[ojkelly]

Interestingly I’ve had Phillips Hue for well over 5 years now, but no smart switches. One of the bigger QoL improvements I’ve ever made, especially when the lights automatically change throughout the day.

Between a few specifically named scenes in the Home app, Siri on HomePods, and the normal switches it’s been quite reliable.

Worst case if the internet is down (which stops Siri’s voice to text), or if there’s a wifi issue, or if I’m right next to a switch: I can turn the switch off, wait 2 seconds, turn on and the hue light turns on to a neutral color at a reasonable brightness.

I think any combination of smart lights or switches or both is manageable as long as you have a fast, simple means to power cycle the lights (and they default-on with power).

I don’t think dumb light switches should disappear. They’re phenomenally reliable, have a predictable behaviour, are easily discoverable and never move. The last one is important because when you urgently need to turn a light on, nothing beats a dumb switch.

[vidarh]

You get most of that with.good smart switches too. Reliability will never be quite as high, since it's hard to beat physically connecting and disconnecting the wires, but they're reliable enough that I've never had one fail.

But in terms of predictability and discoverability and fixed placement, a good smart switch is no different.

[semi]

one issue with default on with power is that in the event of a temporary power outage, all of your lights will turn on.

Probably better than the alternative for most people but just something to be aware of.