Device type category

[r4nar]

What would be the best way to determine a device type based on messages? The mqtt messages seem to be created using a generic structure which I understand. What is reported from the device is what gets set. From my point of view it would be of use to know if it's a bulb ,switch, sensor or some other kind of category.

It could be inferred based on what the device exposes, but that would involve a lot of properties to inspect. Another way would be to rename the friendly name to categorize yourself, but that seems to be a rather static way. Or are there some way that I'm not thinking of that already exists?