Dang it! I just purchased a ton of Kasa smart switches to replace a different brand I already have installed. I had a few Kasa switches already and was using the smart actions with them, which is the reason I bought more to replace the other brand I had, but then just found out it's limited to 3 when I installed another one and tried to setup smart actions. Shame on me for not looking further into this! Who would've thought it would be limited? Very bad design decision. I guess I need to return what I just bought. There is no way I'm going to spend the time replacing the rest if there is no definitive answer on when or if the number will increase.

@danddc I get the frustration with the App capabilities - but there are better options out there to take advantage of the hardware capabilities and there is no need to dismiss the physical devices when excellent - better - alternative control systems exist. 

Please just give Alexa a try - you don't even need any Amazon/Alexa devices - just download the app and register to your Amazon account or create one if you don't have one - all free, nothing additional to pay for, does not need a 'Prime' account. You have way more versatility with what you want to do within Alexa and it is so simple to get your devices in there from the Kasa App. And there are unlimited groups or scenes that you can create there. 

The only thing I use the Kasa App for (and this goes for other brand devices I have and their respective apps) is just to install the device to begin with (exception being the KS220M Motion Detect Switch where the settings are a bit special) 

Who knows, once you have it all set up you might even buy an Echo device so you can execute your commands by voice.:) 

If anyone needs a walk-through of how to get your devices into Alexa and how to utilize that, let me know & I'll create a tutorial for it. 

I just went through this with my neighbour who bought his first HS200 Switches for his outdoor lights after hitting the smart actions limitations. He does not own any Alexa devices yet but we got him on his way in 15 mins. 

post script Edit 
Another advantage of going with Alexa to control your desired scenes is that you are not limited to just the Kasa brand devices - you can group and control mix/match devices from ANY manufacturer once they are enabled into Alexa. 

A VERY basic getting started:

1. Download Alexa App and Register to your Amazon Account (if you don't have one, sign up, a basic account is free, no need for Prime) 

2. Once you have Alexa App open, ckick on 'more' and select Skills and Games 

3. Use the 'search' spyglass icon and enter TP-Link Kasa

4. Select the TP-Link Kasa (should be the first one) for Smart Home

5. Enable Skill 

6. Follow the Account Linking process to Link Alexa to your Kasa App (enter the log-in details) 

Once your Kasa Account is linked, Alexa will automatically 'discover' all your Kasa Devices 

(you can similarly link other skills for your other brand devices) 

Then you can set up groups or Routines 

Setting up Routines should be fairly inuititive - it will walk you through the process within the app as to how you want to trigger it (time schedule or whatever) and what you need to control - whether that is a device or a group or a number of individual devices; and you can tell them to turn on at a given level if they are dimmable devices.

e.g. My New Kasa 3-Way Dimmer Switch 

I have it automated to come on at Sunset at 20% to illuminate my staircase. 

So Select 'more' 

Routines 

Select + to Add New Routine 

Enter Routine Name 

Select 'when this happens' 

In this example select 'schedule' 

Put in a specific time or can choose Sunset 

If you select Sunset, you can then offset to start x mins before or after, and select on which days you want your routine to run 

Select Next 

Select 'Add action' 

This time scroll down to 'Smart Home' and select that 

Select from All devices, Lights or Control Group (if you have already grouped some switches or lamps together e.g. I have 8 outdoor lights switches which are divided into 3 sub-groups and one master group) 

In this simple case, open all devices and scroll to select the switch you want (for this example its my Stair Lights Switch) 

You get a new screen for Power and Brightness - set these (power would be for the 'On' condition here and Brightness as you choose) 

Then next and 'Save' 

That creates your 'on' routine, you do similarly for an 'off' Routine with a specific time (or whatever else you choose) 

Hope that is enough to get you going - as said, it's very intuitive once you start the process, after you get the devices into Alexa with the linked skill 

@DEcosse Appreciate the response. We actually already use Alexa extensively, with many echo devices through out the house. We also use Google home as well with several nest hubs as well. I gorups setup in both systems and use routines on Alexa; however, the one thing that can not be done with Alexa that, or at least I don't see any options to do this, is setup auto off times, which is what I wanted to use the smart action for. So far I have it setup to Auto-off our fireplace if it is left on for too long, and some lights that get left on often. I wanted to do the same with many others, which is where the limitation came in.

To my knowledge, I don't think there is a workaround to this without using their app.

danddc wrote

... the one thing that can not be done with Alexa that, or at least I don't see any options to do this, is setup auto off times, which is what I wanted to use the smart action for. So far I have it setup to Auto-off our fireplace if it is left on for too long, and some lights that get left on often.

@danddc Yes. you can do this within the Alexa Routines

I just tested this with my Stove (fireplace) 

Set up Routine to turn on as you normally would (voice command or schedule or whatever) 

then add a 'Wait' command 

then add the 'off' command

You can then drag and drop* the three actions so the sequence is on, wait, off

* this is important to re-arrange the three actions for the correct order) 

I just tested with my stove with a 30 second auto off and it worked perfectly (of course the 30 seconds was just for a quick confirmation for demo - you can set for any max time you like up to 4 hrs 59 mins and 59 secs - so 5 hrs essentially) 

@DEcosse that only works when the routine is triggered via Alexa. State event data for the Kasa switch is only sent to their cloud, so there is no way to trigger the routine in alexa other than by using the Alexa app itself or using a voice command. I want the tigger to be an actual push on the switch. This is what I'm trying to achieve. When someone pushes on one of the kasa switches, I want it start a timer, turn on another switch, etc. I don't think this can be done without using their app and where the limitation exists.

The one limitation that is in Alexa, is that you cannot create a routine based on simply that the device is actually on as Alexa cannot use device states as one of the trigger actions; so for example if you turned the stove on manually it would not auto-off

ah I was posting that at same time as you were replying with same limitation 

So there is another way to do - although a little more complicated (convoluted even) and involves using SmartThings also - but it will work. What you have to do in Smart Things is create a virtual switch - this then mimics the action of the actual switch So when the actual switch is on, the virtual switch also reflects that.

Within Alexa, a Virtual Switch IS a Smart Home device that can be selected as a trigger (when this happens ....)

So you enable the SmartThings skill to get the Virtual Switch in there then set up your new routine that says when virtual switch is on wait x time and turn off As I say convoluted but is possible to do it that way

(So that is only if you want Alexa to utilize an auto-off routine) Actually using SmartThings directly it's even easier - you don't need the virtual switch at all for this purpose, you can just set up an automation directly - unlike Alexa SmartThings WILL allow a device state as the trigger 

And since this type of automation is running purely in the background, you don't even need to access the app once its been set up 

Again I just tested this with setting up the 'auto off' automation in SmartThings - set it up and closed the app 

Then commanded Stove to be on and the auto-off worked at the preselected time just as written 

Like Alexa,. SmartThings is free and you don't need a SmartThings hub to utilize it 

@DEcosse Awesome! I'll have to give that a try. Thanks!

@DEcosse So I setup a SmartThings account and setup an automated action on the devices, but unfortunately it does not work when a push on the switch is initiated. The event is never triggered unless you force the app to refresh the state of the switch (basically polls tp-link for the current state), at which point, the automation action is triggered. I don't think tp-link forwards any sate changing events that happen to any subscribers (i.e. SmartThings) and therefore nothing is never transmitted.

Such a bummer! This would’ve been a good workaround if real-time state information was disseminated to any subscribers, but doesn't appear that is the case.