Onvis Smart Button

Five single-click buttons, room for fifteen actions, works on Thread or Bluetooth ... what more could you ask for? I set this up to control our bedroom fan/light. We have a (Thread-connected) controller in the canopy which allows for dimming of the light and setting the fan to various speeds. Setting up this button (center button #1 for the light, with a single click bringing it to our normal 60%, a long click bringing it up to 100%, and a double click turning it off; button 2 turn fan off; 3-5 for high, medium, and low fan speeds) was easy and intuitive via the app. PERFORMANCE: Responsiveness is good. Not "instant" like a hard-wired button would be, but about a half second between click and the light responding. Just as a note, our thread router is a HomePod Mini about ten feet and one normal (hollow) wall away from the button, and the light canopy it is controlling is another ten feet away in the center of the room. The physical proximity and thus signal strength might be a key to how well all responds. FORM/STYLE: It is a little bulky mounted on the wall, but far from terrible. It has a quality feel, feeling solid either on the wall or in hand. Doesn't really matter"go" with any decor style, so really is its own "tech" style; I suspect in 5-10 years more stylized versions will be available to replace this without standing out on the wall like a sore thumb. But, we don't live in the future, and this is about the best the present has to offer unless you're happy with a single button. THE UGLY: On the "Ugly" side, the only criticism I have is that the setup for the app says that your Homekit Hub *must* be a Thread Border Router. For us, that meant I had to designate our non-ethernet-connected Apple TV (new, but in the guest bedroom) as the Home Hub, which seems destined to cause Apple Home issues. We haven't seen any yet, but this seems like a very odd requirement that really shouldn't be the case, and hasn't been a requirement for any of the other Thread devices we have. I haven't done any experiments to see what happens if our ethernet-connected AppleTV (the general before Thread came out, so not Thread compatible) is the designated Home Hub instead so I'm not sure really what is driving this requirement for the Onvis button. This *might* be something they correct either through an app or a button firmware update in the future. One note: for a week our Eve app has been reporting that this is connected via Bluetooth instead of Thread. After looking for solutions to this, I ran across a suggestion on Reddit that said to try restarting the phone. Immediately after doing so, now the Eve app shows it as connected to Thread. I'm not sure if the issue is a cosmetic one with the Eve app (not looking at updates from the button) or the button (missing something in the Thread spec that needs to be sent out when it connects to the router etc?), or if this was a real issue with the button (meaning that it actually stayed connected to my Bluetooth until I restarted the phone ... but I've gone miles out of bluetooth range several times so that seems unlikely). In any case, it now shows up as on the Thread network.

I’m an avid user of the Apple HomeKit smart home environment. I have 60+ smart devices currently installed in my home. I’m always on the lookout for new and innovative smart home products. I purchased the Onvis 5-Keys Smart Switch HS2 to control various devices and scenes in my home theatre. This product is a win for anyone with family members that aren’t keen about smart home technology. Some people just don’t like controlling things like lights with their phone or their voice. They prefer the tactile feel of a switch. This is where the HS2 shines. With single button click, the theatre lighting is set. The long click has been programmed to turn everything off. On the technology side the switch utilizes Thread communications which is great for anyone like me with a busy home WIFI network. Connecting it to my smart home was quick and easy. Each of the 5 buttons have 3 actions: single click, double click, and click and hold. This means you can control 15 individual devices or scenes. Using Apple Shortcuts, you can even double this number to 30. A single click can be programmed to turn a device on when it’s off or off if already on. The combinations feel limitless. I was happy to see that the switch came in minimal paper packaging with no plastic. The device itself has a high-quality look and feel. They also include an extra adhesive pad for installing the magnetic base. On top of that, they added small stickers that can be used to identify what each button does. Shipping the device without the included battery installed is also a nice touch to ensure you always start with a fully charged battery. The first time I used the device in the dark, I was surprised to see glow-in-the-dark marking to identify the orientation of the switch. Great foresight here! I should also mention that the buttons themselves produce a very satisfying click when used. I’ve been using the HS2 for about a month now and overall, I’ve very happy with it. With so many possible configurations and Thread communications, it’s my new go to for this type of smart home accessory. I’ll likely be buying more. Another great product from Onvis to enhance our smart homes.

Unreliable with Apple Homekit. It works great until it is mysteriously just "Unavailable". No way to troubleshoot anything; it just stops communicating with Apple Home. The only way to get it working again is to remove the accessory from Homekit and reinstall it and reassign automations. Might work a few minutes to several days and then fails to work anymore. Tried 2 different Apple TV's with same results. Switch is within 10 feet of Apple TV. The Onvis App fails at any attempts to add an accessory, so there's not even an ability to install a firmware update or use it for troubleshooting or operatecit directly. No more Onvis for me! By comparison, my Lutron Caseta switches are rock solid.

My wife hates home automation—she’s convinced it’s one step away from Skynet. This button actually made her feel a lot better. It was simple for me to set up in HomeKit, and even easier for her to use. We started with just a couple of lights, and now she can control the living room and outside lights without any hassle. With 5 buttons and multiple functions per button, there’s plenty of room to expand. I liked it enough to get a second one for myself. Sorry, Siri.

