Google Home Hub

Devices & Integrations
1

Been thinking of upgrading my hub to an ADT hub because I’m tired of the Iris keypad v2 and I’d like the touchscreen. I’m currently using the hub v2. Anyone upgrade and have anything to say about it good or bad?

Also thinking of grabbing the Google home hub. Anyone been able to do cool things with the home hub? Got comments good or bad?

Thanks for the inputs =) my smart home has gotten stale and I wanna pick up some new devices to spice it up a bit =)

2

oh man - wish my system was boring doing the same thing every time

3

Google home hub is a great addition to my smartthings. It provides a nice touch screen interface to control lights and the thermostat

4

Nice Jeff! Do you need any third party software to make it work nicely?

5

Only the Google Home app on your phone. You can install the Google Home app on your phone and see the same thing, after you link your SmartThings to Google.

The hub then puts an always on Ui at your fingertips, just swipe down on the screen and control your SmartThings. No need to get out your phone , unlock it, then launch Google Home… with the hub the Google Home UI is already up and ready.

6

I dont have the home hub but I love how much google improved the google home app in such short time.

I use to need smartthings on my phone if I wanted finger controls but now the google home app is even way better organized than smartthings.

Like easier to group bulbs together and can have lights smartthings doesnt support since google supports more now, you dont even need smartthings installed on your phone now.

7

I thought the direction of Home was voice activation…assuming you have a very cheap Home mini, why would you want to revert to tablet form if you can verbally give the instruction?
I really can’t see how the tablet format is leap forward from using your phone. Add in that one of the concepts of HA is the automation angle, needing to revert to manual intervention seems the wrong direction.
I only go manual as it were if something has gone wrong…otherwise it is automated and voice activated.
Appreciate that it all depends on the complexity of your set up,though.

8

Gavin,
I’m with you. I enjoy fully automated and voice controlled. But there are times when that just isn’t the best route. Here are a few examples:

  1. my wife and I both had to go on business trips for a month and a half, so my in-laws came down to watch the kids. They had a hard time with the smart home thing and voice control. I can’t tell you how many times they texted asking me to set a temp on the AC. Having a tablet style control would have really helped them.
  2. I currently have an Alexa DOT and an Alexa Spot for voice control. The only Google Assistant is on my Pixel phone. Honestly, I’ve had nothing but problems integrating Alexa. It always says things like the hub isn’t responding or it can’t find devices, while Google Assistant never has any issues. Additionally, if I want to turn on more than one light at a time (for example, living room and kitchen) I have to chain two voice commands together or create a routine (which I normally don’t do unless it’s a command I use all the time). Having the tablet style to just switch on the lights/rooms that I want is much faster than chaining a bunch of voice commands.

I hope this helps in explaining why I personally think having a graphical like control is beneficial.

-Steve

9

Sounds like you need one!

10

Yeah it would be a nice addition.

Jeff,

I was checking out the Home app on my phone, and it seems that you can’t control the color of Hue lights through the home app. Did I just not set something up right or do you have the same issue?

11

Just picked up the ADT hub due to the $200 price drop on Amazon. I couldn’t justify $299 but I can definitely justify $99.

Google Home Hub will probably get picked up soon too.

12

For some additional integration you may want to check out the Smartapp “ADT Tools”.

13

Thanks for the tip, I’ll definitely do that. Honestly, I’m not looking forward to rebuilding everything but I’m definitely looking forward to dumping my old Iris keypad. Half the time it doesn’t even work!

14

Out of interest… what does this hub do that you can’t do with a tablet and the google home app? I guess we all have tablets about with a mic? At least a tablet is portable and not tied to metres of cable and also does all outside the google environment too. Am I missing something ?
Just curious having been looking into it…

15

Gavin,

Are you talking about the ADT home hub or the Google Home Hub?

If the Google Home Hub, it isn’t a smart things hub like the name might imply, it is more along the lines of an Echo Show, but doesn’t have a camera (which I prefer) and uses the Google Assistant, which I feel is much better than the Alexa assistant. Along with providing the Google Home interface by swiping down, it can also display recepies in the kitchen, and a few other tricks.

The ADT Hub is a ST hub but is better than the V2 hub for security purposes and does security functions locally vice in the cloud. It also provides a touch screen interface for arming/disarming and other security functions like selecting zones. Right now I use an old Iris Keypad from when I was an Iris customer for arming and disarming. I needed something non-app for this for my children and I didn’t want to use presence sensors.

16

Tks
To clarify I was wondering what the advantage is of the google hub if you already have an android tablet with Google home and assistant installed?

1 Like
17

Hi Steve
I don’t have any Hue lights so I cannot comment on that. My lights are mostly in wall non-dimming GE/Jasco wall switches and GE/Jasco plug in outlets. I do have 2 GE zigbee dimming bulbs and I do see the dimming sliders on the Google Hub.

18

I think it’s because I just synced the hub. I think if I had registered Hue with Google Home that it would let me change colors. When this ADT hub comes in and I have to redo everything, I’m going to register the Hue lights first in Google Home and see if that works.

19

So, after 2 days of use, I have to say I’m loving the ADT hub. Devices at the far reaches of my house are now easily connecting to the z-wave network whereas before they were spotty but mostly disconnected. Having the graphical display is really nice. I just wish that there were ways to set zones, change the exit delay, and basically customize how the alarm works. I’m gonna check out the ADT Tools smart app tonight, hopefully that’ll throw in those extra options that I want =) all in all, definitely worth the $99 black Friday price for my situation imho.

20

Dont forget the installer toolbox options. The code for it is 1501.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for the ADT Tools smartapp. I am always looking for improvements.