A common complaint I see with new HA users is the difficultly they face integrating all of their various smart devices with HA. Many people (including myself) buy smart products for Alexa made by random Chinese companies over many years. When we eventually get to the point of trying HA, it is really difficult to figure out how to get some of these obscure lights, smart sockets, etc working. I’m sure it causes many people to churn out from HA.
As an intermediate solution, here is what I’ve done.
- Use Alexa to connect to all my devices via their native Alexa skills config system.
- Create simple Routines in Alexa to control the devices and desired states (turn on X lights at 30%, turn on Y lights at 80% in cool white, etc.).
- Use HA + ZHA to connect to all my Zigbee sensors (buttons, motion sensors, etc.).
- Connect HA and Alexa with Alexa Media Player.
- Use Alexa Media Player to trigger the Alexa Routines as actions in automations.
I recognize many HA purists won’t like this because 1) there is some delay with calling Alexa Routines and 2) it relies on the cloud/Amazon. Keep in mind this method isn’t intended for the advanced HA community. It’s intended to be used by new members that are already loving their Alexa setup but want to take it to the next level. As the user becomes more comfortable with HA, they can take time to configure their devices directly in HA or replace them with ones that work natively. I have a hybrid setup where my Hue lights are in HA so I can easily see their state as part of more sophisticated automations.
I feel this initial setup plays to each systems strengths:
- Easy smart device setup via Alexa
- Simple device and state configuration via Alexa
- Complex automation logic in HA
- Zigbee sensor/switch management via HA
Is this commonly done? I just started using HA this weekend and figured this out on my own after reading through lots of documentation/forum posts. I think this method would really help smooth the transition for many new users coming from Alexa to the HA world.
Side note: Flic is an entire company that only sells simple buttons to trigger Alexa Routines (for $30 a button! + the their hub cost). There’s clearly demand for this kind of thing. I made the exact same thing using a $7 Ikea button (with my Husbzb-1 USB adapter).