Right now, unrecognised Zigbee devices get added as a generic device, that supports only the on/off capability, if it exists. It would be great if the generic driver supported other common capabilities as well, e.g. dimming, color. That would greatly reduce the need for specific apps that I assume are greatly similar. A lot of Tuya, Friends of Hue bulds, switches, motion e.g. should work out of the box I think.
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I wish that was possible, but unfortunately for zigbee there is no real standard (especially for the “older” devices (like 2 years ago old)), just as an example, Philips Hue works perfect with colors, Lidl color bulbs have (completely) wrong color while they use the exact same cluster for the colors.
But even if it was possible, that would go against the policy for Athom that every brand needs its own app, so won’t give it a big chance of ever being added.
Read in another post they wanted them here, but your link suggests otherwise.
This is a forum for and by the Homey community. Athom doesn’t use the forum for feature requests or direct support.
/OT
Hi @robertklep , @Caseda ,
For two weeks I would have responded the same as Athom provided the link to the (google) form.
Recently Athom removed that link from the Welcome Post in this forum, so I asked Emile (in #moderators) if we should direct Feature Requests/Sugestions to the link you provide on support (with the same form).
Athom doesn’t like the old form as it is a Black hole (as we the community / users also noted)
The support article need updating, they suggest:
But discussing ideas on the forum is even better. Let them discuss pros and cons with others can help crystallize an idea
imho we (the community) should no longer stop these Requests and/or redirect the users to the Form / Support.
Athom definitely read along (as we also noted) but don’t expect them to respond. Whenever something is Hot Athom will notice or some Developers / moderators / old boys will point them to the “Better Feature Requests”
I guess that @Edwin_D did was correct 
I will clean up this topic tomorrow to go back to the Topic from @Edwin_D and create a new small Announcement.
My answer would be the same, though: Athom needs to implement this. We can discuss at length how particular features might be beneficial, but that would be a rather pointless exercise if Athom is never going to implement them anyway. The community doesn’t know what Athom is likely to implement or not.
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Well, if the community isn’t telling anyone what it would like and why they sure won’t implement the right things. Also, the community can’t see what people send straight to Athom to react on it, so I think this is better. And if no-one agrees on this topic and/or this is technically unfeasable, that is fine, I’d rather know.
I understand Athom wants specific apps to provide clarity. However, each app takes resources, and if it works for lets say the new Lidl Christmas lights we could build a list of items supported by the generic driver. And if it doesn’t work it will be no different than it is now, some one will report it here, and hopefully someone will write an app for it.
We as community don’t know if it’s technically infeasible or not, which is rather my point.
You can do a lot of work by collecting people’s opinions on a certain subject, like providing more generic Zigbee support without the need of specific apps (which would make a lot of new users very happy), only to find out in the end that Athom has dismissed taking that route ages ago. So you wasted a lot of time on something that Athom could have told you was never going to happen anyway.
Athom should appoint a (new) community liaison, someone that acts as a go-between between Athom and the community and knows what types of features Athom is likely to implement or not. What they’ve done now feels like they “thrown it over the fence” (“over de schutting gegooid”): “we can’t be bothered to maintain the Google form page so we’ll just let the community and the forum moderators do the hard work”.
I get what you’re saying. My point is, here they can react to say it can’t/won’t be done for everyone to see. If they are the only one to see the inbox, and no one gets to see any replies, people will keep their hopes.up in vain.
At the same time, if no one asks, Athom will certainly never change their minds. I’ve been a Software Product Manager, I know the importance of user input. And I too have been proven wrong in previous assumptions by user input. The market may change too.
And the other way around, since no one is debating the merits of this topic, and we are only discussing the way we think the Product Mananger at Athom should do his or her work, I’m ok that this will never see the light of day. It was just an idea.
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I agree, if possible, generic zigbee device should have more capabilities, not only including dimming or colour capabilities in bulbs but as well adding sensor capabilities which I guess should be feasible (open/closed door, movement,…).
This might reduce the need of specific apps in many cases (open/closed capabilities complies with >80% of requirements in most sensors).
Completely agree! Many standard zigbee devices of other brands (Lights/Plugs/Switches/Dimmers) could probably be supported that way.
