Local-first connected home
SwitchPilot
The cloud disappeared. The hardware did not.
Does it improve someone's life? Belkin turned the servers off. Nobody should have to rewire a house because a company lost interest.
The problem
Belkin ended Wemo cloud services and app support. Perfectly functional plugs and switches were headed for drawers and landfills because their control plane had vanished.
The work
What I carried.
SwitchPilot gives compatible devices from Wemo, Kasa, Cync, and other brands a useful second life by controlling them directly over local Wi-Fi.
- 01
Designed and built the mobile app, device discovery, local and remote control, grouping, schedules, diagnostics, and recovery behavior.
- 02
Kept device names, groups, and layout on the phone. Commands travel across the home network instead of through a SwitchPilot account or remote server.
- 03
Added support for modern and legacy device protocols while preserving a clear boundary between confirmed and beta compatibility.
Selected outcomes
Decisions that mattered
Make failure recoverable
Devices restart, change ports, and disappear from Wi-Fi. Recovery is part of the product, not an error screen left for the owner to solve.
Keep the network private
The app needs local-network access, but it does not need a cloud database containing a map of someone's home.
SwitchPilot returns control to the person who owns the hardware. That is a small idea with a surprisingly long shelf life.