Forgive a newbie question, just starting with HA (HA Green is in the post, due tomorrow) and very keen to learn in advance. I have a few existing research devices from Tapo and Kasa that I have used with Alexa in the distant past. Can I use, say, a Wifi presence sensor to trigger an action using a Zigbee light bulb device? And can that be done with those two devices in the same area, both physically and in the HA configuration sense?
In short, yes. I use a WiFi motion sensor (a shelly) to trigger a Zigbee light, in the same hallway. I also use a Z-Wave motion sensor in the kitchen to turn on the lights (Zigbee, again) there. Mixing and matching things like that is one of the benefits of using Home Assistant. Good luck!
That is one of the strengths of HA (and other hubs)… You can have Zigbee, Zwave, Wifi devices in the same Automation and control one another.
Trying hard not to confuse you here but to add to what the others have already said:
Home Assistant can connect to devices via many different integrations (e.g. ZHA, MQTT, Lifx…) to create entities (e.g. light.lounge_room). These entities can be acted upon by services (e.g. light.turn_on). These services do not care which integration created the entity.
Likewise for triggers and conditions in automations, the integration that created the entity you are checking in a condition or triggering on is not important.