Android 2.0.7 - Release Notes

Ugh I was hoping the button tabs along the bottom would be replaced with a navigation drawer. They’re a total iOS design pattern and are out of place on an Android app… Makes the app look like a converted app and takes up screen space.

https://www.google.com/design/spec/patterns/navigation-drawer.html#

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But it is, Blanche, it is! (i.e., The SmartThings “native” mobile App was originally designed for iOS and then converted to Android and Windows Mobile). Unless SmartThings decides to have a different “look-and-feel” for each mobile platform, then it will always be in UX limbo.

Every cross-platform UI developer faces this problem.

No kidding!! ST has been sliding backwards since the release of the v2 hubs in every respect except the responsiveness of smart light apps. This is increasingly frustrating. :frowning:

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Hi All,

Thanks for all the feedback!

@pstuart
The italics on the main section tiles is a known bug. We are hoping to have a fix out for this early next week.

@jimmay3 we have a fix for the reordering of rooms, but are waiting on a platform update. This should go out in the next Android release.

I will be reviewing the rest of the feedback with the team this morning focusing first on the network error message.

Thanks again!

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Liz, despite the lingering issues noted above, this update is a heck of a step forward in the right direction! You guys knocked down some of the most annoying bugs! Great work…keep on rolling…Thank you!

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Liz. Please add locks under custom in smart home montor. Pleas please please

The more significant problem for me was “Error loading Smart Apps” message when I try to view list of smartapps in “My Home”. The long list of things loaded, but error on loading smartapps. Tried several times. The fix finally was to force kill app and clear app cache in Android app management.

FWIW on network error, I only had the network error message during the first few minutes after launching the app after it updated to 2.0.7. Perhaps a caching issue related to above, something due to incomplete refresh with the app installation/upgrade process?

Other than that, this is the best Android app version in a long time.

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I develop mobile apps for iOS and Android with Xamarin.

In my experience if an Android UI looks like an iOS app, it’s not necessarily the tools you’re using (with Xamarin you’d have to try really hard to have button tabs on Android)… it’s usually because the UI designers have an iOS background.

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That’s what I just said. Not sure you know the history, but when SmartThings first delivered their Kickstarter Reward kits to Backers, it was iOS only and it tooks months before we got Android.

That legacy will continue in the form of iOS influenced design… indefinitely.

Yes, it was actually closer to Android design standards prior to this update. Before, long-pressing any bottom row icon would produce a toast message identifying what the button was. Now it just takes up screen real estate for no useful reason.

Only if they choose to. I can’t speak to Windows Mobile, but Google’s design specs and AOSP are very well documented.

Indeed they are: The problem for SmartThings however, …

Do they design 3 (three!) different Apps, each one to conform to the specific mobile platform?

Or do they force the iOS App to use the Goolge/AOSP specifications? Or vice versa? Or make up something entirely new or some weird hybrid?

It’s not the lack of specifications and standards that are the problem: The problem is that there are 3 (three!) completely different specifications!

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No idea why this was changed. Some of us have more than one hub. Maybe this was the cause off all the previous outages… yeah must be it.

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Gotta agree with that… I mean I’m guessing the idea was to have the header match the text of the icon for that page, but it is problematic for those those of us who have more than one hub.

Also, minor annoyance… I like the the words under the icons at the bottom, but ‘My Home’ isn’t entirely accurate, even setting aside that it might be my home or it might be my parents home that I’m looking at… cause it also might be my office.

In a perfect world that label would be dynamic and change with location, but I don’t know if that’s possible. There would obviously need to be some limit in terms of characters.

It’s only a minor thing too and if they nixed “My Home”… I’m frankly not sure what could replace it that’s generic enough but includes all the four things built into that tab: Rooms, Devices, SmartApps, and Family.

My Setup? My Hub? I can’t think of a better option.

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Maybe “My Things” ? I realize it is also on the next page, but all related.

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At least you Android users get release notes. Still no iOS 2.0.6 release notes.

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I’m now getting large question marks for several of my things

These are devices such as Nest. Does there need to be a handler update?

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lost my zigbee motion sensors last night. Routines now firing half the associated lights. Weeks of minor stuff I’ve ignored. Now 90% of my shit doesn’t work after the recent updates. what a joke. This system has turn out to be a weak remote control system and worthless for home automation. My X-10 was way more reliable. That’s sad. But then again what do you expect for $90.

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I’m getting a lot of the red drop down errors, but my BIGGEST and most important complaint is ever since this update, my phone has been useless as a presence sensor. It was working almost flawlessly before… now it’s a 45m - 1 hour delay before it realizes a change in status

Morning All, my Wemo Switch and Lightify RGBW bulb just show up as Question MArks on my SmartThings app, have reset hub and deleted all apps, basically started again, still can’t get the Wemo and Lightify to show up, just a question mark, anybody else having these issues…