Automatically switching communication pathways between connected devices

A system comprising:

• an Internet of Things (IoT) device;
• and
• a mobile device configured to:
• store a list of one or more access points that the mobile device has connected to,
• determine, by an application on the mobile device, whether the mobile device and an Internet of Things (IoT) device are on a same local or virtual local network,
• select a pathway for connecting the mobile device to the IoT device based at least in part on the stored list of access points, a number of hops between the mobile device and the IoT device, and availability of a direct or virtual local endpoint, and
• communicate directly between the mobile device and the IoT device via the selected pathway without routing communications through a remote IoT cloud server.