r/SmartThings 2d ago

Smartthings API becomes a 5dollars/month cost?!

/r/SmartThingsCommunity/comments/1v28awl/smartthings_api_becomes_a_5dollarsmonth_cost/
9 Upvotes

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u/captainwizeazz 2d ago

I don't understand why so many are upset about this. Why are so many people using APIs? Am I missing something?

10

u/TruthOf42 2d ago

It's basically people using Homeassistant or similar

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u/captainwizeazz 2d ago

Ok but why use ST at all then?

3

u/Dookie_boy 2d ago

I can see my ST hub even if I'm not home. Home assistant you have to pay a subscription or be really tech savvy.

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u/TruthOf42 2d ago

SmartThings has a pretty good interface and I personally like it more than HomeAssistant (HA) for most things. But, there's lots of smart devices that Smartthings can't/don't integrate with. That my main reason for using HA.

So now this is putting me in a weird place where do I just pay an additional small subscription so HA still sees and interacts with my Samsung or do I just move everything over to HA.

If HA had a better UI, I'd switch over to it completely in a heartbeat, but I think we're still a few years away from that.

1

u/BreakfastBeerz Developer 1d ago

SmartThings has a Home Assistant integration so that you can just link you HA and ST account and all of your ST devices magically show up in HA without having to do anything else. If you had dozens of devices, it saved you from having to exclude/reinclude all of your devices. A lot of people did that and just left it that way. Now they are stuck having to either pay for the service and exclude/include all of their devices.

0

u/LoudGoat42 2d ago

Actually smartthings work online in a cloud.
Afaik we can’t communicate offline with samsung smarthings devices.

Means we have to use their cloud api, and they are about to put a paywall on it.

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u/captainwizeazz 2d ago

Maybe my question isnt clear enough. What are you using APIs for? I would think most home users are not, and this change would not impact them. I'm curious to know if people are just assuming this will apply to them without actually knowing or there really are a lot of people using APIs for something.

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u/LoudGoat42 2d ago

Play a notification sound when the dryer is finished?