper 9500 is a battery-operated wall switch which looks like a wall switch. It’s intended for use as a dimmer, but that feature is not compatible with smartthings at this time. There are several different device handlers available for in the community.

It is available in two styles and several colors:


The following smartapp is popular with this device:

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Flic button. Not directly compatible with SmartThings, but can be used either via a Harmony activity or IFTTT. Available from Amazon or the manufacturer.

First, the bad news.

The cost of about $35 a button is OK relative to comparable devices, but high relative to non networked devices. The manufacturer site now seems to be regularly selling 4 for $99, which is better, but still not cheap.

And it’s using Bluetooth, which means you either need to have a tablet set up as a home automation control in the room where the flic will be used, or you need to have your phone present.

Also, if you’re using it through IFTTT, your phone/tablet will have to be connected to the Internet.

It can trigger a Harmony activity to start directly, but to end one you have to use IFTTT.

Also be careful using this if you have young children: they’re definitely going to want to put this in their mouth so you can’t just use the regular peel off adhesive that comes with it. So this isn’t a perfect solution.

Now, the good news.

The form factor is just about perfect. The size of a US quarter coin but thicker, with a nice solid rubbery feel.

Can stick pretty much anywhere, including on the wall or on the side of a lamp.

Easy to remove and replace the battery.

Has three possible options for each button: Press, long press, and double tap.

Comes in a choice of five modern colors: white, black, yellow, turquoise, and lime green.

The adhesive seems to work really well and it’s easy to stick one underneath a table or counter where it won’t be so visible.

If you use the SmartThings IFTTT channel, SmartThings will be aware of the status change when the light is turned off with the button, and you can also use it to change modes or run routines.

If you just want something to stick on the wall to quickly control smart bulbs without cutting power to them, this is a good choice. Or anywhere you just want to put a button that will trigger something in SmartThings via IFTTT. Just remember there has to be an Internet-connected phone/tablet nearby when you actually push the button, it can’t send the IFTTT request itself.

http://www.amazon.com/Flic-Wireless-Smart-Button-White/dp/B00ZAEOC5K

Manufacturer site ( they run pretty frequent sales if you’re buying three or more which can bring the price down to about $25/button):

A community member has also written a device type handler which allows for cloud to cloud integration to SmartThings without requiring IFTTT. It’s a little complex to set up, and it still cloud to cloud, but for people who don’t want to use IFTTT, this is a good option:

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(Philips: US and EU. Lutron: US for now, may eventually be available in EUROPE.) There are two new tiny battery operated wall switches coming to market in the Fall of 2015, but compatibility with SmartThings has not been tested yet and could go either way. I’ll update this topic if compatibility is confirmed.

  • Lutron connected bulb control (zigbee) (US for now, but may be available through EU Lutron suppliers)

  • Philips Hue Dimmer Kit (available in both US and EU from Amazon)

Updated 20 November 2015:

so far, no one has the two dimmer switches sending information to the SmartThings hub. However, if you join the Phillips one to your Hue bridge, you can use it as a parallel means of control for bulbs. The hub won’t know that you used the switch but since SmartThings polls The bridge every five minutes, status will sync up over time so at least the hub will eventually know whether the bulbs are on or off.

This can make it a good choice for a guestroom or someplace where you need an intuitive switch for visitors. It won’t damage your SmartThings automations, you just can’t do anything with it except turn off a specific set of bulbs attached to the Hue bridge.

The similar looking Lutron remote has been more problematic, as it tends to steal the bulbs away from the other controller. But people are still looking into it.

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(US only) The Lowes Iris Presence Fob (2nd generation, model 3450L) is a 4 button type key fob device. Although it works as a presence sensor for the Lowe’s Iris system, for SmartThings it is just a 4 button fob.

Costs about $25, sometimes on sale for less.

(The first generation model is a proprietary Zigbee which is not compatible with SmartThings. You have to get a second generation to use it with SmartThings.)

Link to community thread with custom device type:

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(US only) And the Iris care pendant, a wearable with two states, press and long press. Again, a presence sensor to Iris, but just a button to Smart Things. Costs about $30 at Lowe’s.

(US only) the new $24 Iris square button will also work with a community-created device type. . It’s a Zigbee device which pairs directly with SmartThings. This is the second generation device in the purple box, not the 1st generation in the clamshell Package.

The button is 1 3/4" square.

Possibly the cheapest button is buying Amazon Dash buttons and not do the complete setup, just put them on your wifi, and then capture when they go online. This will however require some kind of a server that listens to network activity. Here is a step by step instruction:

I then did some improvement, available here:

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Yea this thing looks amazing! Sorry for missing the above conservations where this might have already been answered but is their any way to use this to trigger a SmartThings routine such as “Bedtime” so that I can just press the physical switch button before going to bed? I know when I briefly looked into a lot of these buttons it wasn’t possible but that was months ago.

