So very rapidly I have 11 smart devices that I am ultimately controlling with Google Home. This includes my TVs, or probably the Chromecast devices that we have attached to them (Google Home knows about these).

So I have five CBI smart controllers. These are registered on the CBI app (I presume in their cloud).

I have two controllers for water isolators, no-name brand devices that I bought from GeeWiz. These are registered on SmartLife, as are the two CBI smart adaptors (basically plug in timers) that I recently got.

I use Google Home to tie every thing together.

This is at least one app too many. I want to consolidate everything.

Note that CBI do not prevent their devices being used with SmartLife. The two ASAs were never linked to the CBI smart app, I took them out of the box, plugged them in and SmartLife found them.

Now I would like to start moving those ASCs over to SmartLife. In fact SmartLife can do all the automations that I use Google Home for. Since I have no interest in including the TVs or chromecasts in automations, I don’t need to use Google Home.

Today I tried to move one of the ASCs from the CBI app to SmartLife. This didn’t work. Removing it from the CBI app is easy enough. Now neither CBI nor Google Home can control that device. But adding it to SmartLife didn’t work.

I added it back to the CBI app, noting what I did, then deleted it again. Confident that I knew how to get the ASC into pairing mode I did this then scanned for new devices with SmartLife.

Nothing.

So in the end I added it back to CBI, and relinking my CBI app to Google Home put it under control of Google too.

Some notes

1. the CBI app looks a lot like SmartLife, but on SmartLife I can scan for whatever is in pairing mode (this worked for the ASAs), whereas in CBI I have to specify the type of device I am adding.

2. You can do a manual add in SmartLife (and see point 1, I think this is what you really do in CBI), but you have to specify the type of device and there’s nothing really like an ASC.

3. Just scanning for a device in pairing mode was good enough for the ASAs (which don’t seem to work quite the same as ASCs in turns of their interaction with the network). It also worked for the controllers that I bought for the isolators in my my water lines. But it doesn’t seem to work for ASCs.

4. I reset the ASC I tried to move. But when I eventually reconnected it to CBI again it was like it was never away - all the stats were there, the device got it’s old name back. I’m guessing that this is not because that data is stored on the ASC, but because CBI recognised the MAC address.

This is not the end of the world. Not yet. But in the new year I want to get some smart light switches installed. My electrician has done this before but they are not CBI devices. So IDK, do I now need ANOTHER app on my phone? Can I link that app into SmartLife? I’m guessing that SmartLife will do the job, but I don’t know.

In any event, getting everything controlled by SmartLife is first prize for me. I can do all the same automations that I can do with Google (maybe more), and it’s one app on the phone rather than three (and counting).

Is it possible to bring those ASCs into SmartLife after linking them to CBI? See one of my earlier remarks - I don’t think CBI are trying to block their devices from being used with another app.

Edited December 25, 2025Dec 25 by Bobster.
Punctuation

All these devices run on the Tuya cloud platform - so yes any device you have in CBI can run in Smartlife. The CBI app is just a reskinned version of Smartlife / Tuya app as well. Once the devices are in Smartlife they cant be active as well in CBI (to my knowledge)

3 hours ago, mzezman said:

All these devices run on the Tuya cloud platform - so yes any device you have in CBI can run in Smartlife. The CBI app is just a reskinned version of Smartlife / Tuya app as well. Once the devices are in Smartlife they cant be active as well in CBI (to my knowledge)

True, this smart devices will not run in both apps, some of them is a pain to get recognized if you only have Smartlife for instance - i run both ewelink and Smartlife, whoever pics it up first runs it.

On 2025/12/26 at 4:54 PM, Demo said:

True, this smart devices will not run in both apps, some of them is a pain to get recognized if you only have Smartlife for instance - i run both ewelink and Smartlife, whoever pics it up first runs it.

I can do that. It bothers me because I don't want three apps if I can use one.

I'm on the wrong side of 40, and I can see a time when I will have to hand over the little smart home ecosystem that I have (again one hand over is better than three), and there's also the growing reality of friends & family finding all this new fangled stuff bewildering.

Part of me now wants to rip most of the devices out and put the old timers back in. But there's three that really have solved a problem for me, and currently they require two apps just to get the devices on line and switchable, and a third to allow them to work together in one automation.

If I can get those ASCs onto SmartLife then life becomes a lot easier.

In a way I don't lose much. Some of the people I have to consider are confused by a conventional timer switch, and when I think of the three I took out of DBs they all have different interfaces, and the two plug in timers I replaced with ASAs have a fourth.

We're back to the old joke about the great thing about standards is that there's so many to choose from.

I have found that the trick with using the Smart Life app is selecting the right category when you add the device. Mine have worked when I select the Other category on the main screen and then select Wifi device (will need to check exact details) then I am able to add the devices, no problem. I managed to do this for v1&2 of ASC and the Smart Isolator.

Then to eliminate using multiple apps, I then load everything to Homeassistant.

4 hours ago, nk00li said:

I have found that the trick with using the Smart Life app is selecting the right category when you add the device. Mine have worked when I select the Other category on the main screen and then select Wifi devic

Thanks.

I tried again today and had a much easier time of it.

I first deleted the device from CBI, then deactivated the Google Home automation that used the device (this may not have been necessary, the device disappeared from Google Home as I removed it from CBI).

I said that CBI do what looks like a manual add in smart home, so I did as you suggested and added it by specifying the type of device rather than by just letting SmartLife scan.

I added it under the headings
Electrical
- Switch Module
-- Breaker (other)

Interestingly it was added with the name I'd given it in CBI and with the power usage history. A little bonus.

I've checked that I can manually turn the ASC on and off from within SmartLife. I've now deleted the Google Home automation and set up scheduling in SmartLife.

Now we wait and see. If the scheduling works then I am going to move the other devices over one by one and then I can control everything in SmartLife.

One difference is in the automations. In Google I had one that started at 16:00, turned an ASC on, waited 14 hours and 30 minutes and then turned it off again. In SmartLife you can put the waits into an automation, but they cannot exceed 5 hours. This is a difference, but not really that big a deal so far and thinking of the other automations I have set up.

So thanks @nk00li , you gave me the crucial piece of the puzzle.

If all this works then I start moving the other devices over.

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by Bobster.
to thank @nk00li

I lied. I moved them all over yesterday.

All the automations and schedules are working so far. Any remaining problems are my PEBCAK.

SmartLife can control the CBI devices.

19 hours ago, Bobster. said:

Interestingly it was added with the name I'd given it in CBI and with the power usage history. A little bonus.

I think this suggests that the CBI cloud is within a greater Tuya cloud.

1 hour ago, Bobster. said:

I think this suggests that the CBI cloud is within a greater Tuya cloud.

Yeah, this is correct

Tuya provides the underlying technology, cloud services, and app framework that many manufacturers, including CBI, use to create their own branded smart home products and apps.