Make any switch smart with this clever connected device
For those situations in life where it would be nice to have a smart device but you just can’t upgrade, for price or effort reasons, the SwitchBot Bot could well be for you. It will automatically control practically any switch or button on any device. The Bots are a touch ugly and can obscure the manual control, but for those situations where you want a smart robot finger, there’s really nothing quite like this product.
Pros
- Works with any button or switch
- Highly configurable
- Extra features when paired to Hub
Cons
- Looks a bit ugly
- Can obscure a switch or button
- Hub costs extra
There’s a time we all face when building a smart home: we look at the ‘dumb’ kit we’ve got installed, realize that we’re perfectly happy with it and just can’t face the upheaval and cost of replacing it with the smart version.
If that scenario sounds familiar to you, then the SwitchBot Bot could be for you.
Think of the SwitchBot Bot ($29/£29) as a kind of programmable electric finger, designed to prod buttons and flip existing switches so that existing kit from kettles to garage openers can be made smart.
It’s surprisingly flexible and powerful, although a little ugly if you have to have it on display.
Read on for our full SwitchBot Bot review.
SwitchBot Bot: Design and installation
The SwitchBot Bot is a battery-powered box with a robot arm that comes out of the front.
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With its sticky pad, the Bot is built to be attached to a flat surface near the switch or button that you want to control.

In most cases, it’s easy to find a way to do this: most appliances, light switches and the like are big enough to take the bot.
If the switch that you want to control is on an irregular surface, then the Bot may not fit.
More: SwitchBot Curtain review
There are two ways to install this bot, the first is the standard one, where the arm comes out and presses a button.
If you’ve got a rocket switch that you need to control, then you need the optional stick-on arms. These stick to the switch you want to control, then loop around the Bot’s arm.
The SwitchBot Bot then pushes the switch in one direction and pulls up to turn the switch off.

That’s a huge amount of flexibility and the SwitchBot Bot has plenty of power. In most cases, if there’s a button or switch you want to press automatically, then the SwitchBot will work for you.
It’s quite an ugly device, particularly when stuck to a switch, to the point where I wouldn’t particularly want a SwitchBot on display.
I see this as a device for controlling things out of sight.

The other issue is that the SwitchBot Bot can obscure the control it’s mounted over. In some cases, this might not make a difference, but if you still want to use a device manually, say turning on a kettle, then just be aware that the Bot may make this difficult.
There’s a CR2 battery inside, which it’s claimed will last for up to 600 days (almost two years). Expect that figure to change if you use the Bot a lot or require it to press down for long periods.

SwitchBot Bot: Features and control
Out of the box, the SwitchBot Bot is a Bluetooth only device. With your phone in range, you can control the button locally, but there’s a bit of configuration that needs to be done first.
In the initial state, the SwitchBot Bot is programmed to press a button only. It performs a short tap, which is enough to turn on an espresso machine but not for anything where a button needs to be held down, such as for a garage opener.
In this case, the SwitchBot Bot needs to be programmed to hold the button for a set period: between 0 and 60 seconds are the option.
If you’re controlling a flip switch, then there’s a switch mode with on and off options. Again, you can program the press length.
Finally, there’s a crazy advanced customize mode, where you can programme a number of presses with delays between them, say tapping a mode button on a smart kettle to set a specific temperature.
This latter option probably won’t get a lot of use but it’s nice to have.

In Bluetooth mode, each Bot can store up to 10 scheduled presses locally. These are completely offline, so will work regardless of whether you have an internet connection or not, you just need to be in Bluetooth range of your phone.
Used with a wall socket, you could – for example – turn off a router and turn it back on 30 seconds later to reboot it; with a smart plug, turning off the internet runs the risk that the routine to turn the router back on can’t trigger.

To get more features, the SwitchBot Bot needs to be connected to the SwitchBot Hub Mini ($30/£30), which doubles up as an IR blaster, too.
Once connected, the obvious advantage is that you get remote control of your Bots. It’s largely reliable, although I’ve had a few times when the Bots haven’t responded to a press.
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However, it’s the extras that really stand out. First, you get advanced routines, which SwitchBot calls Scenes.
Scenes can simply be scheduled, similar to Routines, but you can also trigger them using other SwitchBot smart sensors; there’s a window/door sensor, motion sensor and temperature/humidity sensor. Scenes seem very reliable, and I’ve not had one fail.

I’d like a bit more complexity in them, such as an option to run multiple actions with a delay between them. Say, turning on a device, waiting a few seconds for it to boot and then using a second Bot to set a specific mode.
Some additional complexity is available through the connections: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT and SmartThings are all compatible.