Harmony Home features - Companion

[JDRoberts]

If you want it to integrate with SmartThings, you need to also get the harmony home hub.

I think it’s at its most powerful when it’s combined with echo for voice control of a home theater devices or other devices that use an IR remote. ( there’s no official integration with Google home, but you could also make it work with that through either virtual switches or the IFTTT channel. )

I’ve described my own experiences here:

Adding Home Automation in Phases: my limited investment strategy

i’ve been working on this over the last year and I’m just finally getting around to writing it up. I’m quadriparetic, use a wheelchair with limited hand function. So home automation isn’t a hobby for me. I want to get maximum return on investment, with a pretty small budget, and I want everything to be working and practical from the beginning. [image] At the same time, my personal belief (and this is just a guess) is that while there will be several good candidates for plug-and-play home automation systems that will do most of what I want for under $5000 by the summer of 2017, The reality is that there is no system yet that will fully meet my requirements. (edited to add we did finally get this by 2019, more details when I get around to updating this for 2020. ) There are ex…

But basically being able to say “Alexa, turn on Netflix” and having everything start up without having to touch a button is really nice. And you could combine that with dimming the lights or doing anything else that SmartThings or IFT TT can provide.

My housemate does use the lightbulb button on the harmony home companion to toggle the lights on and off in the TV room as well.

So we just use it for every day stuff, but we really like it.