Matter runs over your WiFi so as long as your server you run Home Assistant on for example has wired or wireless access you are good to go. My Home Assistant is on LAN and wired so no wireless, but they all communicate through the WiFi network. if you have a Bluetooth dongle or onboard, Home Assistant would also use that to pair and communicate if needed.
2.4Ghz WiFi is only supported and no newer generations yet.
Honestly, if I have the option to keep it toggled on/off I’m fine with it, but I also don’t see it in my latest update which came in last night. But not too concerned yet (Pixel 8a) so it’s still pretty new I guess. :)
I tried it the other night on my Pixel (Android 15) and had no issues. I’ve been trying out different launchers in an attempt to find one which isn’t asking for a monthly or yearly sub and has horizontal app drawer as an option! Both of which are getting to be more rare these days. I couldn’t see where to make the drawer scrollable on Lawnchair, so I skipped it for now.
Hands down, Bitwarden app on phone and in browser. Vaultwarden self hosted. Since I host it at home, I know it’s always in my server. The winning thing for me is that Bitwarden Supports Webuathn now, you can use it as it’s own webuathn key you authorize to log in with, so basically go the site you want to login with and when it asks for the webuathn, you can either have Bitwarden use the credentials you stored for it or your own biometric or hardware key instead.
With this, I sign into Authentik for my SSO just by clicking one link, and Bitwarden prompts to log in and I click the option. I’m auto logged into my server and no UN/PW passed to it.
I’ve tested others and nothing quite comes close except for KeepassXC, but for me, it’s a matter of personal preference on my side. I’ve been with Bitwarden since the early days.
Some examples of using Tasker:
When a specific phone contact or contact calls, it raises the volumes to max. This is useful if you went to an appointment, set your phone on silent or vibrate but forgot to reset it. After the call has been completed, it returns the phone to the original volume you set.
When I scan a NFC Tag, i have it send a webhook to my August lock to unlock it. As an apartment dweller, if I go down to the car to unload groceries, the door by default auto locks. This means I have to pull the phone out, unlock it, open the August App, and then tell it to unlock the door and sometimes use the biometric to do so. Having the NFC tag do this means I can put it in my wallet and when I put my phone in the same pocket where the wallet it is, it triggers the door.
When connected to my computer only, it keeps the screen on all the time.
When I launch certain apps, it keeps the screen on until the app is closed. Very useful when you are at the grocery store working within a strict budget and want to see how much you have put in to the cart!
I have a widget on my screen which toggles my Private DNS on/off. This allows me to disable the adblock dns I use if I encounter a public wifi which insists I disable it. (I usually stay away from those, and use my mobile data, but sometimes it’s unavoidable when there is so much interference your 5G goes to NONE and you have to be there for a while.)
Likewise, I have a widget which toggles my Tailscale connection on/off which comes in handy as well. Again, if the Wifi spot rejects custom DNS’s and I’m in the scenario above.
If you have a Google Account (Sadly, this is the only way). You can view the list of profiles/tasks which other people have built. It’s a growing list. https://taskernet.com/shares/
Using third party software such as Wake on LAN, when I come home and connect to my WiFi, it wakes my computer. (Or really any condition I set to trigger it).
I will say that the dev is very responsive and active in releasing updates and new features.
With that said, it has a slight learning curve which he(the developer) is working on to help simplify things and modernize it more. Since taking over the project from the previous owner, it’s really grown.
I admit though, I used to have a lot more tasks and profiles, but it seems that Android is starting to bake those functions in so it’s not as used on my end. But don’t let it it sway you. Your imagination is the only limit with what you can do with Tasker.
Generally, for less than a cup of coffee, it’s worth the purchase price. :)
I have a TCL ROKU TV which is way too chatty on my network. It sends every single keypress on the remote to their servers (just look into the dev console which is easy enough to see what is logged). I have an adblock dns server on my network
These are just in the last 23 minutes of the hour. As I understand, it’s not always doing this if they are not blocked, but when you block them, it starts to panic!
The advantage of doing this is instead of having the ad on the right side of the home menu, I have a nice translucent adbox with nothing in it… Also, if you look up the secret codes for Roku menus, you can also toggle the ad server they use so sometimes if some slip through, you get some in house tested ones which are sometimes funny. But that’s extremely rare for us.
Our next TV will probably be a display or offline only and be a streaming box with custom firmware such as Librelec or something else when the time comes.
I lost my respect for Asus when I had a Zenwatch 2 (I still have it), and they promised at the time Android Wear 2.0 in front our faces for months promising it would be released, but refused to even give an estimated time of release to OTA. This was well after WearOS 2 was released. Their online forum staff members were rude sometimes about it and other times, never responded to passionate asks about when it would be made available. The fact that they didn’t reply and care about giving any updates or indication at the time, was enough to push me far away from them.
I also use Stealth for my Reddit experience. It also doesn’t support comments or logging in. :) https://f-droid.org/packages/com.cosmos.unreddit/
This may fit the bill some? Harmonoid It allows you to use your local media.
If you don’t mind internet radio, there’s always Radio Garden which allows you to stream any station from almost anywhere in the world.
What about bad actors which swipe the phone, and it’s behind the biometric lock? Too many failed attempts may or may not be a sign of it not working well, so if it bases part of it on the failed attempts, it would lower the chances of being further protected. I know they would ask for the pattern/pin or password to re-enroll the biometric, but let’s assume that’s already known, then game over.
