Initial State Integration Updates (pretty stuff and useful stuff)

Initial State + SmartThings Screenshot

Background: The Initial State + SmartThings integration makes it super simple for users with a SmartThings hub to stream all of the events that the SmartThings device network generates to Initial State’s visualizations (more info).

Updates: We have received a ton of great feedback over the last few months. We released a few updates to address some of the most common requests/issues as well as more documentation on how to do some cool stuff:

  • You can now create multiple dashboards/views from your SmartThings data bucket. In the screenshot above, you can see four different dashboard views of my ST network - a master dashboard, one for all of my temperature monitors, one for battery levels, and one for motions/contacts. Read more …

  • You can now add units and/or emojis to displayed data with real-time expressions (pro tier). I am using different emojis to help me see what rooms have motion at-a-glance. Read more …

  • You can now smooth out and pretty up noisy temperature tiles with real-time expressions (pro tier). Read more …

  • Add local weather data from Wunderground to your ST dashboard as well as data from other devices like a Raspberry Pi. In the screenshot above, I have a Raspberry Pi collecting high-accuracy temperatures and humidities in my office and streaming that data + Wunderground data into my ST dashboard. Read more …

  • Set a limit to how far back in time data loads (e.g. load the last 24 hours, 1 day, 1 week, since 6/1/16). You can have one bucket view that goes back 1 week and another view that goes back 1 year. Read more …

You can track all of our updates at https://www.initialstate.com/whatsnew/. Let me know what you think about the integration and if there are missing features you want/need.

2 Likes

I have tried the free version, and while it looks promising, my limits hit after a week. I would move up a tier, but $10 a month is just too steep for something that is “interesting” rather than “needed”. If you were priced at $5/month for the next tier, I’d jump all over it. Have you guys considered lowering the price of the next tier? And for that matter, since I haven’t seen any ST-related posts, are you guys still courting ST users?

2 Likes

We have a ton of ST users and get a continuous stream of new ST hubs connected to Initial State every day. We still write ST related posts like this one last month: http://blog.initialstate.com/iris-motion-sensor-tiny-smartthings-sensors-everywhere/ . We used to have a $5/mo tier but closed it down in favor of a more feature rich $10/mo tier. There wasn’t a viable business model for a $5/mo tier in our market.

2 Likes

I second the the five dollar tier that is much more reasonable for the casual user. Perhaps make a $5 tier that give you access to 90 days of history. If you charged a dollar or two per month for 30 days of history you would probably get huge uptake there as well. I have to imagine that having our $5 per month with some limitations is a better business model than not get my $60 per yer along with everyone else who finds $10month hard to swallow for some “optional” historical data. Maybe were just small fish and not the type of customer your are targeting, and if so I get it. A business needs focus and to go after the where the money is at to survive.

BTW that being said it looks very cool based on my limited usage, and I do appreciate you at least offering a free trial tier.

2 Likes

I hope you will consider this feedback. Very cool product BTW.