Hook - Smart Home Hub for Remote Control Outlets, Compatible with Alexa and Google Home (Generation 1)

Product stopped working. Cannot get any response from support, their social media hasn't been updated in a long time. Looks like it has been abandoned and is just a chunk of plastic now.

Good: Hook does what's advertised: it connects to my cheap Etekcity outlets and allows me to control them via an Android app or via Alexa.Bad: The product clearly shows its Kickstarter roots and feels very much like a prototype product. It does not feel solidly constructed, and the way that it plugs in to get power is completely bizarre (and is what motivated me to write a review). The Hook is USB-powered, which is pretty typical for modern devices. However, unlike every other device that uses USB solely for power, the Hook does NOT have a female micro-USB port, a female USB-C port, a female mini-USB port, nor even a female USB-B port. The Hook instead uses a male USB-A plug, apparently so that it can plug directly into the wall adapter. While a perhaps interesting design choice, that means that the Hook is a rather large and unsightly protrusion from a wall outlet. Worse, its USB plug is MUCH TOO LONG, preventing it from sitting flush with its power adapter, making it protrude even more than necessary, and making it look precariously prone to breaking if you were to accidentally bump into it. It would have been much better if the Hook used a female micro-USB port, and then people could use ubiquitous micro-USB cables and have more freedom for positioning the Hook without USB-A extension cables.

I have been using the hook with my amazon echo for several months now, and although it's not perfect, it works really well. I will go through my setup and hopefully this will help anyone else that has questions.MY SETUP:I live in multi level 2,000 sq ft house and I have 1 hook that is centrally located, 15 outlets from etekcity, and a 30mbps wifi network. I run mostly apple products and recently hard wired the connection between an airport base station and two airport expresses that I use to extend the network. This gives me pretty even coverage through the house.I started by purchasing 5 of the recommended outlets from Amazon. I ordered the hook directly from them before it was offered on Amazon and received it in a few days. While I was waiting to receive it, I read about the echo integration on their blog and got it set up. Within 10 minutes of unboxing it, I was up and running with 5 devices, and voice activation works perfectly.The first step is getting the outlets added to the hook, and you do that by programming the remote to the hook so it knows what on-off signal to send for each outlet.Once that's done, you have to go to the Amazon echo and discover smart devices. Once it runs through that, it should discover every outlet that is set up on hook. THIS IS WHERE THE FUN BEGINS! You can set up groups through the echo so you can control multiple outlets with a single command. You can set these up through the hook app as well, but the groups there won't work with voice control through the echo.THIS IS WHERE THINGS STARTED TO GET TRICKY....I was so happy with how it worked, I ordered 10 more outlets! Once they arrived, I started going through the same process of adding them to the hook and then to the echo. This is where I started running into problems. I didn't realize at first, but one of the 5-packs of outlets I received was coded the same as the first 5 I bought. So even though I added them separately, the signal overlapped and one command would control 2 or more lights. Luckily, the outlets are re-programable, so I contacted etekcity, and they were wonderful to deal with. They shipped me several extra remotes for free that I used to reprogram some of the outlets. IT WORKED!!!.... Kind of.Each remote has 5 on & off buttons. After a lot of trial and error, I realized that between all the remotes I have (probably around 10), there was a LOT of overlap. Long story short - I could only control about 12-13 outlets individually. There were some buttons on the remote that would control several also. I'm still working on getting this 100% functional for all 15 but right now I have 12 running with no problems.FAST FORWARD A FEW MONTHS.....The only issue I'm having is that on occasion, the commands don't work. Inhavent gotten to the root of the problem yet. For example, I can say "Alexa! Turn on bedroom lights" and it will turn on both of our lamps. Then when I go to turn them off, only one outlet turns off. Sometimes neither will turn off. I think Alexa just wants to spite me sometimes. My backup is to go through the hook app and turn it off that way. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't.This didn't start happening for a few months, and I'm wondering if it's not wifi related. Overall, it doesn't happen enough that it's a deal breaker.THE NEXT LEVEL OF CONTROL involves IFTTT integration. If you aren't familiar, google it. Through the maker channel, you can start to automate and have a lot more control of your devices. For example, I have one outlet that controls some landscape lighting outside. I made an IFTTT formula so it will come on around sunset and turn off around sunrise. This works flawlessly!!! I have had no issues at all once this was setup. There is someone developing a companion to IFTTT to be able to program multiple triggers/events which I am hoping to utilize soon for even more control. I have several recipes created to automate certain lights around the house, and some are even controlled based upon the GPS on my phone.OVERALL, I'm thrilled to have a lot of the smart home features and for 15 outlets and the hook my total investment was under $120. That is such a great bargain! The echo integration and IFTTT are what separates this from other outlets and really gives you a lot of possibilities. The team at hook have done a great job so far. I would love to see a model in the future that could be wired with Ethernet which could potentially make it more reliable. The front led flashes when you give a command, and although I've heard people complain about its brightness, I don't find it too bright at all. Maybe they've adjusted that, but it's perfect. The usb plug makes it stick out from the wall a bit, and they chose that to help keep the cost down, but I would pay more for one that plugged in directly and looked a little sleeker.Sorry for he long winded post, but hopefully this will help.I will continue to update this review as I find answers to the issues I'm having and any new features that I find!

It truly works perfectly with the Etekcity remotes (I have LOTS of them). Works via the app on my iPhone and iPad as well as using a voice command with Alexa. So far, I've set it up to turn on 18 lamps (using 15 remote outlets) with one voice command. You can set up a single item or any combination of your various electrical devices that are plugged into the Etekcity outlets. I have the Hook centrally located in the middle of my home but it reaches pretty far. My master bedroom lights are at least 50 feet away from the Hook and my router is located in the basement and everything works great.I have to say though that the body of the unit is pretty darn cheap ....very low quality plastic. Maybe in the future they will upgrade it a bit, but the thing is just sitting in a corner where it's hardly visible, so no big deal.I did contact them to make some suggestions via email, and they were extremely prompt in getting back to me (same day) and even added something on their website I thought would be helpful which I had pointed out to them (added within days of contacting them). So, these guys are open to suggestions and are not snooty and removed from their customers....very refreshing in this day and age! Great device!

It was great when it worked, not its abandoned, no longer connects to the servers, making it useless

They shut down the servers without notice. It's no longer working or supported. No notification of warning.

I bought this last week and shipping was very fast for a non-prime item. I didn't have too much trouble setting it up. The app is user friendly although I wish 'My Devices and Groups' switches were on the home page of the app. Integration with Alexa was a breeze and works very quickly although I put a button switch on my phone with IFTTT and that takes about 30-60 seconds to respond. My only other issue is what most people have mentioned, the usb plug protrudes from the back of the device which would be fine if you had usb port outlets, but to put on the adapter and then plug into the wall makes it protrude at least a few inches. I would suggest a swivel usb and 90 degree adapter. It is still an excellent device and an extremely economical way of making the house a smart home. For future I would like to see integration of my ceiling fan/light remote which works on RF signal but has a dimmer button and 3-speed control. Hook seems to only do on/off signals.