
Just know that if you want remote access to your smart home, there is a subscription fee of $6.50 per month. Frankly, it’s a powerful smart home platform that gives you a high level of device control. Home Assistant has continuously improved its functionality and interface over time. And like HomeBridge, it has numerous plug-ins for connected device brands and types.

Zigbee smart switch install#
Home Assistant is free software that you can install on a computer or a Raspberry Pi.
Zigbee smart switch android#
Other third-party hubsĪnother similar approach would be to consider either Home Assistant or Hubitat, both of which you can use with either Android or iOS. Personally, I’d simply spend the time to download the free HomeBridge software and install it myself. If you’d rather not mess around with the installation process, you can buy a pre-installed kit called HOOBS for $249. It has more than 2,000 plugins that bring non-HomeKit-supported devices to the HomeKit platform. This is a free software platform that you can run on a PC, Mac, Linux machine, or Raspberry Pi. But the compelling reasons are because HomeKit works so well and has additional privacy features that I prefer.Ī related alternative to replacing all of those non-HomeKit devices would be to consider HomeBridge.

Obviously, it helps that I use an iPhone. Some Wink-supported devices also work with HomeKit thanks to a bridge: Think Philips Hue and Lutron, for example.Īfter trying just about every smart home platform on the market, I’ve ended up on HomeKit. So if your Wink home is built primarily around Zigbee, Z-Wave, or some other RF standard, you’ll be replacing those connected devices on this path. HomeKit relies on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for connected devices, along with QR codes and NFC as device pairing options. However, once iOS 16 arrives this fall, you won’t gain the new functionality, which includes upcoming support for the Matter standard. Technically, you can use an iPad as a HomeKit hub. Obviously, you could switch over to Apple HomeKit although if you want a HomeKit hub, you’ll need to have or buy an Apple TV or an Apple HomePod. I’ll start with the latter group because there are more choices available to you. You either use a Google Android or Apple iOS on your phone. I suspect many Wink users are already past that point of no return but if you haven’t restarted the hub, you still have some functionality.įor those that plan to migrate away from Wink, you’re in one of two very likely camps. That is if you don’t or haven’t restarted your Wink hub. Image courtesy of Winkįirst and foremost to know is that even though Wink services are down, you still have local smart home control. Some are better than others in terms of re-using your existing connecting devices. And the good thing here for current Wink users is that you do have options. That time it was due to Insteon quietly all but disappearing. Regular readers may have a feeling of déjà vu since it was only last month that I wrote a similar post. If you can’t wait for Wink or have decided that enough is enough for the $5 you pay monthly to Wink, you do have some options. Now the company says it’s working to fix its connectivity issues.
Zigbee smart switch update#
Indeed, until yesterday, there wasn’t even a detailed status update from Wink. As of today, July 13, it’s still a problem according to the official Wink Status page.


Wink hubs lost connectivity and functionality since an outage began on July 1.
