Does ANYONE like the new smart things app?

I’m just curious and only asking those that used the smart things classic app before being forced to the new smartthings app, does ANYONE actually like the new app?

It’s a complete and total dumpster fire and I just can’t imagine there’s anyone out there that actually thinks it’s an improvement from classic (speaking of functionality, not aesthetics).

It’s complete garbage and I’m just pissed Samsung forced the move to it (for us by no longer disarming our alarm when we specifically select to disarm it, triggered our sirens several times as a result forcing me to move to the new app - pretty crappy move on Samsungs part).

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Some people in this community like some features better. I think the delay option is pretty cool. But that doesn’t mean they like it better overall.

On the other hand, some people who only have a Samsung smart television and nothing else say it’s a big improvement over the previous app.

Let’s just say there are more.negatives then positives.

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Nope…

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I haven’t used too much the Smart View app, but that worked with my 2014 H series TV to control it.
With the new SmartThings app, I have even no idea how to add the TV.
You know this TV is that series which has received the encrypted connection for the control features, and was dropped immediately by the Classic App to be supported. Many other platforms struggled with these models to integrate but they’ve got through it to be able to control some way.
The Smart Home app was working well enough with my Washer, the integration which was built in to the Classic app was working as well, until it has been shut down this year.
I have a Samsung AC as well. Unfortunately it has been decommissioned at my last place, and hasn’t been connected since that. I am worried a bit due to this big App moves the AC will not work again with any Wifi/Internet connection, only by the IR remote. (Maybe Samsung has already dropped the support to it, as they tend to do.)
Does anyone knows that the Samsung speakers has received their support in the new SmartThings app at the end, before the MultiRoom is decommissioned?

NO
The whole UI is wrong, it fails in every respect. And no matter what any original smartthings user shouts, people with new smartthings tv’s like it

I guess due to Samsungs lack of money they could not develop a stand alone Tv app, instead it made more sense to redevelop/destroy an excellent existing functional ecosystem

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Understatement of the day

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I didn’t find the old app all that great for the year or so I used it.

The new app is about the same. I guess you can say I’ve made peace with it.

Day to day I tend to use Alexa to trigger SmartThings devices and scenes or I use the scenes widget on my Android devices.

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No I do not

This isn’t a very popular opinion around here especially lately, but the new app has been working just fine for me for the past couple months. Prior to a couple months ago, there were a number of big issues I had with it but those are now resolved.

I suspect that once all this migration and shutdown work calms down, there will be a lot more resources available for SmartThings to throw at the new app to more rapidly improve it.

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I like the “Automations” UI, unfortunately I don’t use it because it doesn’t work so well and missing some things.

The home page and tiles are terrible. Most dont display properly and if they do the value is small and the tile is huge. And no favorites anymore. So I’ve ported data over to using Sharptools.

I picked up a Hubitat to play around with but still running on Smarthings hub. Its dashboard isnt that great either. Again sharptools will pick up that slack. Once the ST IDE is toast will likely unplug ST hub and move over to Hubitat 100%. There’s still time for ST new app to improve, will see if that happens.

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Seems so far that’s a big no…can’t understand why Samsung is still going full steam ahead with such negative feedback…seems like they just don’t give a rats ass; they are just going to do what they are going to do and we can just deal with it or GTFO.

Samsung, you destroyed something good and forced people to move to a complete dumpster fire instead and for that I bid you farewell, I’m out…time to find a new smart home hub.

Question now is which one…let the research begin.

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The idea of automations is a step forward, but since the damn things don’t run consistently, it’s worse than if they didn’t exist.

This whole new apps experience blows. I’ve stuck with ST since the Kickstarter days through many ups and downs, and between these useless automations that replaced stable routines, the Alexa mess, and the garbage pile that the new app is, I’m currently setting up my Hubitat hub.

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I can’t say for sure, but just look at the numbers. :thinking:

The classic app
Had around 1 million downloads
8,000 reviews
2.8 rating

The new V3 app
Over 100 million downloads
536,000 reviews
4.5 rating

This forum has about 86,000 users.

The new app isn’t aimed at us. “Us“ being power users of the smartthings hub.

It’s aimed at the literally tens of millions of Samsung customers with smart televisions and smart appliances.

SmartThings employees have said multiple times in this forum that their typical customer has 15 or fewer devices and uses no custom code of any kind.

With the exception of Geopresence, it’s likely that nothing broken in the migration affected that group at all.

Again, I’m sure that the individual smartthings employees who visit this forum (and many more) would really like to keep the power users happy. But when it comes to the Samsung business model, we are barely a blip.

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No.

I only just switched today and it seems to be worse in every aspect. It would be nice to switch off of using Webcore and be strictly on SmartThings so I can limit the number of extra integrations needed to support my automation needs so the new Automations section seems promising but only time will tell.

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I have only just migrated to the new app having been put off by the negative commentary. However, given the watershed in October I bit the bullet and hot migrate.

Not everything migrated without issue but after a couple of hours of rejigging I seem to have got all devices and automations working again. Not exactly seamless but not a total disaster.

Personally I find the clearer distinction between Automations and Scenes makes life a little simpler; I am a simple soul.

There are a few areas where I remain confused. I make use of the Virtual Thermostat SmartApp and this appears to work. However there is no mention of it under SmartApps so whilst I have 2 running, there is no means to add another. I will probably need to explicitly define the device handler in my own environment? But have not got round to testing this out.

On big and welcome surprise was that fuzzysb’s Tado integration works. I use Tado throughout my home for control of heating and this was one area where I have seen people have issues but it all works for me.

Have had some issues with Alexa integration but again seem to have resolved by removing devices and scenes and reinstating; probably more an issue with switch to new Alexa skill.

Overall, I’ve been pleasantly surprised; I was probably expecting a disaster and it hasn’t been as bad as I was anticipating.

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One final question. What constitutes a power user? What kind of things does a power user do with SmartThings that a simpleton like me doesn’t. Given the wealth of criticism of the new app I’m genuinely interested in what gaps exist under the new app that did not under the Classic app.

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I think it’s great. When I got ST I had to use both the old app and the new app to do what I had been doing in Lowes Iris. Neither app would do everything. With the big change they had last year (or was it this year) to the new app I could accomplish everything in the new app and didn’t need to go into the web stuff to accomplish it.

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I’m really liking it. Automatons and layout.

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I don’t know if SmartThings has an official definition (some companies do, some companies don’t) , but they have said multiple times In the past that their typical customer has less than 15 devices and doesn’t use any custom code. They’ve also defined anyone who used the IDE as a “developer.”

So a “power user” in that context would be someone who uses any custom code.

If you only use the built in features of the app and you have less than 15 devices, you would not be a “power user.”

But barring an official definition, it’s all pretty subjective.

As far as what power users get, there are three different categories:

  1. More devices. Whether it’s being able to use multitap with a Homeseer switch or being able to have different chime sounds for different events from a dome siren, there are many advanced features and specific devices which require custom code to work with SmartThings. Custom Code would let you add the Ring Keypad to your smartthings set up, which is a really nice device for which there is no official ST equivalent. :sunglasses:

image

  1. much more complex rules. (For this purpose, even though it’s not technically custom code, using the rules API would definitely make you a power user)
  1. use of third-party apps for many different applications, such as @rboy ‘s lock manager , ActionTiles and SharpTools for custom dashboards, Konnected.io for integration with dumb hardwired sensors, etc. these may also be able to substitute for functionality which is region locked in the new app. For example, guest code lock management in the official features is only available in some regions, but @rboy ‘s lock manager doesn’t have this issue.

Essentially power users extend their base smartthings system so they can do more with more devices. Whether that’s worth any potential headaches is an individual question, but it’s been one of the distinguishing features of smartthings for the past five years. It was pretty easy for anyone willing to ask for help from the community to create complex rules using dozens of different devices from different brands.

There were other systems out there that also supported this level of complexity, but most of them required that the individual person have a strong technical background. That includes Home Assistant, Homeseer, and Hubitat.

The really cool thing about smartthings was the platform made it very easy for non-technical people to just copy and paste Solutions provided by others and then use them with their own accounts, while still offering basic functionality through the app.

That doesn’t mean that everybody can or should add this level of complexity to their own systems, but the fact that they could was pretty amazing.

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