I had gotten several of these buttons a year ago. I have them set up around the house programmed to do various actions (and shortcuts). They have been very reliable up until I installed iOS 17.4. After some great technical support by Onvis*, they had narrowed down my reliability/non-functionality problem. Turns out which ever device is your active hub will make a difference for whether the button will work. Seems the implementation of Threading in HomeKit is not what I expected and the HS2 relies on Threading to function. I have a handful of HomePod minis, 2 AppleTV 4Ks, and 2 AppleTV HDs. The HomePods and AppleTV 4Ks support Threading. The AppleTV HDs do not. If HomeKit decides to put an AppleTV HD as the active hub, my Onvis HS2s stop functioning. If I restart the AppleTV HD that is the active hub and one of my AppleTV 4Ks ends up "in charge" then Threading works again. Not quite sure why the implementation is such (which I think is "dumb") but that was the cause of my intermittent non-functioning of the HS2s. Seems I'll be replacing my HDs with 4Ks (ugh!) and taking the HDs off the network (or at least HomeKit). Here's to hoping Apple can change how this behaves (including adding user prioritization for certain devices). All in all the HS2s have been great and HomeKit was a major (the major) selling point for me as that is the ecosystem I use. My only major complaint is the stickers which came with it didn't work for some of what I had them programmed to do. I also had issues deciding how to label each button when each button has three options. For some of them I busted out my label maker with clear tape. Some are just not labeled and you "just have to know". I don't want to say this is one of those cases where too many options is a "bad thing" since it is very handy to have 5 buttons with 15 different actions which can be done. Having others in the house know what the buttons do, however, has been a challenge. They usually just remember a couple of high use options and forget the rest. * I really don't know what I was expecting for support from Onvis. Until now I've never had to call on their support. Some of the other companies I have needed support from weren't "bad", per se, but sometimes the time it took to respond wasn't the quickest (timezone differences?!?) and some of them weren't the most technically saavy. This was definitely not the case with my interaction with Onvis tech support. They were (1) very quick to respond and (2) seemed very knowledgeable about both their product and the technologies behind how their product functions. It was very refreshing. I appreciated that. Maybe I got lucky with the person I was talking with...but I'm hopeful it's applicable to all or most of their tech support personnel.

Overall good experience, paid a premium for a device that fits my ecosystem (matter/apple homekit). Connecting the device is easy for homekit, configuration is a bit clunky with all of the switches on the same device, even if you separate them. I only use it in one room and because of the price I will probably hold off on adding any more. Some issues reconnecting after it was removed, it had to be factory reset (these instructions are in the guide). Usecase: Using apple homekit, I have an Apple TV acting as a Thread manager. It connected easily once my phone was on the same wifi. Currently this controls some nights stand lights (nanoleaf) and a smart outlet that controls bed frame lighting. The main issue that I'm having is trying to bind a color or brightness to various switches, it seems like the nanoleaf bulbs struggle with this, so for now I only have a few settings primarily on/off. This also has a decent response time, there will be some lag because its wireless but that is just the technology. Improvements: This thing is too expensive, just because it is the highest rated matter switch doesn't mean it should be $30+ for a single switch. I could hear a supply and demand argument for their case but for what it actually is, its too much. It is bulky, If they had an implementation with 2 or 3 switches that could fit inside a single gang box that would probably sell well. I do not know anyone that could use 15 different switch states for a room and making it household remote seems crazy with how easy it would be to lose it; ie/ if you have kids you might as well put an airtag on it or something. End of review.

If you are careful with it, it does work. The problem is the battery cover prongs are SO flimsy that they are easily damaged. If you break the wrong one, the battery loses contact and it doesn’t work. Then you tape it together and it looks crappy.

As much as I love the convenience of a smart home, having to constantly say "Hey, Siri!" any time I want to change a lighting scheme gets a bit irritating. Especially when she decides to talk back for any reason... It's really _in_convenient to tell her to turn out all the lights as you're going to bed and your partner is already asleep, only to have her announce loudly that one of the lights isn't responding. I keep this device by my bed for the most part, so I can easily manipulate various scenes without having to talk or be talked back to. I use it primarily to control lights, but it can trigger any scene you can configure in Home. It's five buttons, and each button can be pressed once, twice, or a long press. That gives it a total of 15 actions it can be programmed to perform. A little much for my use case, but it's nice to have that flexibility, for sure. One caveat I stumbled across. The 'reset to factory defaults' is done by pressing and holding the center button for an extra-long press. This did cause me some trouble. I had the center button's long press to set dim a set of lights. Due to an issue unrelated to this switch, those lights were often unresponsive in the Home app. I sometimes would hold the button too long, waiting for the unresponsive lights to dim, but then accidentally reset the button and lose all my programming. I eventually reconfigured the switch to not use the center long-press at all, just to avoid that. I might knock half a star off for that, but overall I love having this.

Doesn’t work

Solía pensar que era algo lento porque lo configure para usar unas luces pero me di cuenta que el problema eran los focos que usaban WiFi y por eso en ocasiones reaccionaban lento. Este fue mi primer accesorio que uso que funciona usando Thread y estoy por comprar más de la misma marca. Por lo barato que está vale mucho la pena. Voy a comprar más para tener en mi casa ya que es muy útil tener 3 usos por cada botón (en total 15) así que me facilitaría mucho las automatizaciones o escenas.

Buscaba switches matter over thread y tuve muy buenas referencias de este botón. Sé que es caro y en México más, pero aunque no es matter es excelente para lo que tengo en casa. Es de reacción muy rápida y no se nota frágil. Ojalá duren, compré tres.

Es un dispositivo perfecto, jamás se desconecta, tengo 2, uno en el mismo cuarto que el border router y otro un piso abajo y los 2 funcionan a la perfección. Solo ojo, yo pensé que eran matter y no, solo son thread y funcionan únicamente con homekit.

Perfecto para controlar múltiples dispositivos desde un solo lugar