topic Re: Virtual Switch Creation in Home Automation

Virtual Switch Creation

highwingers — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 06:15:48 GMT

I dont understand why cant i create a virtual switch and perform automations against it. I developed great App for Alexa which does amazing thing.

Only if i can create a virtual switch then i can do some sort of automations for my users. I can toggle Virtual switch on/off and run some conditions on users Nest speakers.

My app SmartAzan is a example of virtual switches for Alexa.

is this something like this remotely possible with Google?

Re: Virtual Switch Creation

PrantlMarkus — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 08:42:41 GMT

Hey highwingers,

you can create virtual switches or other devices with google playground.

I use these virtual outlets as variables in my automations that i wrote with google script editor.

Works fine for my usage.

Hope i can help you!

Re: Virtual Switch Creation

MarciaMellow — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 14:38:57 GMT

I also use Google Playground to create virtual switches. You can even give them attributes like extra inputs (as though they were TVs) and use those inputs as different saved states. I successfully created a robust For-Next loop using the device.command.NextInput. Additionally, if you create a virtual switch using Samsung SmartThings, the switches will be visible to both Google and Alexa, effectively creating a bridge between the two ecosystems.

Re: Virtual Switch Creation

highwingers — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 23:46:55 GMT

Thats very interesting. I think i should look into SmartThings. Because I believe smartthings have an API approach as well to create virtual switches. I developed a SaaS service for Alexa which works great.

so please advise if its possible.

Create Virtual Switch using SmartThings
Control Virtual Switch using SmartThings
When I toggle Virtual switch ON/off i can kick off some Routines within Google Home App

Thanks

Re: Virtual Switch Creation

MarciaMellow — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 18:30:24 GMT

SmartThings allows you to create virtual switches through their new web site my.smartthings.com/advanced (no API access necessary). Yes, you can control the virtual switches through Google Home, Google Script Editor, and Alexa. And yes, ~~both~~ Google Home ~~and Alexa~~ can use them to trigger routines; however, even though Alexa can perform actions on them, but does not seem to be able to use them as triggers. This implies that Alexa can trigger a Google routine, but not vice versa.