The smartthings staff have been pretty amazing. It’s not their fault that the product, temporarily (?) has became something which isn’t worth having.
Perhaps in the future things will be better. But far too many things have been broken without suitable replacement/functionality.
Why should anyone ‘wait it out’?
So far the transition to Phase 2 has been smooth for me. One question, one comment:
Question: Any sense of the timing for the replacement/retirement for the current IDE (Phase 3)?
Comment: The new mobile app is pretty, but it is not space efficient, especially for those of us with many devices. Define many? I have about 60. About half are commercially available, and the other half are of my own design.
I am using custom app, lock manager. If I am not able to use it anymore or create code by myself, SmartThings platform is not of any value for me.
And that after spending almost more almost $2K in hardware for last 7 years.
I understand Samsung focus for broader audience, but this was last straw.
The good news is that if you leave SmartThings your $2K in hardware isn’t wasted, as will work in many different (competing) platforms.
Take a look at this app, it works with the new ST app and has a slew of features and user types (including presence, mode, expiration, scheduled, permanent etc), actions and notifications.
I actually do use your paid app for lock management. But that one requires IDE which is going away. And since for scalability and cost saving measures for Samsung you need to run on your own endpoint (to be see), I would not be surprised that LM will not survive with SmartThings.
It did survived move to new app when so many other things did not, that is true.
Samsung is not willing to support move capability for 1gen multi sensor which was essential to opening/closing garage door.
I was very sad when Samsung purchased ST since I was sure it will end up with dead of platform at some point.
The IDE is not scheduled to go away until 2021 (see the first post in this thread). It’s not part of the October 2020 changes.
Samsung acquired SmartThings in August 2014, 6 years ago.
If they hadn’t done so, smartthings would undoubtedly have either gone out of business or been acquired by someone else by now. And given that Wink and Iris were never able to find a buyer, going out of business seems the most likely. 
Where did you see the dates though?
Earlier in this thread…
I remember the days when a television could last you 5 to 10 years at least. The only advances I remember were silly things like 120Hz refresh or 1 inch larger screen but nothing really major. Today it feels like a TV is obsolete before you even get a chance to break it in. Another good example is a car… I typically keep my car for many years, but now I am ready to get rid of my 2018 Acura because the infotainment system is just plain obsolete.
What I am trying to say is that your devices would have become obsolete quickly regardless of whether ST had or had not been acquired. A small company would arguably have less resources to keep expanding support to more and more devices so they too would have to cut support for the old stuff, which nowadays can mean a couple years, in order to remain viable. This is also required for significant and faster innovation which can be stifled by a huge baggage of backwards compatibility. I think Samsung / ST carried forward the outdated system long enough and even though it may be painful (and possibly costly) in the transition, we should be excited to see what new options lay ahead. I want speed and reliability which I believe will improve once the migration to the new system is complete. I share many fears I read here. I hope we will retain the openness and ability to fully customize our systems as ST promises.
To date it would appear that Samsung’s strategy in acquiring ST was to our benefit. Often when one company gets acquired by another it ends up being gutted and shut down. Samsung appears to be doing the opposite here… ST is enjoying the backing and clout of a rich and global organization. I believe this to be critical to ST’s success in the budding Smart Home market. Without Samsung, it would be way easier for Apple or Amazon (or other) to come along and destroy it by making it obsolete faster than ST could react being a small player (meaning small pockets compared to titans it is up against).
Believe me, I have my gripes with ST, but I am optimistic for the future of HA with Samsung ST. If I am wrong, I am sure there will be other players worth looking at some time down the road. Right now they all feel like ST at the very beginning. They might out do ST in one regard or another, but when you look at the complete package, I think Samsung ST wins.
If only I could buy a new hub today in Canada… Still run the v1 and finally made the decision to buy a new hub just finding out that NOBODY has any v3 available
That is not really accurate. I used ST for more 7 years now until they intentionally choose to break it.
And I am work in high tech. It is not unheard of, but it does have consequences. In this case it is me moving to somewhere else.
TV or car are not really great examples.
You can just use cheap Fire TV stick or Android TV to upgrade your TV experience. I do with my Sony Android TV 2015 which is barely functional when using apps.
