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Don't get bogged down by smart home devices, just push a button and swipe

Bruce Brown
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Did you really sign on to be your family’s smart home device manager? Equipping your home with a suite of smart home devices can make your home smarter.  But unless it’s easy for all family members to activate the basic device actions, you could find yourself expected to run everything — which wasn’t the original idea.

Tantiv4 has a solution to simplify and combine smart home device settings and control. FetchItGo is a remote control panel that uses If This Then That (IFTTT) recipes to manage smart home devices. There are 16 buttons on the FetchItGo. Using a smartphone app you can configure each button with an IFTTT recipe, which is a script of control steps compatible with most major smart home brands such as Nest, Hue, Lifx, Spotify, Logitech, and others. FetchItGo is currently in a Kickstarter campaign.

You can write your own labels with an included dry erase marker on the remote panel and attach it to a wall or a central appliance such as a refrigerator. Once you’ve programmed one of the buttons, all you or anyone else in your family has to do is press the button and swipe a panel just below the buttons to confirm or “trigger” the request.

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So if, for example, you want to turn on the outside lights, start the coffee maker, set the temperature to a preset level, or start a Spotify playlist, just press the proper button, swipe, and that is it. You can also configure buttons to add items to grocery lists you can send via SMS or Whatsapp, remind people to take medication, find your phone, or any of a myriad number of tasks and devices supported by simple-to-set-up IFTTT recipes.

The FetchItGo package includes the 16-button remote panel, a gateway device, an Ethernet cable, a power cable and adapter, and a dry erase marker. The gateway plugs into an internet router via a wire connection. When the gateway gets a signal from the remote, it signals the appropriate smart home devices to carry out the configured actions.

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Even though you can use your smartphone to set up the FetchItGo buttons, once configured your phone doesn’t need to be in range. As much as you may enjoy voice commands with Alexa or Google Voice, using FetchItGo is silent and there is no concern about being misunderstood. FetchItGo is scheduled for delivery in the summer, with special pricing available on the Kickstarter page through Saturday.

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Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown
Contributing Editor
Digital Trends Contributing Editor Bruce Brown is a member of the Smart Homes and Commerce teams. Bruce uses smart devices…
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