Feature request: Let me snapshot my smart home to auto-create a scene

The vast majority of my smart home control comprises asking Siri to activate a scene – or having one automatically triggered by a time or event. For example, when going to bed, a single command switches on low lighting in the bedroom while switching off all other lights in the home.

Most of these scenes are created from scratch, thinking about exactly what I want to happen in particular circumstances – but there’s another approach I’d like to be able to take …

There are times, most especially with mood lighting, when I’ve set up a particular combination of lights and blind settings, and then decide it’s something I’ll want to use again another time.

Currently, that requires me to completely redo all the work I just did to create the setup in the first place.

That can be even more work than it might sound, thanks to a lesson I learned the hard way when first creating scenes: It’s not enough just to switch on the things you want, adjusting brightness, blind position, and so on, but you also need to switch off everything you don’t want on – given that you don’t know what lights might be on at the time you activate a scene.

What I’d like Apple to offer is a “snapshot” feature, for my choice of room, zone, or whole home. Anytime I have a setup I think I’ll want to use again, I should be able to just tell the Home app to save my current state as a scene, simply by choosing Room, Zone, or Home, and giving it a name.

Is a Snapshot feature something you’d find useful, too? Please take our poll, and share your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks, Greg!

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