If after 9pm M-F, and I plug it into AC Power (Not USB on desktop), then it mutes all system sounds until I unplug it from the AC power. During said time, if certain people call, it raises the ringer to full so I can answer it.
I still have this enabled, but rarely ever use it, it came in handy about a year ago though - when near any of the WiFi hotspots at my work, then turn volume off, upon leaving the range, volume comes back up. Also, enabled my work profile which set an Autonotification to set a timer on my phone and watch for my break and meal periods. I now am full time WFH, so neither of these come in to play.
While connected to Car bluetooth, cancel my work timers (above).
I was working on but had to put on pause, a Google Voice interceptor - the goal behind it is to auto use Google Voice to make outbound calls if you are not calling a contact in your list otherwise, if you called one of your contacts, it would use your normal phone number.
Taskernet share for above (Google Voice Robot) If link is broken, it should be searchable. It’s not guaranteed to work.
I came pretty close to death I think - I was home recovering from a surgery and woke up early in the morning, short of breath, my heart was racing, and literally felt like it stopped. Naturally, at that time, my bladder decided it need to be relieved so I stumbled breathlessly into the restroom and did my thing. When I stood up, started to lose my hearing and vision for a few seconds, and felt myself starting to collapse, but I managed to catch myself and things restored, I face planted on my bed which got my wife’s attention and 911 was called. All of this was due to a massive pulmonary embolism choking my heart I later learned. The embolism was caused by a clot which traveled up my leg.
Lesson learned: Keep moving after recovering from surgery at home kids! Your life depends on it.
I’ve always felt that we are like clumsy giants to them lumbering on throughout the home with the great strength and dexterity to manipulate objects. In spite of all of this they can swing from loving you to down right cold shoulders on a whim!
My obligatory cat tax. :)
I have a policy - only those who should know my phone number is family and they are very strict about asking me before giving to anyone who asks. So, it’s usually not given. Then for businesses and other places which require a phone number, I use a Google Voice number. From doctors, to banks, or other places. I rarely get the scam calls.
HOWEVER
I get around 6-15 SPAM text messages daily. All 100% Political for Trump, Biden, Harris, or whatever scammer tries to get me to support on my non-shared number. A lot try to guilt you into “donating” to them too! I feel bad because while I won’t fall for it, I know many people already do. I have to use Google Messages to effectively block those automatically.
I have AT & T and complained to them about it to be told that I could change my number, but it would be $40.00 to do so. That’s a big scam in itself and I refused.
Well…since Google is primarily an Ad company…
I just plug into the Private DNS settings dns.adguard-dns.com and run ad free. As for bloat- mine was infested with Facebook and other apps preloaded by Samsung, but it was easy enough to remove by long pressing and deleting it. They fortunately didn’t make them system apps.
With that said, if you are handy with android-tools such as ADB, you can place your phone in debug mode and issue adb commands to disable system apps. Pretty easy once you get the hang of it.
I like to think of it this way in my little bubble. :) I have a Yubkey 5 with NFC. I use passkeylogin into Authentik so all I have to do is plug in my key, unlock it with my master password for the key and touch the disk and I’m logged into my site. If I view the contents of my key with the ykman software, then I can see that I have two logins, one for mobile and one for my site. Each has is different so it knows which one is mobile and which is desktop.
The same principle may apply with the PC’s TPM. Your credentials may apply the same way there. I’m not 100% familiar with the TPM process but think as long as it works with Fido2 , you should be fine.
With Linux, you need to have the awareness of what is running on your phone 24/7 and AFAIK, there’s nothing like that except maybe Home Assistant, but that’s pushing it. I have a buddy which has an always on VPN which he uses 100% of the time at home, never any issues with him. As for the phone, I have Wireguard for when I am not connected to my WiFi, and then disconnect when I’m back on my WiFi network. This way, I am certain to be on my home network 99.99% of the time. I use Tasker for that.
With that said, you will need an automation of sorts on the Android to be 100% sure you are on your appropriate VPN. Whether through Tasker, Macrodroid or a few other apps.
If you have Tasker, you can do that. Not sure if you are using Wireguard, but that makes it simpler to integrate IMHO with it. With it, you set a condition basically if App XYZ is open then use VPN ABC Otherwise, If app XYZ is not open, then use BCA VPN.
I admit I didn’t read many replies due to time. But to add to them, the more I deal with my mother who is becoming more technologically challenged in her years, I constantly get to hear about how confusing her Android is sometimes, I sort of wish she’d switch to Apple for it’s simplicity! I used to have an iMac and was gladly part of the eco-system for a while and enjoyed how intuitive it was. With that said, when the time came for me to join the Smartphone world in '10 or so - I went Android and haven’t looked back.
We’ve looked at them in the past and while they make solid quality phones and easy to use phones, from what I understand, the battery life is somewhat to be desired? (as of a few years ago). The formula they use to make everything stay within their Eco-system seems to be working for them. After all, if you have an iPhone, then it seamlessly works with your Mac, or other Apple Devices. There’s more control over it.
For the best flexibility with our family, we use Android and will for the time being. Not to say though that the newer Linux based phones (PinePhone,Librephone etc) aren’t catching my attention because they are and I’m a die hard Linux user! :)
Good to know about the 5Ghz WiFi on the newer devices.
I’m still new to Matter so I appreciate the info you gave for not all devices not using WiFi. :)