home assistant, dozens of cheap nfc stickers, and ios shortcuts that trigger home assistant actions when you boop the appropriate sticker with your locked phone.
UI Option:
- take out phone
- unlock phone
- leave current app
- find and open control app
- find icon to toggle action
- lock phone
- put phone back in pocket
NFC option:
- take phone out of pocket
- bump phone against NFC sticker
- find NFC sweet spot
- put phone back in pocket
- press button
For some actions colocation might make sense.
But having to stand up to go rub a magic sticker on the wall or coffee table to turn on the lights seems pretty dumb compared to a few thumb flicks.
[1] https://www.aqara.com/eu/product/wireless-remote-switch-h1