Lifx compatible light switches

Is there anybody developing a light switch to substitute the standard ones in the walls?

With actual light switches we have to depend always on our phones, tablets or computers to switch lights on and off… but, what happens when kids, guests or elderly people not tech savvy come to the house?

Well, the answer is that they switch off completely the lights and I have to go around the house turning those light switches on so I can control my lights.

Any existing solution to this?

As I view it, the light switches should substitute the tradicional ones in the wall, get their power from the copper cabling and associate each switch to a bulb or a group and connect via wifi also. This way any person could turn on or off any bulb or group but they would be always powered… and if the switch is HomeKit enabled we would not need to substitute our old Lifx bulbs.

This is an issue that has been raised on these forums and there are a range of possible solutions, but no one silver bullet as of yet.

One solution is to get a couple of cheap tablets and put them in strategic positions around the house, and tape over (or remove) your light switches.

Another is to get a flic (http://flic.io/) but the caveat here is that the flic app must be running on your phone in order to have the functionality you set on the button (as I understand, I haven’t got one)

The only way I know of to really integrate a standard light switch is to go the home automation way and get yourself a vera (www.getvera.com) or other automation hub. Then you can retrofit your switches so they don’t cut the power to the bulbs but send a message to your vera instead, which then tells your lifx bulbs to toggle off/on. It’s probably the best way to go atm and it’s not too expensive - a vera is about $200 and the in wall relays are about $100 each.

First of all thank you very much for your info @abrythenabry, it is very useful.
I have also seen the new Lutron Caseta that looks like a nice solution and it integrates with Apple HomeKit so the LIFX bulbs don’t need to.
The only problem is that it is not available Europe at the moment and the US version is only 120V, but I live in Spain.
I am going wait and see.

I’ve been looking for a good solution for months, and finally gave up. There were some dedicated light switches like flic, but from what I read they took a couple of seconds to turn the light on/off. Another (major) drawback is that flic requires a phone/ipod/tablet to be always on and in the house to work properly. Plus it looks silly on the wall.

And then, a month or so ago, Logitech anounced Pop Home. It promises a full five years of battery life and looks like a regular switch. It’s not currently shipping to EU, but I hope it will soon. Or I’ll have someone bring it from the US, once there are enough user reviews and I’m happy with what they say.

There is undoubtedly a European equivalent to the Vera. Maybe even an EU controller running openhab would do. The only difference between US and the rest of the world is the frequency they use for z-wave communications. Different countries had different licenses for that spot on the radio band when z-wave was being developed, which unfortunately led to regional incompatibilities - ie you can’t get an Aus vera to talk to a US z-wave device.

But HA is massive in Europe and Vera is just one small brand, I’m sure you can find another brand that does the same thing.

i think that the solution that you have been looking is the logitech pop. i am correct?