SwitchBot
About the vendor and its products
SwitchBot was for a long time a company I was aware of, men chose not to include in this overview of vendors since the support for Apple Home was very limited. With the launch of both new hubs and products with Matter support, this changed. The product range is quite broad and spans several categories (some of the products are only aimed at the American market):
Hubs, where the latest version is called SwitchBot Hub 2, and has support for Matter, but there is also a SwitchBot Hub Mini
Curtain control, both for curtains on rod/rail and blinds
Smart switches, both a wireless “remote control” and a rather unique product, a “robot finger” called SwitchBot Bot, which can be attached to many different types of physical switches to make these “smart”
Smart door lock, Home Security Lock, which is also quite unique in that this is installer over the existing lock instead of replacing it, and there is also a corresponding control panel
Security cameras, in different versions, for use both indoor and outdoor
Sensors, such as motion, contact and climate parameters
Smart lighting, both bulb and LED strip, as well as smart lamps
Smart air humidifier
Smart plugs, in some variants
Various accessories, such as solar panel for some of the products
There is a dedicated SwitchBot app to control the products. There is also support for Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and as mentioned, Apple Home through Matter.
Our experiences
| Komponent | Rom | Erfaringer |
|---|---|---|
Candle Warmer Lamp B2 |
First of all, it should be set that setting up this lamp was rather troublesome, not necessarily connecting it to the SwitchBot app, but connecting it via Matter was tedious. I tried connecting it to Apple Home, Home Assistant, and Homey, and it required many attempts of resetting and changing network before it finally worked. Having gotten that far, this works very well; the lamp melts the candle carefully and the candle releases its scent as if it had been lit. Sadly, the device is also unreliable in its WiFi connection and will go offline several times during a week. |