# Homey Bridge Local devices

**URL:** <https://community.homey.app/t/homey-bridge-local-devices/52384>\
**Category:** Questions & Help\
**Tags:** homey-bridge\
**Created:** [September 29, 2021, 9:13am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/homey-bridge-local-devices/52384 "2021-09-29T09:13:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 6

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robertklep](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/robertklep/32/160628_2.png) [@robertklep](https://community.homey.app/u/robertklep)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2021, 6:45am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/homey-bridge-local-devices/52384/6 "2021-10-02T06:45:19Z")

</div>

> [@Peter\_Kawa](#):
>
> As said in the AMA YT video, they don’t want the target audience have to fiddle with IP addresses, API keys and what not.

That’s just a load of BS: most devices use autodiscovery nowadays (so no need for IP-addresses) and have “open” local access (so no API keys).

I can think of at least 4 reasons why Homey Bridge doesn’t support local networked devices:

- the built-in main microcontroller is too limited to be able to handle a decent amount of network traffic;
- because apps run in the cloud, all that local network traffic has to be uploaded to the cloud to be processed in the app there; when the app needs to send commands to local network devices, it’s the other way around: data has to be downloaded and sent to the local device (the Bridge basically has to become a network proxy);
- protocols like mDNS, SSDP, UDP don’t proxy very well;
- Athom doesn’t like paying for bandwidth, and they can’t really control the amount of local network data that has to be sent back and forth to the cloud.

---

_[View the full topic](https://community.homey.app/t/homey-bridge-local-devices/52384)._