Wemo Stage Scene with Thread Smart Home Remote Control for Apple HomeKit

Updated:It is not worth the trouble. It is really infuriating, it works half of the time, the other half i spend restarting my HomePods or Apple TV to see if they start working again. And even when I discover which Hub they "prefer", even when these hubs are working completely fine... the Wemo buttons will randomly stop/start working. I have Aqara and Hue switches and they will work 98% with an occasional delay or a double press of buttons to wake them from sleep, if they don't work i can make them work with a hub/router reset for sure. It is a pity cuz they can have 9 scenes and they are tiny, but the amount of times they don't work makes them unreliable. Also the battery drain is INSANE. I have Logitech POP buttons that i never had to replace the batteries since 2016, Wemo switches require replacements every few weeks.I bought 4 of these to replace my unreliable Hue and Logitech buttons. Unfortunately they are not great. They are actually infuriating. It might be HomeKit, which is full of problems, but these cute buttons have problems of their own that drive me mad on a weekly basis.Cons:- the plates are huge- the magnet is a joke (you must use a double sided tap on the remote itself if you don't want it to fall at the slightest of the touches)- the battery drains very fast, specially when you are having connectivity problems (which is like, daily)- their connectivity is very temperamental andso is their reliability- the scenes programmed will switch buttons randomly. I might have 1 press for ON and 2 pressed for OFF. Next thing I know, 1 press is empty, 2 presses is ON and Long press if OFF, the whole thing skipped everything to the next programable press! Why?!- to reset them you need a very thin pointy object to open its back and since I need to reset them so often it is a pain!- update is extremely vague. No way to force update even when you know there has been one that hasn't been done yet!Pros- small remote- 9 scenes per remote (3 buttons with 1 press, 2 presses and long press)- very fast (when it works)- easy HomeKit setup (when it works)- doesnt need a dedicated bridgeThe fact his is made exclusively for HomeKit, that it is fast and extremely configurable make it and excellent button. I love having many scenes and this button excels on that. But I don't know it is HomeKit itself but these cuties are VERY unreliable. I am constantly restarting my HomePods, my router, the buttons themselves. It is like a full time job. I hope they improve with HomeKit improvements....

If you're a single person living alone, integrating smart lighting into your home isn't so much of a problem. You can leave lamps and light switches on and use your phone to set scenes and turn lights on and off as you need to. When you live with roommates or family members, however, this system derails rather quickly. I've found it to be difficult to teach people I live with to use Homekit, which is understandable if you don't have a ton of exposure to these types of systems. I've had people shut off lamps with smart bulbs, unplug lamps with smart bulbs, and a host of other strange things that fall outside of "optimal" operation for a smart home, instead of using their phone to control things. For what it's worth, sometimes I get sick of using my phone myself. My goal became to find a simple and usable physical interface to make basic control tasks a little bit easier for everyone.For a long time, the options for physical controls for Homekit were both limited and stupid expensive for what the products were capable of doing. This Wemo controller is probably the best that's out there, works fairly well, and has a justifiable cost for the feature set it provides. With the latest firmware updates, it can operate up to 9 functions with single, double, and long presses. This means up to 9 scenes, or up to 9 toggles if you're willing to write some logic in the Homekit app.My original use case was to control three smart bulbs (lamps) and one LED strip in the living room of a shared apartment. With this controller, I was able to add scenes for Daytime (cool, bright lights), Evening (warm, dim lights), and an Off function on the single-press level. On the long-press level, I added a couple fun scenes with a pop of color. The setup was a breeze and should be easy for any competent Homekit user. The controller installed on the wall just like a normal light switch. A quick 3-minute demonstration with the roommates, and we were good to go! Just like that, four devices controlled at the push of a button, removing the temptation for people to take devices offline by switching lamps off.I ended up ordering a second controller for my bedroom, controlling some more smart lights and smart plugs for a fan and space heater. No more crawling under my desk to turn the fan on, and no more crawling out of bed to turn on the space heater when it gets cold at night. And, ultimately, faster and easier than pulling out my phone.Now for a few cons. There are occasional stability issues (has happened once for each switch) where it will suddenly go offline and show up as "no response" in the Homekit app. My guess is this was due to an automatic firmware update, or some other glitch (could also be due to recent updates to Homekit backend). Removing the rear cover and hitting the "restore" button once brought it back online without having to reprogram anything. The battery life is satisfactory, but don't expect to go years in between battery changes. It seems to be on the order of 2-3 batteries per year if using Thread. May be a dealbreaker for some, but I think it's a small price to pay for the convenience.Finally, there is a slight delay at times when using these controllers. I've noticed it's worse the farther you get from your Thread border router, and my guess is that increasing the number of thread extenders on your network would help with this. The controller nearest our Apple TV is very fast, while the one in my room has maybe half a second of delay. I'm content to live with it, but I can see why it may bother some people.The bottom line is that this product is about as good as it gets for this type of device. Overall, it has allowed me to introduce some awesome smart home features to the common spaces of my apartment, in a way that's convenient for everyone. If you are looking to control smart light bulbs/switches easily in non-switchable outlets, this is the product for you. However, if you have a switchable outlet or hard-wired lights without smart bulbs, you are probably better off with just a regular smart light switch.