zlacker

Mitigation: If using Zigbee bulbs,

1. get rid of the Philips app (not the bulbs).

2. Replace the Philips Hue bridge (hub) with a RasPi or NUC computer.

3. Connect a Zigbee/Z-Wave combo USB radio dongle.

4. Load Home Assistant OS.

This solution not only replaces the Philips locked system, but it can replace (or take over) Amazon, Google, Apple, Ikea and more, simultaneously. About 2551 more.

Home Assistant is not perfect, but it provides just the privacy (and features) these vendors are taking away or never gave me.

I have Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Wifi devices on Home Assistant (RasPi 4 8GB peaks around 4% utilization). I rarely care about who makes the device nowadays. Is it Zigbee or Z-Wave and cheap? Great, I buy it, and it works.

As of this instance, it manages over 100 "devices", from a magnetic door sensor to the Synology NAS drive temperature.

( list of official integrations [because there are many more through community integrations]: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/#all )

>>WaitWa+(OP)
> 3. Connect a Zigbee/Z-Wave combo USB radio dongle.

Can you recommend a dongle?

>>ascagn+X4
Yes.

I have a Nortek HUSBZB-1 model; got at the end of 2021. Never had to do anything to it. About 44USD now.

I chose it through reading community posts and such. One specific recommendation I took to heart was to put it on a USB port extending cable, so it is away from the electronics.

>>ascagn+X4
I use a SoundOff USB dongle, works great with HA. I recommend against WiFi Zigbee coordinators, they suck.

>>ascagn+X4
Conbee 2 works great, much better range than what the other dongles have. The software bundled with it is also decent and quick to get started with. It got REST API too for external integration.

Of course you're free to use any software with it.

>>WaitWa+(OP)
This is 100% the correct answer. If you ever see a home automation or related device that you find interesting your immediate next step should be to enter "Home Assistant <device>" in to your favorite search engine and see what's up.

If the device can not be connected to Home Assistant, or if doing so requires connecting Home Assistant to the vendor's cloud rather than directly connecting to the local device, you should look elsewhere.

Sometimes, especially if the device is based on one of the common ESP chips, there may be options for alternative firmware which solves this problem but whether the alternative firmware supports the features you want or can be easily installed with the hardware and skills you possess will vary situationally.

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I'm not an Apple user for the most part, but AFAIK HomeKit requires that a device be locally controllable so that's a good starting point when looking at a lot of competing products. If it supports HomeKit there's a decent chance HA will be able to interface with it directly.