Has ST totally abandoned the classic app?
Case in point, is this effing bug ever going to get fixed!??!
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Not abandoned, in the sense that it will keep operating, and I’m sure we will get notice of it’s official deprecation and/or disablement.
But I wouldn’t expect any new features or non-“hypercritical” bug fixes. Why would they bother?
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That issue bothered me too. It was one of the signs on the wall that let me know it was time to leave.
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I don’t recognize or understand the actual “bug” depicted by @swamplynx.
Does it really impact usability so much that it’s your last straw, Keith?
Isn’t the rollout of the new App a good sign that SmartThings is moving beyond the bandaid phase and putting the old horse to pasture? (I need more metaphors.)
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It was one of the things that told me, if I didn’t like the way the “new app” was able to support my needs, like running webCoRE or being able to write my own code, there was no option to stay with what’s old and works.
In my opinion I should be able to get my home to where I like it and not have to do anything with it ever again if I wanted to be so stubborn. Now it’s clear it’s time to move or die, which blows my mind.
I work in an industry where systems are installed, run in place for 20 years and then get nursed along until they’re replaced. I know HA is very different but I want that option to perfect it and leave it. Not watch the foundation rot due to hastily deployed forced updates.
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Notice how there are no text labels under Dashboard, Marketplace, and More. Yes, it is just a simple display bug in the iOS version that doesn’t really affect usability. But that is the point, it is a super simple bug, and presumably easy to fix. When mature companies roll out new products (apps in this case), they may not add features to a legacy product, but they don’t outright abandon them a refuse to do bug fixes.
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That’s quite an assertion. Do you have proof?
That’s not consistent with my experience at all. Mature or immature companies often absolutely stop all development (including bug fixes) on deprecated or legacy product, unless, as mentioned earlier, such bugs are extremely critical - generally that means only security issues - not something as non-impactful as “missing labels”.
Not dismissing that this isn’t annoying to you. But assuring you that I don’t find this “abandonment” to be the least bit unusual or unexpected. This is normal behavior to me.
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I find it normal as well, but I don’t like the position it puts me in is all. It woke me up to how out of control it all was. That it wasn’t my home automation system, just Samsung’s migration plan.
I’m not trying to say SmartThings is dead, if anything it’s being reborn, but it’s doing so in a very secretive way that most big companies do. I see SmartThings moving to a space with the likes of Nest and Wink. This is what our product does, enjoy, if that’s not enough then send us feedback that doesn’t do anything.
ST could very well open up a new IDE but it hasn’t been presented to us. Now it’s just going to be another black box as far as I can tell with the information I’ve been given. And I might be missing a lot of info because it’s all been handled so poorly.
The new IDE is open and has been since it’s public beta launch at SDC nearly a year ago. This isn’t a secret.
Just goes to show how I’ve been left in the dark for a year.
It seems like a learning experience is required, and maybe some private hosting?
But this topic isn’t about the new developer portal, so I’ll stop talking about it.
I used to be in the Beta circle, I received a hub V2 for testing.
I used to talk to ST people like April, and many other technical staff.
My life got hectic so I stopped being overly proactive here, but I shouldn’t have to go out of my way to find clear info on what’s coming down the pipe for a platform that I’ve invested so much in.
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I hope you know that April left the company a long, long time ago.
More recently, though, lots of others have left, roughly in order: CTO Jeff Hagins, CPO Dora, Ben, Tyler, CEO Alex Hawkinson, Slagle, …
You get the drift. SmartThings is no longer an “independent subsidiary”. Samsung is now officially in charge.
That might explain… I dunno. The “troublesome” transition.
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I totally agree, and I feel like that’s about when I drifted off to sleep and lost most interest in this stuff. That’s why I missed the launch of the system that I just switched to as well.
Now that I’ve moved I’m excited again, but who’s to say the same process won’t repeat itself as money gets thrown around. We’re all just on a roller coaster and every once and a while we get the chance to change tracks. I hope this one works out for me, and I hope SmartThings works out for anyone staying. The beauty is all of my devices so far are agnostic, it’s just a matter of my time spent to switch over.
Here’s hoping they both do great by us the consumers, the power users, and the developers.
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I guess my definition of IDE is different. But I saw nothing to look at my devices or my hub or diagnostic information. to me, it is clear they are moving to a Wink style market with a closed system where only items on the list can be installed. and if that is the case, i’ll just go over to apple/hue. I’m not going to play the “will it be supported” game with a company that is just “meh” at execution. most of my stuff is on wink and hue, with only the more obscure things on Smart Things. I’m certainly not going to replace that stuff to buy into an ecosystem that just gets changed willy nilly.
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What did you switch to??
I guess I won’t be struck down with lightning for saying it, but I’ve switched to Hubitat.
It’s definitely rough around the edges, there’s no app, the dashboard you can create is a little underwhelming, and the native rule engine Rule Machine (born here) is not as easy to understand as webCoRE.
I switched because I love their local first approach. Commands go from Device A to the hub then to Device B, as opposed to sticking a far away cloud in the middle for no good reason. I also love that updates aren’t installed by them, if you want an update that’s available, you install it. If you’re happy with what’s running, then don’t.
Also most things that work here, can be ported to over there by swapping out some pieces of text in the code. So now I’m a little parasitically dependent upon what goes on here.
It has lots of room to improve but it’s somewhat new, so hopefully it’ll approach my vision of perfection. It’s really just a platform that I agree with the foundation principles of; the rest is just bells and whistles.
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I mean just now when I looked at the dev portal, I was overwhelmed so I can’t say what it is or isn’t. But I get the same impression…
IDE = Interactive Development Environment.
The classic quote-IDE-unquote website is more than an IDE, but it was never meant to be used by regular customers. It was meant for developers only.
SmartThings has never built a separate website for non-developer customers.
Maybe with the new IDE they will add a non-dev web utilities…
That’s really poking at it actually.
I felt like the space for power users was getting edged out. A talented and connected dev like yourself could get something into the new ST but could I just fiddle with things as causally as I do with the Groovy IDE? I don’t know…
i get the definition, but as it stands smartthings IDE > samsung IDE. same with the app and same with the new hub. i’m not a developer. i’m an analyst that can do some light development. as an analyst, i’d say the trend is pretty clear. as a light developer that has purchased smart apps and controllers for smartthings and then modified them for my house, i am pretty out of luck.
my point is that if i am being forced into a new model, i will be going with another platform that does that model better.
and i’m not trolling or anything like that. i’m just saying tech comes and goes. knowing when to leave a platform is important. if you spent the 2000s only playing a gamecube, you missed out. everything that made smartthings a good solution for me is now unsupported/deprecated. i’m on borrowed time to find a replacement.
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I’d suggest waiting until after SDC conference in November 2018. SmartThings definitely will announce stuff.
Maybe not committed timelines, but very like a lot of helpful updates and detail on what the current or near future status is of the new API.
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