Smart Action 2.0 - Unlock Next-Level Smart Home Automation
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Tapo Smart Actions 2.0: Geofencing, Conditional Automations, Custom Notifications, and More!
The Smart Actions for Tapo has received a complete overhaul, bringing some of your most requested features, such as Conditional Automations, Custom Sensor Durations, Geofencing, and much more! The features are rolling out to everyone over the coming weeks, so make sure to check your app store for any updates to the Tapo App!
🌍 Location-Based Automations with Geofencing!
You can now automate your home based on your phone’s location. It's now possible to have your lights turned on whenever you arrive home or to automatically save energy by turning your devices off when you leave home.
- Your Phone can be used as a location trigger in automations.
- Multiple Phones and Locations can be used for automation.
- Customizable Zone for detecting location.
- Optional Enhanced Location Can Greatly Improve Location Accuracy
Learn More About Tapo’s Geofencing Feature
⚠️Create Conditional Automations
It is now possible to add additional limits and conditions to your automations!
When creating a Smart Action, you will see an added section for “IF.” Adding a Condition in this section will only allow your automation to proceed if the conditions are met.
After adding an “If” statement to your automation, you will see a dropdown allowing you to change whether the automation will be triggered if all the conditions are met or if any of the conditions are met.
The conditions allowed vary by device but are often like the triggers you see for devices. Below are the conditions that the team was able to find throughout the app.
- Contact Sensors: Open, Closed
- Water Leak Sensor: Sensor Activated, Sensor Normal
- Motion Sensors: Coming Soon!
- Cameras: Privacy Mode On, Privacy Mode Off
- Lights / Plugs / Switches: Device On, Device Off
- Temperature Sensors: Temperature Over, Temperature Below, Temperature within a Specified Range; Humidity Over, Humidity Below, Humidity Within a Specific Range
🔔 Custom Notifications for Automations and Shortcuts
With the new automation action “Send Me Notifications,” you can now send a customizable notification to the phones on which you have installed the Tapo app.
This can be useful as another method of alerting you of changes to your home sensors or verifying that your smart home and automations are working as expected.
🗣️Seamless Integration with Siri Shortcuts
It has never been easier to control your Tapo Smart home from your iOS device, whether through the improved integration with your Siri Voice Assistant, your home screen widgets, or the improved integration between Siri and Tapo shortcuts.
The new Shortcuts Quick Control option allows you to quickly select which shortcuts you would like added to your Siri Shortcuts and Widgets. Once you set a shortcut, you will have no problem using your devices in the Shortcuts app and the rest of your Apple ecosystem!
Don't Use the Apple Ecosystem? The Shortcut Quick Controls will also allow you to select shortcuts on your widgets and your Tapo App's home screen.
Even More to Discover!
⌛Customizable Time Durations for Motion and Contact Sensors
It is now possible to set a custom duration for your sensor’s automations. This means that your motion and contact sensors will not trigger your automation until a device is in a specific state for a period of time (‘x’ minutes).
e.g. No Motion for ‘X’ Minutes, Door Kept Open for ‘X’ Minutes
(30 Seconds to 1 Hour)
📝 Simplified Automation Creation
Select Multiple Devices: New Automation and Shortcut option for Select Multiple Devices when Creating Your Automations
Duplicate Shortcuts: Create Duplicate Shortcuts and Automations for Easy Editing and Testing of New Actions
History: Quickly View a timeline of events for an automation
🕒Add In-Action Delays to Your Automations!
Creating In-Action Delays allows for more intricate automations and sequences of actions. Alternatively, you can use the feature to keep your lights on, even if motion is no longer detected.
We recommend utilizing the new delays by creating an automation that will begin dimming your lights after motion is no longer detected, adding a delay or buffer for a few minutes, and finally, an action to turn off the lights.
📖 See Problems in Your Automation and Shortcut History
- If an automation or shortcut fails to execute correctly, your automation and shortcut history will allow you to see what parts of the action failed and provide a summary of how your automations work.
- Available for Both Individual Automations and all Automations
- History View for All Automations is on Your Automation Home Screen
Common Questions:
Can I use Tapo’s Smart Action 2.0 Platform with Kasa Devices?
Yes! The improvements to the automation platform can benefit all Kasa devices in the Tapo app. However, you must still configure and manage these automations from the Tapo app.
Learn More About Integrating Your Kasa Devices to the Tapo App
Do these new Smart Actions use the New Local Smart Action Feature?
It depends mainly on the devices used in your automation – some devices still require an active internet connection for smart actions to function.
