We need a local alternative to Amazon's TRASH that actually works for voice control / response. I still have a few Alexa products in my house. They are horrible horrible half baked products, as are all Amazon products I've tried. Can't wait to trash all of them some day, hopefully soon!
Siri (e.g., with Apple Home) processes voice locally on most current devices and communicates with your Hubitat hub locally in all cases. (You can enable cloud features like out-of-home control, and some devices can't do onboard processing [yet?], but recent iPhones and iPads and the current Apple Watch, for example, can.)
I have the same recollection. 
(Voice control for smart home devices wasn't available for at least a few more months, at least not for anything I used at the time like Philips Hue, as I recall, so it was mostly just way to ask weird questions or play streaming music. The "smart home" niche seemed to develop later...and at the time I remember being happy with almost any control at all, even if it was cloud. 
)
3 Likes
Ah man, strut that early adopter plumage! 
2 Likes
Bit harsh, but anyway there is an alternative available now via HA wake words. Using the HE>HA integration, it's possible to control HE devices.
However, if you feel Alexa is half-baked, then you'll likely feel that HA wake words is equivalent to raw cookie dough at this stage.
2 Likes
Not harsh enough (regarding Amazon).
You are correct about HA wake words - I took a look and it certainly has great promise but isn't even close to ready.
I did not know that Siri could process everything locally and interact with the Hubitat locally. You have me on their website considering ordering one! If it works well enough I would gladly dump all of my Amazon Alexa crap in the bin (which I am ashamed to have bought in the first place. I believe that giving money to Amazon is almost as bad as sponsoring terrorism. My favorite -- when Alexa mis-understands and thinks I said a phrase including or similar to "turn everything off". It turns off every single device it has access to in my house. I had to write over a dozen "bugfix" routines to block it misbehaving. And now when you talk to Alexa you often get sneaky little ads or asks for money.
I too was an early adopter. We are sooooooo cool 
4 Likes
Gee and I thought I was cool with 2016, lol.
So I have recently gone back to Alexa devices after going totally google for 5+years. Google has essentially not upgraded anything in all that time, and I continually have issues with their ties to third party devices.
Unfortunately, the first thing I discovered was that they disabled the web device interface. I needed to purge all the skills that were "stuck" in the system since 2016 when the family tried EVERYTHING and not being able to bulk delete them was a disaster. My guess is that they had a security issues and from talking to their support, the plan is to relaunch it.
Amazon, for however bad they are, have better speakers (for cheaper), and more options. Google has fallen behind on the game. Frustrating as hell for sure it is not cheap to replace everything every 5 years. I like HomeKit for a few things and I love our Apple TV (in a Mac household) but cost and being behind on the ball had me not adopting them. BUT... I will get one mini so that we have local house control in the future. I only lament at this point at Habitat not have any Matter support. I want to buy matter devices going forward, but that requires some serious workaround currently to get them to work.
It’s on the way. If you have a C-8 and join the beta program, you can experience firsthand the disappointment that Matter is today (not at all Hubitat’s fault)..
6 Likes
I knew it was in Beta and I do have a C-8. I was just a bit wary of putting the hub in the beta program. I do realize it isn't great; it is rather new. I am trying to summon the faith that is will all work out in the end.
What I'v heard about the device offerings available isn't great and what's available is very underwhelming. Some expensive LED strips, a color bulb, a plug-in outlet and a nightlight. You really are not missing anything right now.
1 Like
I have a Aqara matter door window sensor. Just recently released. It was a Black Friday purchase. I think things will ramp in the next quarter. shrug Maybe I am just overly hopeful.
For me Matter was the solution for a lot of things that I have fought over the last 8 years. I went from Smartthings to Hubitat to HA to Giving up for a while and then coming back to Hubitat and getting a C-8. It was the Echo Show 15 in the kitchen that has given me the itch to get back in to it. We have so many devices that were going unused because when we adopted it, it was a bit to early to have built a house around it. And now SO much has changed.
just replaced my gen 1.. shame as sound was good but even with latest firmware updates refused to do certain voice commands that other newer devices executed fine.. no errors.. just ignored them...
support had no clue. and trade in value was 5 bucks.. sol
The P2 Door and Window sensor is Thread as I'm sure you're aware, so you'll also need a Thread Boarder Router to connect it. The C-8 isn't a TBR.
If you're familiar with HA, my personal opinion is that today you get far more from HA with Z2M acting as a device bridge connected to Hubitat via Home Assistant Device Bridge, than you're going to get from Matter for quite some time.
1 Like
As a hack Matter device programmer, and owner of a number of matter devices, I agree.
Z2M is really hard to beat for zigbee use.
1 Like
If you join the beta, it doesn't mean you must participate in every beta release. If you want to sit any out, you can. Just like regular Hubitat releases, it's still totally up to you to update.
I usually jump in with both feet since I'm always prepared to roll back if necessary, but I can certainly relate to apprehensions around the whole overall notion of working with betas. The Hubitat beta program is well done and well supported though.
1 Like
I saw that, And am reinstalling my HA raspberrypi as we speak.
1 Like
Don't get me wrong, I love betas, I usually jump in with two feet and two hands ready to roll back. BUT I found that my high-level professional Linux software engineer husband flips out when he finds out that I have introduced a hiccup into our ecosystem, when the lights in the kitchen mysteriously don't turn on when he enters the kitchen, lol. I get grief like you have NEVER seen.... sigh. So I am looking at how I might do that seeing I have two Hubitats at my disposal now
1 Like
This Beta is pretty far along, and it seems like it is pretty stable at this point. You can always roll back to the last major release if you really wanted/needed to.
Agreed. Gopher made a post in some thread early this morning (now I can't find it of course) worded in a way that left me thinking they may even drop it today (but they didn't obviously). Anyway, I think they're close to releasing it.
1 Like
