having ads if I remember correctly, forces the lock screen after a certain amount of time in order to show the ads. So if you are looking at using them specifically for this, you might want to get the ad free versions.
There is also any easy way around the ads. When you run the setup for the fire, dont sign into your account. This will stop the ads, but at the same time, disable a good portion of the nice to have stuff on the tablet. Prime video etc. But if your objective is solely to use them as pads for lights/automation, this should fix your issue.
Once you turn on the developer options there is a setting to never lock the tablet. This effectively disables the local screen from coming back up until you reboot the tablet. I havenât seen the lock screen on mine in over a month, last time I updated and rebooted it.
I have a Fire 8 HD with developer options enabled and donât see it in my list, running the latest version of the OS. Perhaps they removed it?
Iâve tried forcing the Fire to use a different browser to complete the SmartThings login, but no dice:
Has anyone found a workaround that doesnât involve ActionTiles? ActionTiles looks great, but it would be also nice to see Samsung support the very popular Fire tablets. All they need to do is stop forcing the login to use a âsupportedâ browser. Presumably Silk and other browser have the necessary features to complete a simple login process.
Sadly noâŚ
It is very weird though, because it works on some of my fire tabs and others not. All of them running the same OS version. Its a real pitty because with the new show dock coming out they could make the perfect tabs for this.
I eventually gave in and moved to actiontiles with fully kiosk.
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
25
Yah⌠This is frustrating. I just installed the âSamsung Internet Browserâ (via APK) just to see if it might do the trick - but no luck so far, still.
Honestly: Getting the SmartThings App(s) to run on Fire Tablets benefits ActionTiles because ActionTiles does not (and cannot) provide device installation, SmartApp configuration, etc., so we want our Customers to be able to conveniently switch to SmartThings App whenever necessary or desirable.
But a true fact: A high level ST employee asked me to confirm ActionTiles works on Fire, because they had been receiving so many requests for the ability to run SmartThings on these tablets.
That employee obviously wasnât in a position to address the ârealâ problem. Given who it was, I was⌠shocked⌠But no longer surprised at anything weird about this company.
haha thanks for the info Terry, at least we know they are in fact looking at it. Dont know if that actually means anything with them though.
AT has been a great fill in on this, in fact my wife far prefers the AT look and feel to smartthings, and thats a win for most guys trying to set up smart homes
Hopefully we will see ST do something to fix it though.
It would be great to have Action Tiles and the SmartThings app on Fire tablets. They both serve their purposes, and I know Samsung would probably like to sell more of their own tablets, but if you want more than one tablet in a home dedicated to smart home usage, having cheap options like the Fire be supported is a must. Samsung, if youâre reading this, please fix this.
1 Like
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
28
Be sure to mention this request in reviews of the SmartThings Apps (both of themâŚ) in the Play Store and Apple App Store ⌠and perhaps even on Amazon.com.
Being a developer myself, I hesitate to say that this is easy to fix ⌠a big part of the problem may be that they donât want to encourage users to âinstall from unknown sourcesâ and thus the Apps also have to be in the Amazon App Store⌠but, well, the desire has to come from somewhere within Samsung SmartThings.
Terry,
I followed your suggestion and just posted this on the Google Play Store for the SmartThings Classic application. Like hope if enough users make similar comments that Samsung will fix the issue.
My Comment on Play Store for SmartThings Classic Application:
I been using four (4) Amazon Fire 8 HD tablets with the SmartThings Classic application to monitor and control my Samsung SmartThings devices. All was working well until I performed the required change to the New Samsung login in process from the old SmartThings account login. Now all four of my Amazon Fire 8 HD tablets are unable to run the SmartThings Classic application due to a limitation that Samsung imposed to only use Chrome, Firefox, Safari as the default browser for authentication. Since the default Amazon browser is Silk and there isnât a customer feature to change the default browser your Amazon Fire 8 HD tablet has been disabled to install, setup, modify any of your SmartThings devices. I registered my complaint with the Samsung SmartThings Classic representative with hopes something will be done to fix this issue with the new but not improved Samsung login process for legacy SmartThing Classic users using Amazon Fire Tablets. There are other ways to monitor your SmartThings devices using the excellent product ActionTiles on your Fire Tablet but ActionTiles doesnât provide any capability to install new SmartThings devices.
Your correct that Samsung is reading customer comments on the Google Play Store here is my review and the reply they posted.
MY REVIEW
Greg Gordon
July 19, 2018
I been using four (4) Amazon Fire 8 HD tablets with the SmartThings Classic application to monitor and control my Samsung SmartThings devices. All was working well until I performed the required change to the New Samsung login in process from the old SmartThings account login. Now all four of my Amazon Fire 8 HD tablets are unable to run the SmartThings Classic application due to a limitation that Samsung imposed to only use Chrome, Firefox, Safari as the default browser for authentication. Since the default Amazon browser is Silk and there isnât a customer feature to change the default browser your Amazon Fire 8 HD tablet has been disabled to install, setup, modify any of your SmartThings devices. I registered my complaint with the Samsung SmartThings Classic representative with hopes something will be done to fix this issue with the new but not improved Samsung login process for legacy SmartThing Classic users using Amazon Fire Tablets. There are other ways to monitor your SmartThings devices using the excellent product ActionTiles on your Fire Tablet but ActionTiles doesnât provide any capability to install new SmartThings devices. Reply:
SmartThings, Inc.July 19, 2018
Hi Greg, Ellen with SmartThings support here. Iâm so sorry for the trouble, this issue is something that our teams are working on, and we want to make the login process easier to avoid problems like these. I donât have a timeline for when this will be resolved but I want to assure you we are aware of it and working on a solution.
1 Like
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
31
Ellen replies to negative reviews in the iOS app store, too. Mostly with perfunctory âthanks for your feedback, weâll take it into considerationâ type responses. My guess is the feedback usually doesnât really go anywhere. But as Terry points out, if enough people complain publicly like that in the app stores, certain bugs/feature requests probably will get prioritized.
Best to just run Fully Kiosk. Pay the small fee to upgrade to Pro.
From there, you can setup Fully to run on startup and keep the screen on forever. You can also have it to set to dim to black after a time period and wake up when motion is sensed.
Works perfectly for me on 6 Fire Tablets. The other tablets I have still run Fully but I donât need them to be on all the time.
As of now I activated the developer tools and have it set to stay on. Most of the time I have Firefox loaded with ActionTiles on screen, but now with show I use that sometimes in the show dock. When not in dock Action tiles holds the screen.
hehe you dont seem to be listening to me on this⌠You cant. FireOS doesnt allow you to set the default browser, it is Silk on FireOS and there is no option to change it.
The only way you can change this is by rooting the device and installing android, which to my understanding cannot be done from v5.6. Any attempt at this will result in bricking the device. Not sure if anyone can confirm this? I simply wasnt willing to try.
