Why mqtt and broker

I have seen several instances using MQTT and a broker to share info
I wonder why:
Why not using the Athom/Homey cloud to share the info between devices and user?

Is the aim of using MQTT on Homey to exclude the programming UI of Homey?
thanks

MQTT is a well-known, centralized (meaning you need a broker), publish/subscribe protocol that is used by applications and devices to pass information to each other. It’s a relatively common protocol used for home automation and Internet-of-Things.

Because Homey doesn’t support MQTT out of the box, there are various Homey apps that use the protocol. Some apps are just practical (the MQTT Broker app allows you to run a broker on Homey), other apps implement device support (Tasmota devices use MQTT to interact with the outside world), and some apps use MQTT to allow other home automation systems to interact with Homey (like the MQTT Hub app).

Why not use the Athom/Homey cloud for this?

  • the cloud doesn’t store data, it’s merely a proxy between the outside world and your Homey
  • the official way of interacting with Homey programmatically, the Web API, is “not yet available for 3rd party developers”.
  • even if it were available, it’s non-standard.

Is the aim of using MQTT on Homey to exclude the programming UI of Homey?

The aim of using MQTT is to provide a (relatively) standardized way for Homey (apps) to communicate with other systems.

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Thanks a lot
very nice explanation
finally I understood MQTT and the limitations intrinsic to Homey in the IoT world

It appears I don’t even need Homey once it is so specific
why not using a Rasperry PI 4 Gateway and Home Assistant for an IoT project?!

In any case I need a broker to store my data

People like it that Homey offers an integrated package that supports the most common IoT hardware protocols (Zigbee, Z-Wave, WiFi, 433Mhz, 868Mhz), and they feel that Homey is more userfriendly than Home Assistant.

I prefer Home Assistant myself: it doesn’t depend on a small company, it’s completely open and it runs on a lot of hardware platforms. Because I mainly use Zigbee-devices (well, and WiFi), I like it that Home Assistant (or rather deCONZ) supports much more devices than Homey does, and it’s very stable.

Homey is indeed easy while home assistant is quite complex. But the glancing feature of homey are aweful. You want an overview of all the temperatures in your house? Forget it with homey.
I’m now trying to get it all in home assistant with MQTT, but that’s another layer of complicated.

There is an app for that :wink:

While that catchline suits Apple it doesn’t so much for Homey. I need to go: more, apps, scroll to the bottom and access temperature monitor, config app, wait.
Or is there an easier way?

It’s quite strange that the tiles on the devices tab have so much room, they could easily have a battery icon and the temperature and the humidity and it would still be easy to read :slight_smile:

You could try homeydash :yum:

It could be just me but I don’t get this working inside Safari. I log in and it displays this: