SwitchBot Curtain review - Android

We love our smart homes. There’s just something great about having the ability to turn lights on and off by voice, or to chat with your speaker and learn how to make Hasselback potatoes.

Then there are things like smart deadbolts, security cameras, thermostats and other devices that make life more comfortable and comforting. Once you start down the path of connecting your home or smartening it up, chances are good you’ll be looking for all sorts of ways to add to it.

The SwitchBot Curtain, as low as $89, is a fantastic way of enhancing your living environments with automation and voice/app control. In short, it’s a robot-like unit that hangs on a curtain rod behind your curtain and slides along the rod to open and close.

Have you ever gone to bed with the curtains fully drawn only to wake with a room that dark or poorly lit? Of course you have. On the other hand, we bet you regularly open curtains throughout the day only to close them at night. How about letting a robot handle that mundane stuff for you?

Whether you want to set your curtains up to automatically open at a particular time each day, or upon sunrise, the SwitchBot Curtain can do the leg work. Moreover, it can also be triggered by opening an app on your phone or by simply asking your smart speaker to do it.

The SwitchBot Curtain is sold in three different options (Rod, U-Rail, and I-Rail) and comes in black and white color options. Further, it is available in single, double, and four-pack bundles.

We’ve had a pair SwitchBot Curtain (Rod) units in place for a few weeks now and have come to appreciate their singular focus. It’s like having mom open the curtains in your bedroom so that you wake refreshed and ready to take on the world.

We love the way that the curtains open and close on their own but can be drawn separately. Maybe you have a dining room or living room that gets a lot of light around dinner time. Use your smart speaker or app to draw the curtains closed while eating and then have it opened when done.

If you’re into playing around with IFTTT, you’ll love creating actions such as automatically opening the curtains when your phone connects to Wi-Fi, or something as simple as closing at sunset.

It takes all of a few minutes to set up a SwitchBot Curtain and everything is guided through the app. Calibration is fairly simple in that you teach the robot how far to move when opened and closed. Additionally, you can enable a quiet mode that moves a little slower but doesn’t make as much noise. For what it’s worth, the default sound isn’t all that bad.

Battery life is expected to be eight months but you can always check the status in the app. Charging is done by plugging in a USB Type-C cord. An optional Solar Panel can be added behind the curtain which automatically replenishes the battery so that you never have to take it down.

Also available is a SwitchBot Remote which small square that can be adhered to a wall. This is a great option to put bedside or in an easy-to-reach location.

SwitchBot has a handful of smart accessories which can enhance the experience of its curtains, but can also be configured with its other products.