ACTIONTILES Alternative

What are the alternatives to Actiontiles, now that they are gone?

Are folks just using the smartthings app?

Sharptools

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OK, Thanks!!!

I loved actiontiles, but always wondered how long that could last with a buy once, get service forever pricing model.

SharpTools is a great product and the support is exceptional.

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I have used Action Tiles for a network with over 110 devices for over 5 years of the 6 I have been playing with SmartThings. I found it tedious to simply add a new device. I recently started using the Samsung tool and have found it very easy to use, and it provides all the info I need. While the info may not be in a single visible line for each device as in Action Tiles, a simple click on any device, arranged in its respective room, will provide all you need. A new room or device is added easy and is much quicker.

Action tiles is gone? WTF. No notice from them, just gone. That’s pretty $hitty of them. Every room in my house has a temp sensor and I use action tiles on my Pc to monitor and adjust things when needed. Now with winter coming I can’t even see what temps are in my house at a glance, can’t check if doors are closed, can’t check anything from my 58 ST devices that I have. I now have to open the smartthings app which is slow, cumbersome, and just awful. I never use the ST app, it’s awful and I can’t use it on my pc. My phone isn’t tied to my hip, I need an app on my pc that does what action tiles did.

I’m so tired of companies doing $hit like this. No notice at all. How about say we’re going out of business in one month, to give us time to find something else.

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That’s fine if your phone is glued to your hand. I rarely use my phone when home. I need an app on my PC. Wish smartthings would just make a proper pc app.

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So I signed up for sharptools and like what I see so far.

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I just checked it out and chatted with AI about it. I’m going to try sharptools as well. The screen shots on the website look better than actiontiles.

Funny thing is AI says the actiontiles domain was just renewed and is still active, but all DNS records for it are missing or blocked.

I need a PC solution and sharptools looks like it may be the one to switch to. Thanks for the link.

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WTF AT just gone just like that Bullshit

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That is exactly my point. I have always tolerated smartphones, barely. But Samsung has finally added a PC Windows application. You will find it at smartthings.com. Not really great, but definitely usable and convenient.

Sorry, wrong URL. It is on samsung.com.

Already tried the pc ā€œappā€, it’s awful. It’s not even as good as ActionTiles and ActionTiles is very basic. That’s why I said a proper windows app. I’m not some newbie… I’m been with smartthings for 11 years. I started with smartthings before samsung bought them. (and I’m a samsung fan). I used smartthings on a windows phone when that was a thing. I have a monitor mounted on the wall that displays all my smart home devices and I can look at them at a glance and control them if needed. The pc app isn’t good enough. I’ll just try Sharp Tools.

…you do know the lead developer Terry past away five years ago? and with AT only charging once for a lifetime subscription, not sure ā€˜just like that’ is a proper thought.

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Fine. Whatever pleases you. I’m open-minded enough to look into Sharp Tools, too. I have been using SmartThings since 2019, with the old app, after several years with Iris before it shut down. No rookie either, with over a 100 ST devices and 45 WiFi and Ethernet devices in my home. I’m a retired IBM field tech, MCSE certified.

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I am currently migrating my AT dashboards to HomeAssistant. You can use the out of the box UI, but I am developing my own. The only issue I have is it runs on a raspberry PI (not a big fan of RPI) and you do have to pay a subscription if you want to use it outside of your local area network. But at the same time you don’t need a cloud service to run it. I am still deeply rooted in SmartThings as my HA is getting a lot of its device information from SmartThings, until I transfer them to HA. But that’s just what I’m doing now that AT is probably gone for good. But like I said on my other post on a different thread, they had a good run and it really was an excellent product and good value for your money, in my opinion, I think not charging a reoccurring fee is where they went wrong, lifetime subscriptions don’t bring in any revenue after the fact. I agree with others, some advance notice would have been nice though. Additionally, as others have mentioned, I’m also using the Samsung SmartThings app on my tablets as a stopgap measure.

You can easily avoid a subscription by using Tailscale or a similar service. You install Tailscale in Home Assistant (HA) and on your phone and/or tablet. With that you can access HA form anywhere with access to the Internet.

I have been using SharpTools by @joshua_lyon for the last 7 years . I was an early adopters so I received most of the features for free. Even though I decided to pay in respect and honor to all the help and for the great job that Josh and James are doing.

I recommend SharpTools, it runs smoothly, not even a single offline for the last 7 years. It also have an amazing rule engine that is highly recommended for complicated routines :+1:

The best substitute for AT in my opinion :ok_hand::+1:

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in addition to @Paul_Oliver suggestion. There is the option to purchase a domain name for 80-90 cents a year and use a cloudflare tunnel to HA to use outside your local area network.

I spent a couple hours playing with sharptools yesterday. It’s a good product, and I’ll be happy today to end 14 day my free trial by paying.

My hope is, through me and others paying that sharptools stays in business, and supports their platform.

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