Tapo Smart Plug Intgeration Capabilities into ST (2023)

Devices & Integrations
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I’ve been a long time user of the SmartThings Plugs (2019), and have gone through many over the years, however, they regularly ‘break’ even under low wattage, so after replacing many, many times, finally looking for another SmartPlug.

After some research, I decided to go with Meros, was ready to purchase, then came across some posts not so positive, along with some limitations that would not work for me, so then I settled with Tapo. I say settled, not yet purchased - just settled on which to purchase!

I believe the full name is the Tapo P110 ‘with energy monitoring’. Disclaimer - I am in the UK, so model numbers may be different. I also noticed Tapo now do a Matter plug, however, not seen it in the UK, neither does my ISP offer IPv6.

Now you have some context, the purpose of this post was to ask if someone has experience with Tapo plugs within SmartThings and the capabilities.

For example, does SmartThings know the wattage being pulled? Or can that only be seen on the Tapo app? I currently have automations on all my plugs that if they go below a certain wattage, then to automatically switch them off.
Another automation is, if the plug is on, and below a certain wattage is being pulled, wait one minute, then turn it off.

I’d love to do that, however, as Tapo is a third party, I am unsure how much automation capabilities it would have, and if ST can see the live wattage info.

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I don’t know if TP-Link’s Kasa wifi plugs are available in the UK. There is an Edge Driver for these plugs and it pulls power and energy readings into ST. Plus you get local operation. Note, not all Kasa plugs have power monitoring.

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After you mentioned it, I looked into it, and indeed it seems Kasa does seems to be available on this side of the pond - strange that TP Link has two smart brands (Kasa & Tapo) essentially doing the same thing - possibly even competing with one another!

Pardon my ignorance, where is it that I would get the Edge Driver for this device?

Cheers.

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I was shopping for a wifi plug last week and got the impression that kasa was on the way out and tapo is the new branding, but I could be wrong. They’re maintaining separate apps for both, too. Seems odd.

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Invitation link:

TP-Link Edge Driver (also LIFX) - Devices & Integrations / Community Created Device Types - SmartThings Community

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Kasa just came out with a new Matter model the KP125M so would guess they are not going anywhere soon.

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Doing a quick web search on Tapo vs Kasa, the general sentiment seems to be that Kasa is (supposedly) the more premium of the two brands and is apparently more accurate with energy monitoring, while Tapo is more focused towards being affordable, simplicity etc.

Unsure how true that is, it is on the web afterall, on websites I’ve never heard of - so taken with a pinch of salt for now.

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It looks like the original plan was to have both brands, but the tapo devices were going to need their own hub (they originally used a proprietary frequency) and have fewer features, and be introduced as a bare bones budget line.

But— then everyone got really excited about matter, and the company made the decision to first commit to Matter for some of the tapo Devices, since they were newer anyway and the engineering was a better fit. So the emphasis on the Tapo hub pretty much disappeared.

So then the second plan was for Tapo to be matter certified, and Kasa not.

But then another year went by and the company decided they better do matter certification for some Kasa models also. And they started promising to add some “Kasa features“ like energy monitoring to some Tapo models.

So initially, there was a very clear distinction between the two brands, and now they are moving closer and closer together from both directions.

Companies run multiple brands for different reasons. Usually they feel there’s a particular advertising message they can convey with the least confusion if they have different brand names. General Motors still offers both Buick and Chevrolet, and sometimes they look very similar from the outside. But Buick will have higher end materials and more advanced features and falls into the “affordable luxury” category, while Chevrolet has become a solid value brand. Consumers know that Buick will cost a little more and offer some extra features.

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General Mills own both the Annie’s and Betty Crocker brands, and they sell some similar products, like brownie mix, but with very different brand messages, and different ingredients.

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So it remains to be seen what the longterm strategy will be, but for now the company intends to keep offering both brands. :man_shrugging:t2:

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