The only bad part is that it looks like it must replace a physical wall-switch versus just a battery-operated one which is what I was truly looking for but most if not all the battery-operated ones did not look anywhere nice as this one and were just ugly haha.

That’s a faceplate for an Aeon micro relay, not an independent device. ( it’s the same device as post one of this thread. )

You could certainly use it to control mode, just as you can with any Wall switch that is controlled by SmartThings, but you’d have to wire the micro relay to power so I’m not sure it makes sense for that purpose in most cases. But everybody’s needs are different.

Replaces existing wall switch.Works ONLY with Aeon Labs microswitches.

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Hi!! Hope you are doing great! Any update with this button? It would be very usefull to me ao Im able to change mode from armed to home when leaving and entering the house! Thanks!!

Just got a response from Aeon. They have announced two new buttons that are standalone and should be able to do this very thing. However, they said they are expecting them to be available in Q2.

One looks just like the wired one:

One is a four button WallMote:

I am really excited about these options. The WallMote looks really cool.

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The Aeon switches will be great if they actually get released, but the glass one has been “coming soon” for over a year.

Aeon has a pattern of announcing devices and then not releasing them, sometimes for years.

As a FAQ, this particular thread is intended only for devices which are currently available and tested to work with SmartThings. Prerelease announcements and discussion should go up a level in “Connected Things.”

I certainly hope the two new Aeon switches get released as promised, but I’m not holding my breath. :wink:

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Has anyone used this device called “GE 45600 Z-Wave Basic Handheld Remote”. Seems to be a z-wave device which can act as 18 button switches. Looks interesting if it work with ST. Available for $14.

Link to Amazon

Link to user manual

I think I have one of these but it’s in a box to use as a backup (secondary controller), in the event that something goes sideways and I can’t control my devices with ST. :smile:

Does it mean that I cannot pair this to ST hub, and use as a switch to control devices, or change mode etc?

[quote=“Boruguru, post:35, topic:9729, full:true”]
Has anyone used this device called “GE 45600 Z-Wave Basic Handheld Remote”. Seems to be a z-wave device which can act as 18 button switches.[/quote]

There is much discussion of these in the forums.

The reasons they’re not listed in this FAQ topic is that, unlike most of the devices here, they cannot be used as a “button controller” in SmartThings terminology, meaning ST will not be notified when a button is pressed and they can only be used with zwave devices, not Zigbee or to change a mode or run a routine, even indirectly.

Also, because of the way SmartThings implements certain Z wave commands, they cannot be used for scene control unless you have initialized them with a different zwave controller.

Basically, they can only be used to toggle some Z wave devices on and off. (Some of the GE models, but not all, also have an additional limitation that the device IDs must be 32 or less.)

Some community members do use them for that purpose, so you will find some forum discussion about them. But they’re not a general-purpose button controller like the Aeon minimote or the Securifi key fob.

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I wonder if a humidity sensor would trigger if you blow on it? You wouldn’t have to touch anything. Although if you lived in a humid climate it could false trigger.

(Osram: US and EU. Nortek: US only.) Two new battery operated Devices with a very similar form factor now have community created device handlers. They can be used as either a wall switch or a tabletop remote.

This is a smart switch cover. It’s a battery-operated device, which means it will not act as a repeater. The idea is that it fits over the top of an existing switch. You leave the existing switch always powered on, so that there is power to the smart bulbs. But the cover has its own buttons that you can use to send a wireless signal either to the bulbs or in some cases to the hub to instruct the bulbs to turn on and off.

If the device allows you to send a signal to the hub, it may be possible to use it as what SmartThings calls a “button controller” like the Aeon minimote, which would mean you could then use the buttons to control devices of a different protocol then the switch cover itself, or maybe two arm/disarm smart home monitor, etc.

And again because these devices are battery operated, They can also be used on the nightstand or to create a virtual three-way or again to arm/disarm smart home monitor without having to cover an existing switch.

Two of these have recently come on the market.

The first is the Osram/Sylvania Lightify smart switch. This is a zigbee device. A new community-created device handler has just been released for it (March 2016). (Updated to note that as of May 2017 there is now an official device handler for this device, and it will work straight out of the box with SmartThings. :sunglasses: )

The second is the Nortek Z wave smart switch cover which is being sold under several brand names, including domitech and go control. It is brand-new, but a community member already has a button controller device handler for it which is reportedly working well. :heart_eyes:

These both solve the problem of household members turning off smart bulbs at the switch. :sunglasses:

The Osram should be available in both the US and EU. The Nortek is only available in the US.

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