Same for car. Use Android Auto.
Agreed. Obsolescence is one thing. But, your remote will still change channels on your TV until the TV dies and even if they quit broadcasting, you can still use your VHS (LOL - Yes, I still have 30 year old tapes) unless you buy a new TV without the inputs. There, it is a choice of whether or not to upgrade. For your car, your stereo will continue to play FM stations until they quit broadcasting or your stereo dies. To remove BASIC functionality is more akin to making your car or TV unusable from a software /firmware update requiring you to replace the system or key components that were basic to it’s functionality. If you had to go buy new seats, tires, headlights, and more because they did a firmware update and then said your old items were obsolete anyway, that would not sit any better than this.
That said, we knew this was a risk when we bought into the cloud architecture with forced updates. Samsung absolutely has the right to change anything they want at anytime they want. Having a legal right and doing what’s right are two different things though.
I recall that we were promised that before we moved, equivalent functionality would be provided. That hasn’t happened. And in some cases, looks like it will not happen.
As you said, many of us will exercise our right to voice our dissatisfaction publicly and take our future business elsewhere. I’m keeping a few non-critical items on ST long enough to see if anything usable (to me) is left when the dust settles. Otherwise, I have no loyalties to a company that does not return the consideration.
@spantic You are missing my point… I was trying to say that innovation has shortened product life cycles. Once, a TV and car were not considered obsolete in such a short life span. My 2018 car was obsolete when I drove it off the lot brand new and never got an update to fix all the quirks. Sure, I use Android Auto to get around the outdated infotainment and the quirks, and I use Rokus for the same reason as you on my TVs, but that is besides the point.
You are complaining about a cheap sensor not being supported after 7 years when it is cheap and easy to replace unlike TVs, cars, cell phones, etc. which are way more expensive. If that is enough for you to quit ST I have to wonder how you cope with all the other devices that manufacturers don’t care to support after way less time.
It is an unfortunate trend, but I don’t think we can blame ST for a short life cycle, if anything, I’d say it is the opposite.
I would say the same for the software side of the house even though I dearly miss Echo Speaks… I understand the need for change (maybe a bit more graceful) to keep things viable and innovation moving forward. I am sure that, one way or the other, what is (temporarily) broken will be resolved. We’ll see if I am too optimistic 
I might change my views, and optimism, if they kill off webCore without a perfectly equivalent or better alternative 
A few years ago Europe went from analog to full digital over-the-air TV broadcasting. It was a necessary evil that forced millions of people to buy a decoder or replace their TVs.
Cell phones get obsoleted by carriers turning off support for older cell phone technologies.
It’s a fact of life… I mean… technology.
Anyway, this hurts me just as it hurts everyone else even though I routinely update all technology to avoid extreme obsolescence where possible. I am just trying to make the point that while ST’s change management could have been better, they did support the old infrastructure and devices for quite a long time. It is indeed time for change so as they say: “Out with the old, in with the new.”
I don’t believe your comparison to periodically replacing your car with a newer model is a reasonable analogy to what SmartThings users are going through now .
Now if you were to say that every few years EVERY owner of your make of car would get a notice that the car co. was working on a replacement model which might come out in about a year or so give or take a few months, AND IN THE MEANTIME EVERY CAR OF YOUR MAKE AND MODEL on the road would no longer be able to make left turns nor could it be put in reverse, and every few days the interior and exterior lights would go off and the car would suddenly stall while cruising down the highway at the legal speed, requiring you to pull over and make numerous attempts at various adjustments in order to restart it, AND that a new version of your car, which may or may not restore some or all of these functions, will not be available for purchase for perhaps a year while you drive with these limitations, then perhaps you would have created an analogy to what SmartThings users are going through now.
The new ST app is pushing me to leave SmartThings. The new Alexa Skill doesn’t work half the time. The Alexa App doesn’t always see when contact sensors are opened or closed. And the new ST app keeps removing my ActionTiles Smart App. I go into Smart Apps to authorize a new device under ActionTiles, and half way through, I get a message saying “there was a problem with your network” (which there was not), finish authorizing the new device, and the new ST app REMOVES ActionTiles all together.
If something is NOT ready to be rolled out to the public, DON’T ROLL IT OUT!!!