I don't understand the SmartThings/SmartApps ecosystem -- thoughts and feedback after several weeks

[geko]

Totally agree. I’ve also brought this up some time ago. ST “Modes” are not even close to “scenes”. They’re just global state variables. The “Hello Home” actions are more or less equivalent to the scenes, but even then only superficially. Why ST decided to deviate from the traditional “HA Scene” concept is beyond me.

Feature Request - Actions when exiting a mode/hello action?

I think you’re over-complicating it, but again maybe I’m just missing something. In a traditional HA sense, “scenes” are just macros that perform multiple actions. They can be activated, but they cannot be “turned off”. Instead, you activate another scene. So every scene has to define explicitly what switches need to be turned on and off (or set to a specific dim level). If a switch is not defined in a scene, it will not be affected be a scene change. This type of simple logic has been a staple feature of all HA systems since X10. I don’t know why SmartThings have been trying to ignore it for such a long time. They introduced Hello Home “actions” in the mobile app, which are sort of like a scene, but they’re afraid to call them “scenes” for whatever reason. I’d like to hear @ben’s comment…