Setup Home Assistant, and only get devices that are 100% local control! There are fairly reasonable options for this.
I have a couple devices/services where I haven't been able to find good local only or where I find utility in the cloud connectedness, but that's very much the exception than the rule.
I use the Phillips Hue Button, which I quite like! It has 4 buttons on it and doesn’t require external power or batteries to function. The button communicates with the bridge over Zigbee, which is then connected to my Home Assistant instance, so I can control more than just other Hue devices.
I put them on the bedside tables, and in living areas near where I have any smart bulbs in dumb lamps. Main button usually toggles the light, other buttons do things like turn on a favourite radio station, toggle other lights, and toggle gas fireplace thermostats. Downside is you need to know what the buttons do (guests usually take a bit of instruction to get used to it), but it works fairly well otherwise.
The automations are a real game changer! Some of my favourites that you didn’t mention in your comment:
- UniFi external cameras detecting people / vehicles turn on corresponding lights or making voice announcements in the house
- motion lighting in closets / pantry
- motion lighting in under cabinet lighting at night for night lighting
- good night routines that shut off the lights, arm the alarm, tell me the weather for tomorrow, and play white noise
- good morning routines paired with an alarm that disarm the alarm, play the morning radio (station depending on weekday vs weekend), turn on the gas fireplace in the bedroom and a space heater in the bathroom
- voice announcement / phone notifications triggered by a power usage monitor to tell me when my laundry has finished
- auto off timers for light switches / fireplaces that reset the countdown when motion is detected in that area
Any time I need to use the voice assistant or my phone is an anti pattern as far as I’m concerned! Phone more than voice assistant, but neither is as nice as a simple button. One thing I do find helpful is some Amazon FireHD tablets mounted on the walls in most rooms. They are powered by a PoE charger, and the screens unlock when motion is detected. I find this to be way better UX then pulling out a phone, unlocking, finding the app, then trying to remember why I pulled out my phone in the first place lol. The FireHD tablets are setup with a dashboard specific for that room (with tabs for controlling other parts of the house too), and are fairly UX-friendly for guests. I run "Fully Kiosk Browser" on the tablets, and that handles the autounlock / displaying the Home Assistant dashboard.
Definitely. Disabling it would be a straight up loss for the consumer. I actually only upgraded the watch because of the pulse oximeter - I had a need for it and wouldn’t have been able to justify the upgrade otherwise.
Not the person you’re replying to, but I’ve built a battery voltage monitor (to alert if my home generator battery is discharging) and am working on temperature monitors for my BBQ and oven! Those have been left on accidentally in the past
I have a couple devices/services where I haven't been able to find good local only or where I find utility in the cloud connectedness, but that's very much the exception than the rule.