Hi, been looking for a way to give my daughter access to turn off/on alarm and unlock/lock the door, maybe change routines will be the best way to go.
The widgets works for me, but don’t want to give my daughter full access to the app, only change routines, off/on alarm and door.
What are my options here, on her phone?
Maybe posted in wrong category, please correct it if wrong.
How old is she?
ActionTiles would be an outstanding option. You can create a custom panel for her with only the SmartThings devices you want to give her access to, including an SHM Tile for arming/disarming, plus you can give her visibility to other devices, but if pressed, requires a pin code. With ActionTiles, you very rarely ever need to go into the SmartThings app.
You could have different panels, one for you with everything displayed, and then a very restricted panel that she accesses on her phone (SHM, Door Locks, a couple of Routines) from the browser and a shortcut on her phone.
They do charge for the product, but you can install and try it out for a couple of weeks for free before you make a decision. It’s how I access and operate ST 95% of the time.
Here is an example of one of my panels:
Yeah, I know of this and have it.
However, was looking for a more “widget” thing, or a button if you will.
Been looking at “do-button” widget, but that would mean she will have to have ifttt and linked to smartthings, and I don’t know if several ifttt accounts can sync to one smartthings location.
As of now, I think of actiontiles as really backwards way for her to get access, because it would work like this: she stands on the porch, finding her phone, use a code to unlock the phone, going into web browser, then finding favorites/bookmarks, then maybe the session has expired and needs to login to actiontiles, then maybe if I could get her her own account on actiontiles she can open the door through the browser.
There are several “un-needed” and “not user friendly” steps here if you see my point.
You can argue that this can be done at the lock, which it is today, however, the touchpanel at the lock isn’t always responsive in -25celsius.
Therefore I’m looking for a widget/button for her phone…
Yep I totally get you on what you stated. Simplicity
But in order to give her access to “change Routines” within ST you would have to create another account linked to your hub, but that would give her access to everything.
If you just want her to be able to run specific Routines from her phone, Arm/Disarm - Lock / Unlock - etc. either add those existing Routines as a widget on her phone or create some custom Routines just for her and ad those as Widgets. I know from Android their are two types of Widgets you can add, ALL Routines or Individual Routines:
Edit:
But that would mean having the ST app on the phone, thus giving her access to open the app.
You could accomplish giving her the Routines to access via Alexa if you have that in your environment. Let me know if that is an option.
Yes, this is the problem, and not sure if I am to interested in letting here have that kind of access, and let here have the whole app.
Can potentially create havoc…
She’s by the way under 10 years old, would you let here have full access? 
I use the widgets for my self, so I like the simplicity of the widgets.
Yep yep.
So do you have Alexa integrated?
If so, what you could do is create a virtual switch called daughter switch and then have two Routines in Alexa called “Daughter Leaving” and “Daughter Home”. When those run, they simply turn on or off the virtual switch and when the virtual switch turns on or off, a Routine in SmartThings arms and locks everything based on the switch being turned off and disarms and unlocks when the switch is turned on. That would allow her to executive Routines without actually having access to anything.
EDIT: Or instead of Alexa, you could do this same thing with an Applet in IFTTT (like you mentioned) that turn the virtual switch on or off and still executes the ST Routines. That way you can add the appropriate Applets as Widgets on her phone.
Yes, but is it possible to link several ifttt accounts to one smartthings location?
No, don’t have Alexa, have Google Home, but that’s inside the house 
But, is ifttt the only way to go?
As I previously seen, I’m not the only one who have been looking for this, but I couldn’t find a good answer when I searched…
I’m sure there will be other suggestions and a lot of them are going to go over the top and be way more complicated than you are looking for.
Going back to ActionTiles for a minute. It would be no different than her having to grab her phone, unlock it and execute a widget. I myself have ActionTiles, running on Android and using Chrome and also on several tablets. I have a Shortcut to my ActionTiles panel (Widget so to speak) on my home screen, and I never ever have to login on my phone. The session is kept alive and it always goes straight to the panel. You could have the SHM tile and all the locks on one panel just for her use. To me that is the easiest way without any additional complications of trying to integrate with other 3rd party products.
I was afraid that would be one of the possible answers…
Yes, I see your point, however I have been asked to login again several times on actiontiles…
-maybe you use it more often than me on the phone?
And my daughter has been thoroughly disciplined in the art of fully exit applications on here phone/tablet/pc, and almost do this to the point of autism, which is usually good as I never have the “fault fixing” of here items that I had several times a week before…
But in this case, truly exiting web browsers, restart of phone once a day, etc, will only contribute to the expiration of sessions I guess…
Well…
From Chrome you can “add to homescreen” an icon that will launch any desired Panel directly. No need to search for favorites; it will be like any other App.
Login sessions in ActionTiles do not timeout (unlike SmartTiles), unless you logout or change password.
Creating a distinct Account for your daughter can be done in a supervised way by using an “email alias” of your own email: How to use an email alias for Panel Sharing / ActionTiles Knowledge Base / AT Support & Ideas … or you could use your own Account, but then it has full powers.
ActionTiles uses a “long-lived” secure session cookie, just like Gmail, Facebook, and other websites that stay logged in even long between browser sessions.
Unless you have very low memory space or are clearing cache and cookies, or running “incognito”, ActionTiles should never logout. I use a session on my Android (Moto X) phone perhaps once every 2 or 3 days, and I never have to login.
Ok, I will give this a try then.
Have experienced it on my s8 edge using chrome, but I cannot say for sure whether or not I have cleared it between sessions, as I never thought of “fault checking” it. Due to the “issue” with my daughter only recently happened.
However, does your “long lived” sessions work for ios also, as I could try this with another family member too?
How long do you estimate it to work between sessions, 1 month?
Why not keep it simple and give her a Aeon Minimote? That would give her 4-8 options either direct devices or routines?
I don’t think my action tiles have logged out for months. I use the android shortcut method daily. I have one panel/view with all my things (I usually view on PC) and a mini panel with just 10 things so it loads faster and I can quickly change modes and check all the doors from phone.
Honestly I don’t know. Nobody has complained 
. (We emphasize security, so I’d rather it log off a bit too soon rather than too late).
I’m pretty sure the token renews whenever the app is used, and that keeps it from expiring.
You should be prepared for the rare cases that ActionTiles has logged off.
Life360 to use as the presence sensor on her phone. Then set up a special routine just for her presence or use stock routines for all. We use this method to arm and disarm the system automatically as well as open garage and unlock doors.
You could also try the home remote app for android/ios/Windows… it’s beautiful. And combines many many different hubs/bridges. It’s like action tiles on Crack in some respects
Lol sorry Terry… not really… Well sort of
Grimace all you want lol
That was just my “crack face”. 
… better?
Nah… I love Home Remote. Its extra power comes with complexity, but it gives us some ideas of what to aspire to as well.
