Allison interviews Laura Ruiz Asenjo from Flic about their small wireless buttons to use for smart home routines and automations. They are easy to get started with and configure, they replace voice commands, and they’re simple to use for everyone since they don’t need a mobile device to operate.
Flic offers three control devices: the Button, Duo, and Twist which have varying degree of control over smart home devices and services. They can all be connected to your home’s WiFi through the Flic Hub. The Button, Twist, and Hub are currently available for purchase. Flic Duo should be available for pre-order at the end of January 2025.
Learn more a https://flic.io
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Transcript of Interview
Allison: Apparently, I’ve been asleep for the last 10 years because I just learned about the Flic button from Laura from the company Flic, F-L-I-C, and they have a much more advanced different options available today, but we’re going to start at the beginning because I didn’t know about it. She’s going to explain how Flic works, and then we’re going to learn about the new things announced that are here at CES today.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Thank you for listening to us, talking to us.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: So, I’m going to explain the first product that we launched 10 years ago, which is the Flic button. It’s basically a wireless small button that you can connect your smart home devices with, and instead of having to go through the different devices or apps, you can just control all of them through a single physical controller.
Allison: So this button is maybe the size of a quarter and maybe three-eighths of an inch thick. You can stick it on a wall. You can carry it in your pocket.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: You can have it in your nighttime stable, like whatever you want, whatever, like, it’s simple and convenient for you.
Allison: Okay, so the original Flic has push, double push, and hold. Nice and simple. And you can assign actions to what that’s going to do to maybe scenes or different devices?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Exactly. For example, if you want to automate like your morning routine, where you typically use lights, blinds, and a speaker. So instead of, you know, going through the different devices, you set them up in the Flic app, which takes up like one or two minutes, and then you’re set to go and just push and all these devices will be activated at the same time.
Allison: Okay, so at this point it looks like magic because it’s just a button stuck on the wall. How is this connected to my network to be able to talk to my devices?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: We have two options. It’s through the phone that uses Bluetooth or through the hub. We typically recommend that because you don’t need the phone to be there all the time. Let’s say you have a big house or different family members. Those ones also need to be able to use a button. So that’s why.
Allison: So this has Wi-Fi in it?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: No. This is the one that uses Wi-Fi and then the button is connected through Bluetooth.
Allison: So the Flic button connects through Bluetooth to?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: To the hub and the hub has Wi-Fi.
Allison: Oh, okay. I see what you’re saying. Okay, I think I follow that. Okay, so you showed us in the app a second ago. Maybe we could do that one more time. So she’s going to open up the Flic app on her phone and she’s got a Flic in her pocket. And you said you start by adding Flic to the phone?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: And you have this one.
Allison: Imagine we’ve already just run this setup. Okay, so she tapped in the Flic. And then you see the three triggers that we just set. So it’s got push, double push and hold. What would we like to do with it?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: And you would add the trigger.
Allison: And now what we’re seeing is a list of all the integrations. Yeah, so Philips Hue, Lightbulb.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Now we have here Philips Hue Lightbulb. So I would add Philips Hue.
Allison: And that list came from the apps it found on your phone?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Yeah, exactly. And then you would select the light that you want. Let’s say this one.
Allison: You could pick a bunch of them too, I imagine.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Yeah, we have a bunch here. And then whatever you want the button to do. So let’s say toggle on, toggle off.
Allison: So it’s toggle on, off and other. And other. And then you could do if there’s color options.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Different colors, current. And then you just add it. And that’s it.
Allison: And now when you tap that button, it would just turn the light on and off.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: And then you do that with all the devices that you want to control.
Allison: So this probably helps people who are in your home maybe that don’t know anything about your smart home. They just want to push a button and make the lights come on.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Exactly.
Allison: Okay. All right. Now let’s move down a little bit.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: And then the one that we launched two days ago is the Flic Duo. It’s basically an improved version of the Flic button. We’ve taken all the lessons that we gathered during this 10 years in the industry. It’s a dual button and you can use it simply mounted in a wall. But what’s cool about it is that when you take it, since it has motion sensor, you can control those devices, but through gestures.
Allison: So she just pulled it off the wall and it’s magnetically attached to.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Yeah. Through the metal plate. And then I would show you.
Allison: It’s still got push, double push and hold, but it can do other things?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Yeah. Two new triggers, hold and twist and hold and swipe. And you have a lot of commands within these ones. I’m just going to show you one, for example. So it’s a hold and swipe and it changes the color.
Allison: Okay. Oh, look at that. All the lights just turned from green to red to green.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: This is just an example. You can do whatever you need. And then, for example, hold and twist and you change the brightness of the light.
Allison: She’s just rotating this in her hand and the lights are going up and down in brightness. That’s interesting.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: A new feature that it also has is that it has an accelerometer, which means it has full detection capabilities. So for example, like I have it in my jacket, you can wear it with our accessories or have it in your pocket.
Allison: Is it a little magnet?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Yeah. Also magnetic.
Allison: Yeah.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: As a clip. And it will detect when you fall and send a message to your emergency contact with your location.
Allison: Wow.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: So it’s also a great personal alarm button. Yeah.
Allison: Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Now we’ve got one more here, the Flic twist.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Exactly. So this one we launched two years ago. It’s even more advanced and it’s a dimmer, basically.
Allison: And you can customize your smart home experience even more. So this is about a two and a half inch diameter puck on the wall. A lot bigger, but it looks like I want to rotate that.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Exactly. It’s not just push and toggle on/off, but, you know, control your brightness of the lights.
Allison: So she’s running her finger around the outside and a nice light is showing the dimming of it. So you’re dimming and undimming the lights with that.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Exactly. But that could be done with, you know, the volume of a speaker, the level of your blinds and many other use cases, like pretty much any smart home device. We are compatible with the major smart home platforms. So Apple HomeKit, Matter, Alexa, Nanoleaf, Philips Hue. We have plus hundred integrations.
Allison: Wow. So what we looked at was integrating directly, like just with Nanoleaf or just with Philips. But you’re saying these all integrate with HomeKit and Alexa and Google?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Not Google. Google still did not add support for smart buttons.
Allison: So yeah, I don’t actually care about them. So that’s fine.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Just a little note, Flic Duo, the one that we’re launching today, will be in pre-orders from the 28th of January.
Allison: Oh, very good. So what’s the price point on these?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: So for this one, the Flic Duo is $59. But if you get another pre-launch, you can get an early bird price, which is $49.
Allison: There you go. And how about the Flic Twist?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: And then this one is $90. And then we have the Flic Button, which is the simplest one. It’s $30.
Allison: Very good. I think I want them all, Steve. This has been great. Thank you so much, Laura.
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Thank you so much.
Allison: And people would go where to find out about this?
Laura Ruiz Asenjo: Flic.io, our website.
Allison: F-L-I-C dot I-O.