A couple of years ago I bought my first SwitchBot, a small button-pressing robot that I can control from anywhere in the world. I bought it to do one job, a job it turned out it couldn’t do. Now, I have 3 SwitchBots in my home doing daily tasks that make little aspects of my life, much easier.
I’m often asked, of all the gadgets I have at home, which would I recommend. So let me introduce you to the answer; SwitchBot and the three ways I’m using it in my home (including the one way I’m not, unfortunately).
What is SwitchBot?
SwitchBot is a Japanese company which gained momentum in 2016 as a Kickstarter campaign. The sole product of the company at that time was the SwitchBot bot itself. The SwitchBot bot is a small box which you can remotely control from anywhere in the world, once you have the SwitchBot Hub.
I often refer to my SwitchBot bot as a “little pokey bot” because effectively, that’s all it does. You give the command and your little robot bots it’s finger out and pops it back in.
Once I show you how I’ve used it, that will all make a lot more sense.
Why Buy a SwitchBot?
Funnily enough, the reason I bought a SwitchBot didn’t work, but I’ve since found loads of uses for it. Except for growing up in my parent’s home, I’ve lived in rental accommodation all my life. That gives me, a confessed gadget nerd, a challenge. I’ve got to retrofit and hack tech into my life that can be easily removed, leaving no trace. SwitchBot is incredible in this space.
One problem I wanted to overcome was heating. It costs a fortune when it’s on and it’s cold if it comes on too late. Old thermostats are useless at solving this problem and I couldn’t get a smart one fitted, nor did I think it would solve my problem.
So I bought my “little pokey bot” to flick on and off the switch on the wall of my heater. The only problem was that heaters use stiffer switches which the SwitchBot just wasn’t able to move. Heater switches it turns out are tougher to shift.
I’m left with a smart SwitchBot bot but nothing to do. So I started getting hacky.
3 Ways I Used SwitchBot to Make My Home Smarter
With the way I don’t use my SwitchBot out of the way, here are 3 ways I do use my SwitchBot, and absolutely love it.
Smart Controller for Immersion Boost
Ah, the immersion. Our most feared of all foes. Now, from the get-go, I have to clarify here that immersion wall switches are often as stiff as heaters. I’m using my SwitchBot bot on the heating control panel unit.
The layout of my home is a bit odd and my heating panel is miles away along with being hard to reach. Plus, it’s old enough so there is no smart integration, say if I want to have the water boosted in the evening while I’m out and about.
To overcome this, I fitted a SwitchBot to the control panel, just over the boost button. One press will boost my water for 30 minutes. If I press again, it will boost for 60 minutes. Once more will cancel the boost.
The SwitchBot app also lets me set up extra “scenes” so I can have a single tap on my phone turn into two SwitchBot switch presses.
Here it is in action.
Through the SwitchBot app you can also automate how the bot operates. For example, I can have this boost the water every day at 6pm, or just 6pm on Wednesdays because I play football and need a later shower. Of course, you can just jump on your phone and heat the water when your in the dressing room too.
Remote controlling from outside the home will need a SwitchBot Hub – more on that later. Now, onto the second way I’m using SwitchBot in my home.
Making an Old Apartment Intercom Smart
This one I was super proud of. Year ago I had the Nello. This was a somewhat universal, if not a little buggy, black box that plugged into your intercom to make it smart. It kind of sort of worked, sometimes but I loved the idea and was chasing another solution since the company, unfortunately, went under.
In steps SwitchBot.
As you can see, I’ve jerry-rigged a SwitchBot onto my intercom. The top of a pen is keeping the button pressed in that would normally be pressed down by a received “on the hook”. This ensures people outside can’t hear in, and I don’t hear noise from the street.
The button this SwitchBot bot presses is for the front door of my apartment block. This is extremely cool for a couple of reasons.
First, for myself, if I’ve come home from a day at work or from doing my shopping, with hands full of stuff and keys buried in a bag, all I need is to tap a button on my phone. I’ve combined SwitchBot, IFTTT and Apple Shortcuts for the ideal solution, though you really just need the SwitchBot app.
My solution means I have a shortcut on my phone which asks me if I’m sure I want to unlock the apartment block, avoiding accidental unlocks.
Second of all, it’s really handy for deliveries. If I’m on the way home, five minutes away, and get a call that there is a delivery driver at the door, I can buzz him in and say “leave the package at my door”. Obviously, I’d only do this if I was nearly home and knew the package was safe. Your mileage may vary with this based on your apartment block’s layout and how much you trust your neighbours (I’m lucky in this sense).
