Are we any close of receiving anything new from ST? I’m not talking about the new hub, but just something, or anything at all?
Support for Arlo cameras? Nest? Foscam?
Any improvement on the Android app, like not sending notifications for all users all the time?
Smartthings already has support for both Nest and Foscam
Nest Support: Nest Thermostat
Foscam Support: Foscam Universal Internal Device Type (HD\Non-HD with Alarm\LED\PTZ Control)
@sidjohn1 : those are not SmartThings supported, but community supported last I checked…
You are correct… they are. The difference between Smartthings supported and community supported is what exactly? If it works does it really matter who supports it? The whole point of opening up the API so others can code in anything they want is so that the company doesn’t have to and they have more resources to focus on other things, like the cloud infrastructure, hub v2, IOS/andriod/windows app updates and other cool things they haven’t mentioned yet.
This is all smartthings says they support, if you want more you have been given to option to code it yourself or even ask nicely in the forums there are several developers looking for a new challenge. Just be sure to support them when they do.
http://www.smartthings.com/compatible-products/
@sidjohn1 : You ask what the difference is basically, and does it matter. I would argue it does. If the community makes something, SmartThings has no obligation to ensure it is functional at any point.
Additionally, community built solutions don’t just install from a single button press within the SmartThings app. The installation has more advanced steps, and troubleshooting the deployment requires the community. I could list far more reasons, as this is the kind of discussion in the IT world as “in house built” vs “vendor built”.
Its just best to state that there is a difference, as many in the public would not want to be concerned with the issues, overhead, complexity, etc. of a community built solution, without vendor support.
As a counterpoint to that, the community supported apps get fixed quickly if something is wrong, which is not true at all for SmartThings apps. So the support is great, except that they just note that you have a problem, and then nothing happens very quickly, if at all. Any of the active developers won’t let that stand for their own work product.
This is not a sustainable consumer facing business model…
You know you would think so… but over the years I’ve seen a few small companies produce some cool hardware and software and then got a little crazy and opened up the API for others to to write code to. You might of heard of a few them… like Apple or Google. Even Microsofts Steve Balmer knew whats up… https://youtu.be/8To-6VIJZRE
Though people have been saying “Apple is doomed” for decades, so you just might end up being correct.
Hi Sid,
That’s NOT what I was referring to – Absolutely, SmartThings as a platform is tremendous and continues to show growing potential.
But SmartThings cannot continue to give us and other consumers the impression that their responsiveness to bugs is … “less than stellar”. This also spills over to the Development Community, though we evaluate the platform with different criteria. And that criteria includes how well we can support our Customers when there are problems or limitations with the Platform that are out of our control.
There are various customer experiences and impressions posted here. I would love to see more reviews by consumer-oriented (not gadget oriented) organizations, like Consumer Reports.
As for now, all we have are the stats on the App stores and on Amazon.com … and very little competition to compare these numbers with. (i.e., holding at just under 4 out of 5 Stars on Amazon).