If I'm looking at my system with my computer, how the heck do I turn a light on or off while at my computer? I can easily do so from the app, but for the life of me can't find any place to toggle a light on/off.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, from the computer, I can view and edit the device properties and also create/view any rules (via the apps area). However, from the iPhone, I only have the ability to turn a light on/off and set brightness.....I can't view device details, nor can I view/tweak rules.
By default, if you are away from your home, you will not be able to manage devices and applications on your HE hub via the Hubitat Mobile App on your phone. If you subscribe to the optional Remote Admin service from Hubitat, you will be able to do so.
While at home, and connected to the same network as your Hubitat hub, you can simply open up a web browser on your phone and point it to the local IP address of your Hubitat hub (the same as you would do on a desktop PC). You will have full access to the hub's local web-based UI.
Ah....gotcha. A little less control ability from the app when compaired to smart things......Not accessing the device properties is not an issue at all....so rarely do so. The GUI of the app for making rules was nice with ST, but at the same time the capability was super limited. I'll take the good with the bad and apprecaite the added user control ability with HE.
Just to clarify, you can use the mobile app - documentation here to access your Hubitat when away from home. You can turn things on/off, view status, etc., remotely. Very useful if you don't have a VPN. That's at no cost for any additional subscriptions.
Highly recommended is the Hub Protect subscription, cheap as chips and gets you a free new hub if your hub goes south (HW issue) and also enables Cloud Backups, which include your hub automations/setup and all hub devices. That means if you have a hub failure you can completely restore everything from your hub to a new hub.
I came from SmartThings as well, back in early 2018. Hubitat has come a long way since then!
The SmartThings Mobile Phone App 100% depends on a cloud connection. Even if one is on their home network, all communications between the ST Mobile App and the ST Hub go through the ST Cloud. This means that when the internet is down, so is all communications between the ST Mobile App and the ST Hub.
The Hubitat Mobile App detects if it is running on the same local network as the HE Hub, and if so, it makes a direct connection without involving the HE Cloud server. Once away from home, the HE Mobile App makes a secure, encrypted connection to your HE hub via the HE Cloud Server. There is never any code run on the HE Cloud Server - everything is running directly on your HE Hub. The HE Cloud server's main purpose is to provide a secure communications channel between the HE Hub, and any cloud connected services (e.g. Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Ecobee Thermostats, IFFFT, etc...) as well as the Hubitat Mobile App on your phone when you're away from home. The other major thing the HE Cloud Server does is provide firmware updates for your HE Hub, that your choose IF and WHEN to deploy.
Hubitat's other optional service offering is their "Hub Protect" service which provides an extended hardware warranty as well as Cloud Backups. The Cloud backups include backing up the contents of the Zigbee and Z-Wave radios in the hub. Thus, if you hub were to fail, Hubitat would ship you a new hub and you would be able to restore the cloud backup. Afterwards, everything should 'just work' without having to re-pair any Zigbee or Z-Wave devices.
Note: Local Backups do not include the contents of the Zigbee or Z-Wave radios. Local backups do include everything else, including apps, devices, custom code, dashboards, etc... It is just that Zigbee and Z-Wave devices must be re-paired, which is a bit time consuming, especially for Z-Wave devices which also require swapping out devices in apps.
not exactly true as of a few years.....ST did make some changes where a lot of their basic rules were saved locally on the hub and would actually run localy if internet outage. However, this was the beginning of the quirks and instability of ST in my opinion that lead to my now depature.
Correct, not disputing the addition of ST hub-based local processing whatsoever.
However, the SmartThings Mobile Phone App cannot connect to the ST Hub without both (the phone and the hub) having active cloud/internet connections, even if both are in the same house connected to the same network.
