How to identify compatible devices, and how well they are supported?

[Peter_Kawa]

@Steveonline

1. Look up the name of the brand of the device here: Apps for Homey Pro

and/of here for other nice community apps
and/or here for the cloud Homey: apps for Homey beta/cloud/bridge

@Steveonline

If not present, we assume the device is not compatible.

I want to add some of my humble knowledge

• If not present, click on “View Changelog -->” and hit the orange “test” button (if available);
  This reveals the test version of the app, often with support for ‘new’ devices. Test app versions work fine most of the time, and help the developer to find bugs and mistakes. when things go south, you can simply revert from the test version by installing the live version again (Never remove an app, or you lose all devices belonging to that app).
  When the test app also does not show your device of choice, we assume the device is not compatible.

Exceptions:

1. Tuya and Tuya white labeled (like Nedis, Moes) wifi devices, and zigbee devices when you also have a Tuya zibee hub.
   The Tuya Cloud app cannot control all (types of) devices directly from adding them to Homey, but with use of the ‘tap-to-run scenes’ or ‘raw commands’ workarounds, you can control almost anything what is present in your mobile Tuya / Smartlife app, and the other way round. Disadvantage: Cloud dependency

• • (White label) Tuya zigbee devices can look similar, but newer batches can run with slightly different firmware. It is only described on the app’s forum topic list which specific ones are supported. Forum (and support links) are present at the bottom of app pages.

2. Zigbee devices of different brands are not always compatible, unlike z-wave.
   There is no listing as far as I know, but a search or a question on this forum should clear things up.

• • Homey has a generic zigbee driver (read: ‘onboard app’) which can control devices like Lights, Plugs and Switches (relays (and probably wall switches?)). The basic functions are OnOff, Dim and Color

3. Z-wave has a (very) limited generic Homey driver. OnOff is the only function afaik.

@Steveonline

if the app is not official, and it is not recently updated (say 3-4 months), assume you cannot assume the device will be compatible in the future.

Why is that? I run several apps, which aren’t updated for over 3 years and all’s running fine the last 2 years.
But, the change an app is abandoned, or the dev lacks time for support, is probably getting bigger over the years (not over a few months).
And if you mean the SD3 ‘gate’, SDK3 was published almost 2 years ago, with the remark by Athom SDK2 support is ending at some point in time. Which has been combined with the introduction of Homey Pro Early 2023.
The ‘classic’ Homey Early 201x will keep functioning fine with SDK2 apps for now.
Also, when you read this topic, you’ll see the community works and apps are getting transferred to another dev when ‘sh*t hits the fan’.

@Steveonline

If you click on the specific device, is it so that the only functions available are those described under the " Flow cards" list?

No. Not all flow cards seem to be generated. The most general ones.
So, to be sure, use the forum link at the bottom of an app page, to get in contact with other users and developer of a specific app.

@Steveonline

I struggle especially with quite simple devices such as a plug without any specific functions. It seems these devices are rarely listed specifically under the app page, but at best listed as generic plug.

Not sure what you mean here. Simple zigbee/z-wave OnOff plugs should work without an app. But f.i. KaKu / CoCo plugs have to be supported by the KaKu app.

Sorry for the long story . It’s all in all not very straightforward for a number of apps