I was really excited about Leviton’s new Decora Smart switches because I run ST and also use mostly Apple products and therefore try to get devices that work with both.
But I am completely befuddled as to why Leviton has decided to split these nearly identical switches by either compatibility with Alexa or HomeKit. They are both WiFi switches! Presumably if ST is to be integrated with one of these switches it’ll be the Alexa one. But who knows. Perhaps they’ll just come out with another nearly identical WiFi switch that “works with SmartThings”. I would have been all over these if the Alexa/HomeKit compatibility were wrapped up in one switch. That would give me reasonable hope that they will continue integrating with other HA clouds/platforms and that the product will mature/grow. But splitting these product lines does exactly the opposite and makes me reluctant to invest.
Anyone else frustrated by this seemingly artificial split of their product line? Does anyone have any info or educated guess as to whether either of these lines can/will be brought into the ST fold?
I am with you! I was so excited when I heard my favorite switch company was going to come out with a wifi and then HomeKit compatible switch! I assumed it would first be a wifi switch then after a firmware and/or hardware upgrade, it would be a wifi/HomeKit switch. When I heard they are two different switches, I too was discombobulated! Now I am looking for alternatives trying to find everything in one package (wifi, HomeKit, configurable ramp up/down rates, and ON set to a predefined dim level).
I use Alexia for my primary control method which I want to kept, but I also want to move more to HomeKit to get away from the unencrypted and unsecure z wave. I can see the wifi switch not being able to do HomeKit because of the extra security requirements but there is no reason the HomeKit switch could not do wifi with Alexa.
The best I can assume is Leviton made a marketing decision not understanding the ramifications. Regardless, I am frustrated about the decision! I thought about writing the company today after reading your post and I might take the time to communicate the corcern at some point.
The article below lists devices that do both Alexa and HomeKit
iDevices switches are a possible alternative but they currently don’t have an inwall dimmer.
If I can find a way to bring the wifi switches into ST, I may just go with the wifi switches for now. At least that way I can have the signal encrypted with WPA2.
Does anyone know if either the wifi or HomeKit switches can be brought in ST?
The Lutron Caseta smartbridge, like the Philips Hue bridge, has official integrations for all 4: HomeKit, SmartThings, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home. So the same Lutron Caseta switch can be used with any of the four control methods as you like. We use these at our house and like them very much. We primarily use echo for voice control, but do use HomeKit for schedule and scene management. And voice control from the Apple Watch. Works fine.
As for Leviton’s decision, I have no idea. They make some strange marketing decisions, always have. Like originally not having a rocker version of their Z wave switch.
I share your frustration. Bought a bunch of Levitron HomeKit switches and now, after testing both Homekit and Alexa, decided to go with Alexa. Unfortunately I can not return the Levitron HomeKit switches now, and find it ridiculous that this company limits connectivity when so many other companies products offer both types of connectivity within their products.
Has anyone found a way to get Alexa to recognize any of Leviton switches(or dimmers) that are listed as only being Homekit compatible???
There’s no way directly. If you have the Phillips hue bridge, you can use Alexa to turn on a Phillips hue bulb and then have HomeKit turn on the Leviton switch when that hue bulb comes on. We did something similar at our house when we had both Hue bulbs in table lamps and another smart switch that didn’t work with Alexa—The bulbs come on and then the overhead light would come on, which worked for our purposes. But we were just lucky that way.
If you’re already using HomeKit and Hue the cost of an extra $15 bulb isn’t that high to be able to use some other devices with Alexa, but it’s not exactly an elegant approach.
