Hestia controls your Shelly smart-home devices (Gen2 and later) directly on your local network, over HTTP, through their built-in API. No cloud, no account, no telemetry: nothing leaves your network, by default.
Has anyone tried Hestia?
Unfortunately, I can’t find anything at all about the Hestia app when I search online. How does it work in practice?
Hestia is a true niche app—a solo project with no public community.
Pity about this app in so far as it is not available for my, Android 10, device. Having just installed a Shelly device I was keen to give it a go. If you give it a try then keen to hear what you think.
Have installed and all seems to work but only been able to test opening it as it only seems to allow me to connect to a “plug” or a “smoke detector” and not the Shelly Ogemray 25A relay which I have. However tried to add it as a “plug” and just get “The device didn’t respond in time. Check the network and try again” and so not sure if that problem is that not right device or the app or the network or the Shelly; presumably the wrong sort of Shelly device.
Hi, thanks for trying Hestia and for the detailed report!
The good news is that the device type probably isn’t the problem. “Plug” in Hestia really means “anything with an on/off relay”: it asks the device which switch channels it has and uses those. Relays already work this way.
That particular message (“didn’t respond in time”) means nothing answered at that address. If the relay had answered, even as an unsupported model, you’d have seen a different message, like “doesn’t respond like a Shelly Gen2 device”. So it looks like the phone isn’t reaching the relay at all. Could you try these quick checks?
If nothing loads: it’s the IP address or the network. Some things to check:
Make sure the IP is the relay’s current address (your router’s client list or the Shelly app will show it).
Make sure the phone isn’t on a guest or separate IoT network.
Make sure the relay has finished setup and joined your Wi-Fi.
If you see some text (JSON): please send it to me, along with what this address shows: http://relay-ip-address/rpc/Shelly.GetComponents
That tells me exactly what the device is and whether Hestia supports it.
If it still fails in Hestia after that, go to Settings → Diagnostic log and export it right after a failed attempt. It stays on your phone until you share it, and it contains no passwords.
I don’t know the “Ogemray 25A” model myself. Whatever the browser shows will tell us whether it uses the newer Shelly API (Gen2 or later) that Hestia needs.
There’s a new test build, partly thanks to your report:
Download hestia-2.16.1-fork.1.apk and install it. If you have my earlier test build, it installs over it and keeps your settings. Otherwise it appears as a separate app called “Hestia (test)”. There’s a short guide here: TESTING
What’s changed for you:
The first tile is now called “Plug / relay”. It’s the right choice for a relay like yours.
If the device does answer but isn’t something Hestia can control yet (a shutter, a dimmer in colour mode, a sensor…), you’ll now get a message saying exactly that, instead of a vague failure.
Hestia now writes the device’s model and its full list of parts to its diagnostic log when you add it, so I can see exactly what your relay is.
About your “didn’t respond in time” error: that message still means nothing answered at that IP address. So the quick browser check from my last message is still the most useful thing to try: open http://relay-ip-address/rpc/Shelly.GetDeviceInfo on the same phone and Wi-Fi.
If it still fails in the new version, the diagnostic log would really help. On the Dashboard, tap the title at the top 5 times quickly, then tap Share. It doesn’t include passwords, but it does include your local IP addresses and device names. So rather than posting it publicly, you can send it to me directly, or skim it first and remove anything you’d rather not share.
“App blocked to protect your device” is Google Play Protect being cautious about an app from a small developer it doesn’t know. Tap More details → Install anyway. If that option isn’t there: Play Store → your profile picture → Play Protect → → temporarily turn off “Scan apps with Play Protect”, install, then turn it back on.
Please make sure you’re opening the new file, hestia-2.16.1-fork.1.apk from this link. In your screenshot I can see the older Hestia-2.16.1-test.1-mezinster.apk. If the new one is already installed, Android refuses to install the older one over it, which shows “App not installed”.
If it still says “App not installed” with the new file: check whether Hestia (test) is already installed (Settings → Apps). If it is, uninstall it and install the new APK again. You’ll need to re-add your devices.
1 Had already tried the “More Details” and “install anyway” and got that error message.
2 Was downloading from that location and did so again. Still got same error message.
3 Uninstalled existing/previous install of the previous test version. Stlll got same error message.
4 Paused Play Protect and this time it installed so looks as if your emailed statement “f you have my earlier test build, it installs over it and keeps your settings” was not quite correct.
5 Now able to add my Shelly Relay so will start to play with app to see what it can do and whether I need to have it and/or the official Shelly one.
→ temporarily turn off “Scan apps with Play Protect”, install, then turn it back on.