Controlling things easily

Check out this community release, Android widgets are supported.

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Use the app HttpRequestWizard and MakerAPI. Bingo! You have HE widgets. What are you waiting for? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Widget :musical_keyboard: I've got a widget :musical_note: I've got a widget :musical_score: A widget I have got :musical_note:

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lol, marking this as the solution!

Tasker can also create widgets that will do HTTP Requests. It's $4 and is probably a little more complicated to setup then something with "Wizard" in its name. :grin:

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You can get to dashboards faster by using this process:
instead of using the app, open your hubitat url in chrome app, get the direct link to your dashboard from the "apps > dashboard settings" and load the dashboard you want in a chrome tab. Click on the 3 dots menu and select "Add to Home Screen". This should create a shortcut that pulls your dashboard up directly without having to load other hubitat items and navigating. you can create 1 for each dashboard you want quick access to.

If you specifically want widgets or "action buttons" on your android home screens, then you need to look at the Hubitat Dashboard - Android app linked above, or look into tasker (android) and how it can communicate with maker api on hubitat.

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Thanks for all the answers. It does seem that it is not as user friendly as I suspected. Seems this entire space is very homebrew and not really usable for the bulk of the population. Hubitat is powerful but it's not what it advertises itself to be. Should be "elevate your frustrations" instead of "elevate the environment" but it's a good thing to keep tinkerers busy.

HE is fairly friendly (and getting better) but keep in mind this is an extremely complex subject with lots of gotchas. The public has been fed a line of bs with Home Automation in general thanks to clever industry marketing regarding how easy it all is... Once someone goes beyond the simple "turn lights on at xxxx time" things get tricky.

Fortunately HE is as flexible/customizable as it is or we would be waiting forever for cool stuff like improved dashboards, connectivity etc. "Homebrew" is a major advantage on this platform but it is definitely not required for simpler setups.

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What's wrong with homebrew... :grin::beer:

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Not quite sure what you are talking about there, examples?

This is a relatively new platform, it has only been around about 3 or so years? There have been significant changes in that time, and things are always evolving. Just go back and look at changelogs, every update brings major additions and improvements.

I am sure that things like widgets are on the radar, as are probably 1000 other things, but with a small team, it takes time to bring these things to life.

Can’t argue with that!

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Lots of people think that a wifi device that you can access on your phone is home automation! Just read the home automation forum of reddit sometime. Some pretty bad misconceptions. Probably a close runner up is calling a smart speaker (Alexa) a home automation device.

On the other extreme, all of Reddit is saying Home Assistant is easy, and should be adopted by the masses! Nothing could be further from the truth. Nobody wants to make turning on a lightbulb a full time job.

It is a complex topic, and Hubitat is somewhere in the middle of all that. It is very powerful if you need it to be, and it is simple enough for someone who has some experience with a wifi device, or Alexa or whatever the case may be. Not that a total noob couldn't jump right in, but knowing a touch about IOT stuff helps.

With all this stuff there is definitely tinkering involved, especially at first. But for the most part I haven't messed with my core rules and automations much for the past year. They just work.

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I agree, there are huge misconceptions about HA. I just say to people if you have to do something to make things happen, that’s remote control, not Home Automation. Home Automation just happens - after its been set up, of course. But then once you’ve started, it’s never really completely set up, is it? :joy:

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I too am in the set and forget camp. I use some dashboards just to glance at for information. That said, I have to agree with HE being in the middle. I can make a dashboard to mimic any system I want and yes that takes time. If you go to the show us your dashboard thread, 1000's of examples. I don't think the learning curve is steep, even my non technical wife gets how to write simple rules she wants in RM...(She likes the new basic rules app). The fact is comparatively speaking with hubitat vs everything else that's true HA out there, HE does a really good job. It's 100% local (unlike a lot of other stuff) and it's pretty accessible by the masses. Is it a perfect product? No, nothing is, but it's getting better everyday and the community and company support is second to none.

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Hubitat is to Home Automation what Democracy is to Systems of Government. It's not all that great, but it is the best we got.

Arguably the best job.

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Really easy. I use a Google Assistant routine to trigger what I want and put the shortcut on my homescreen.

I don't mind that it's not straight/native Hubitat. Hubitat is good at local control. Google is good at cloud control. Google talks to Hubitat, which means it works even when I'm away from home.

Just wanted to leave this here for anyone else who might benefit from it.

I found these cheap ZigBee buttons. Each button can trigger up to 3 different routines/scenes/rulemachine rules

I'm placing a few of these in key strategic spots around my house where I can use it to trigger commonly used actions.

So if I want to quickly activate scene lighting for movie watching, I can do so with a click of the button. Or click the button by my bed to activate the good night routine.

I like this better because it's more discreet than yelling out "Alexa activate movie mode"

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Link?

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You can very easily just put the link to the dashboard on your Android home screen directly. It's not a limitation of hubitat that you need to hit a few buttons to drop the link on android, it's the process android set up. Hubitat gives you a link to your dashboard. You can use it anywhere on any device.