Lights control app

What light control app are you guys using? Should be fool proof simple app just for lights, that will allow group switches into rooms. Master all off button for each room and whole house.

I am going to put smart things hub compatible light switches everywhere in the house. Smart things app itself is kind of overkill, need something more friendly just for lights.

You should start w/the SmartThings Smart Lighting app - runs locally which makes it reliable and provides fast response, covers many use-cases from very simple to moderately complex, and is simple to set up and use.

If you are thinking of a dashboard type app which you could use on a wall mount tablet or phone, there are a number of options.

The most popular is probably ActionTiles. There’s a license fee of around $30 per hub, but has a lot of different features and people like it a lot. There’s a free trial if you want to check it out.

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If you want a free option, there are a couple of alternatives. For ones developed by the community here, look at the quick browse list in the community – created wiki, in the Project Reports section, and look on the “dashboard“ list.

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How_to_Quick_Browse_the_Community-Created_SmartApps_Forum_Section

Stringify is another popular free option, but it’s more for setting up rules rather than as a dashboard look. And it’s pretty complicated.

So different people like different things, it really depends on what you are specifically looking for.

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Where is the SmartThings Smart Lighting app? Couldnt find it in Google Play Store.

Thanks! I’ll look into that!

It’s built into the SmartThings app.

Go into the SmartThings app and select:

Automations>SmartApp>+ Add a Smart App (all the way at the bottom)>Lights and Switches>Smart Lighting

I am kind of lost. That will make automation. I just need an app, like Phillips hue, where you can turn on/off individual lights and switches. And you can group lights to operate whole room and house. I don’t want extra stuff, like motion detection etc, just simple on/off app.

If all you want is lights, I’m not sure you need smartthings at all, to be honest.

If you have an iPhone, look at HomeKit. It works with both bulbs and switches (including the Phillips hue bridge and Lutron Caseta switches), it’s intuitive and easy to use, and if you want to set it up like a dashboard you can. You can do simple automations with it like having some lights turn on at sunset or when you get home, but you don’t have to. It’s reliable and easy. But you do have to have both an iPhone and either an iPad or HomePod or an Apple TV 4.

If you use android devices instead, you could get an echo Dot and just use the Amazon Alexa app. It’s super easy to turn lights on or off or group them, and you have quite a few choices of switches (again, including Lutron Caseta, but also a bunch of Wi-Fi switches). It doesn’t make as nice a dashboard as HomeKit, and you really can’t set up any rules except a time of day rule, but it’s certainly an option for some people.

Both these options also give you voice control, which is nice. And if you want to later you can add sensors or locks or other kinds of devices. Eventually you could even combine both of them.

But the point is that what SmartThings is good for is lots of different kinds of devices with lots of different kinds of rules. And it doesn’t sound like that’s what you’re looking for.

You come to the SmartThings forum to ask for something that isn’t SmartThings. Isn’t that like going into Burger King and ordering a Big Mac?

HomeKit is great and so is SmartThings, and the two can both control the same devices. Then you can use Siri and an easy dashboard interface, while still getting the advanced features of SmartThings.

If you install homebridge and in particular homebridge-smartthings on a desktop you can even have HomeKit control things via SmartThings, which opens up many more possibilities for HomeKit. You can get the best of both worlds on your iPhone or iPad. I spent years agonizing on what home automation platform I should buy, now I realize that two (or more) can work together.

Unfortunately installing homebridge on your desktop is a bit advanced, but there are some good tutorials.

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How can I install this smart app ?
I’m using the new smartthings app and I dont have the Smart Lightning app