While I’m showing you this second, this is probably my favourite use for my SwitchBot. It overcomes a lot of problems, more than you might think until you have it solved and adds massive convenience.
I also have a SwitchBot Pro lock which is fitted to my apartment door. While I always carry keys, because not doing so is just too risky, I theoretically have full keyless entry to my apartment with all of this technology combined. SwitchBot bot for getting in to the apartment block and fingerprint or code access at my apartment door with SwitchBot Pro lock.
Now, for the final SwitchBot bot in my home.
Powering On My PC Remotely From Anywhere in the World
You might read this solution and think to yourself “who would ever need this”. Well, the answer is me. I travel quite a bit and also work remotely a lot. My home PC, which I’ve lovingly named PinkyBoi, is my base for work, coding, reading, researching, writing and gaming. So it has a lot of stuff I love installed on it.
I’ve started dabbling with remote gaming with Moonlight, which lets me stream my PC game library to my iPad wherever I am in the world. I also have a lot of media that I’ve ripped from my own sources over the years. This could be TV shows or box sets that I’ve gathered and digitised. With Plex, I can stream these from my PC to my mobile devices anywhere in the world. Yes, it’s just like having your own personalised Netflix service.
Unlike GeForce Now for game steaming or Netflix for media, I’m responsible for making sure the system is switched on when I need it. If PinkyBoi is turned off, well then I simply can’t stream any of my media.
And this is where my SwitchBot bot comes in beautifully. There are other solutions that achieve what I achieved, best known perhaps is a “Wake on Lan” solution, but I found these to be massively unreliable. With SwitchBot I can physically press the power button my PinkyBoi from anywhere in the world. Combined with Team Viewer, I can remotely control the entire machine from anywhere too, ensuring the complete remote access to my home terminal.
And yes, the eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that I have a shortcut on my phone for PinkyBoi too. This shortcut activates the PC and sets the LIFX Beam lights I have to gaming mode too. Just for the craic.
I’ve configured the SwitchBot to long press on the PC power button. This turns it on like normal, but if I press it again, it’ll shut everything down in that “nothing else works, hold down the power button” way.
With all of this excellent (if not slightly extravagant) usage of SwitchBot bots around the home, I’m sure you’ve been left ready to buy. Well, here are a few more tips to get even more out of your SwitchBots.
Yes, the SwitchBot Hub Worth Buying
In fact, I’d say the SwitchBot bots are nowhere near as awesome without buying the SwitchBot Hub. Treat yourself! Without the Hub, you won’t be able to connect to your bots away from the home. This is crucial for nearly all of the use cases that I have. In fact, to ensure full coverage, I have two SwitchBot Hubs in my apartment owning to the weird layout to make sure I have enough coverage for everything to work flawlessly.
SwitchBot Remote is Also Great
One thing I’ve recently added to my setup is the SwitchBot Remote; a Black Friday addition to my smart home. As the name suggests, this is a remote that connects to everything locally using Bluetooth.
This comes with a handy cradle to mount it on the wall, but the remote is free for you to take with you anywhere in the home – if that’s what you need. I don’t, so it pretty much stays there.
The top button, boosts my water once. It’s handy for that simple task and extremely reliable. I do have voice commands to “boost the water” using Google Assistant, but I’ve found it hit and miss. The SwitchBot Remote, never misses.
The bottom button is setup to unlock the apartment block. When I’m upstairs, this means I can immediately let delivery drivers in. In Dublin, while determined, they are super impatient and will drive away at 8am while I’m still putting my pants on. Being able to let them in quickly is the difference between getting a package delivered on the spot and spending an hour travelling to the depot to get my package.
If in Doubt, Get One
What I’ve learned from having my SwitchBots is that they solve problems in the moment of need. What I mean by that is that you’ll be sitting there wondering “how the hell am I supposed to do this when I’m not here” and boom! The SwitchBot is the solution. By having one at home, you can play around with a few different ideas and make your SwitchBot work for you.
I’d love to play with the idea of having a SwitchBot on my coffee machine, ready to pour coffee in the morning. It could be cheaper than smart bulbs where you have multiple ceiling lights controlled off a single switch. Important to remember than SwitchBot bots can turn most switches both on and off.
It’s also nice to know that you are buying into an ever-growing ecosystem of smart home technology. I now use SwitchBot bots, the SwitchBot Pro Lock, SwitchBot Remote, SwitchBot Wallet Finder Card and am hoping to expand to some other devices in the future. The SwitchBot Hub also has an infrared beamer in it for controlling devices like your TV at home.
It’s a clever ecosystem and one I’m thoroughly enjoying playing with.
The SwitchBot bot is available on Amazon.co.uk for about €30.