Recently, the H100 and H200 Tapo Smart Hubs received an update adding support for local smart actions. This means the devices do not need to communicate with the internet but can instead communicate directly with each other through the hub.
With the new Smart Action platform, this feature has become even more powerful, allowing for quicker automations and increased stability. Local Smart Actions require a compatible smart hub and can be identified by a Tapo home icon in the upper right of the automation card.
Learn More About Local Smart Actions in Our Introduction to the Feature
*Note: Previous versions of the Tapo app cannot manage automations created using the new Smart Action 2.0 platform. Please make sure to update the app on all your devices.
Ready to Get Started with Tapo’s New Smart Actions 2.0?
Comment
Smart Things 2.0 is easy and intuitive to use. I've set up a number of conditional smart actions quickly such as motion activated porch lights that also trigger alarms and make the porch bulb red in color if it's between certain hours and if the bedroom light is not on. There's still a couple of improvements that could be made of course, like possibly creating a priority order in case of conflicts, but overall I'm satisfied with the system in place.
Thanks for the feedback and your example! If you don't mind sharing, what do you have the color signify in your home? Is it an indicator for someone to be quiet when they enter?
For the priority order, are you referring to what happens when multiple smart actions are meant to take effect at the same time?
If it is something as simple as changing the color of a light, you could see if adding a delay to the color change automation will help restore the light to its expected color if another automation is triggered and changes the light back to normal - or you could add a condition that will check to see if the light is already on.
If you have a specific use case, I would be more than happy to forward it along with the feedback so that we can better understand how the feature could be used.
The color is a separate bulb that lights up red to signify the presence of a triggered sensor (in this case, a door opening) that occurs during set hours in the wee hours of the morning. This color bulb is accompanied by an unpleasant sound coming from the H100 hubs and many lights coming on. This is for the purpose of alerting not only the possibly slumbering residents inside, but also any uninvited guests that their presence has been noticed and that everyone inside is aware of that presence, and hopefully that is enough to nip the situation in the bud.
Normally that bulb and other color bulbs light up with a typical warm glow around 2700K, the red color is hopefully a deterrent effect (along with the blaring hubs). And that's where things are a bit hazy. If those same bulbs light up with a welcoming warm color, how do they know to light up an angry red color during those early morning hours. Is it simply because the "red" period resides within the "normal" period? If there are two rules that could potentially be triggered simultaneously, who wins? Now I can certainly manage this simply by using an independent door sensor that acts in an "arm/disarm" role (the "if" conditional statement), but what about in a scenario where no sucha additional conditional sensor exists?
This is why I'm wondering if being able to create a rule priority order would definitively establish which rule "wins" if there's a seeming conflict.
Gotcha. I'll check with the rest of the team to see if there is a priority built into the system, but we suspect that you are correct in that the effective time creates a 'priority' for the automation - but this still brings into question what happens when there are identical effective times set.
For your case specifically, you might actually consider setting the reverse effective time to guarantee no overlap - meaning that you might consider limiting your ambient light smart action, at least if you see odd behaviors.
I do think that your solution of adding an additional door sensor is one of the better solutions, due to the fact that it adds so much more control in the forms of both triggers and conditions. It could even allow you to split your automation so that the sirens only ring once the door is open, but turn the bulb red for motion.
My team did mention that adding a delay for some actions, may improve their reliability by ensuring that their commands are sent after any other automations are fired, but this doesnt apply to all automations such as your case when quick responses are a priority.
Glad I could throw you an actual curve ball worth pondering.
I'll experiment independently later. Using the separate trigger is great, but obviously depends on someone being home to toggle it vs being able to set it remotely. And maybe that's where messing with the geofencing will come into play.
Hello there!
I have my bearded dragon's tank hooked with some TP-Link smart plugs for his UV and heat lamps. Could this be a good instnace of using a temperature sensor to activate some extra heat if the tank drops below a certain temp?
I saw that update on the H200 hub. I am always glad to see companies allowing the users to be more local and not require the internet to use things.
Hey @CaptMike,
This is actually a great use for the sensor and plugs! My brother uses the same setup for his bearded dragon's tank :)
What he has also found this useful for is long-term tracking of the tank environment to see if changes in timers and such should be made. He says that it is easy to miss the small temperature changes that happen over the course of a season, but the graph lets him see if timers or adjustments need to be made to maintain a consistent environment.
Hey @Sandman1763,
We are always working to make sure that our devices are both secure and accessible. Fortunately, many of the new standards and protocols, such as Matter, allow our teams to create devices that meet these expectations.
As Matter releases more updates and more features are added, I am sure that we will see additional features and compatibility added to our smart devices and hubs, especially considering some of the hubs seen at CES this year.