I just don’t understand why Smartthings doesn’t care about this. If nothing else they could use it as a marketing tool to sell more devices - revenue must good.
Assimilation by the mother ship still in progress, I’d guess. Staff moves on for various reasons (where’s @alex, for example). The engineering process is “maturing” and marketing goals are probably shifting weekly.
Let’s hope the process maturation results in higher quality standards, more stability, better testing/Beta (already signs of that!), and eventual rising satisfaction even among the forum’s harshest critics!
If I was king of engineering, @JDRoberts, it would be a priority even without it being a marketing priority!
Hiring or inspiring staff to build/test these features would go a long way toward making the app/system handicap accessible. Someone like you as a beta user (and listening to beta feedback!) would definitely help.
Sadly, I doubt anyone is being “measured” on their performance in this area…
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
8
JD…
Is there an app or website or volunteer group or service that can assist with Accessibility Testing?
We have had zero feedback in this regard for ActionTiles. While we code with accessibility in mind, this is an area that intrinsically flows lower in priority simply because there are no members in our Beta group who are testing specifically for this.
Our resources are slim, so I can’t promise we would be able to fix accessibility issues very quickly, but, to use your words, ActionTiles has not, indeed, gone through “an accessibility review even the simplest type.”
Also, in answer to a previous question, I myself am not available as a beta tester. I don’t have enough energy to get through my own necessary tasks each day. The truth is there are days when I don’t change my clothes because if I did I wouldn’t have enough energy left to pay bills or feed the dog. Dealing with glitchy hardware/software is absolutely the last thing I want to spend time and energy on.
That said, there are definitely people who enjoy doing this kind of testing and whose own limitation is much more defined, like someone who has had an arm amputated or who is blind but otherwise in good health. And these days there are a lot of automated tools.
So a call for accessibility beta testers from your own user community may get several volunteers (just not me!).
Or try one of the many automated tools to test accessibility:
And a11y project is a great resource for any coders interested in these issues:
Large companies like Samsung/SmartThings can also get accessibility advice from organizations like the national Federation of the blind, but I don’t think they typically work with companies the size of ActionTiles. They do have some published resources that can be helpful, particularly for websites:
Well…the last thread was closed, so I thought I would post here. Not sure if I should still post about this in the app update treads, but at least we/I can keep track of any progress.
Presence Sensor using my phone -
Right now, I left the house over 1.5 hours ago, and I am nearly 30 miles away, but the app says I am still home. After keeping it open for a few minutes it refreshed to away, at the time right now, 1.5 hours after I left. Maybe this can be looked at to help with tracking? Can/should I submit any logs or will not matter? I keep the app running in the background all the time and my settings are all correct. Shoot…if it has to use more battery for better tracking, I would like that option. Presence is just as important as being able to control a light. The thing is, I maybe a bit…consumed with this so I check it, but my household doesn’t share my same…excitement. So when it isn’t working for them, they don’t know, they just expect it to be working.
I love that I have to manually control my home automation.
@SquattingHen Question for you - where is your iPhone when you drive off? Here is my story. I am one of those who puts their iPhone in their pocket. I’ve noticed when I have the iPhone in my pocket while driving, accuracy of location services is much lower. So, I started putting my iPhone in the cup holder when I get in the car and drive. Now I get about 99% accuracy with location services when it is not in my pocket. Anyway, it is only my observation in my situation.
I’m sure that’s very frustrating. Have you done any testing to see if your phone knows your location correctly for other apps? Maybe install life360 and see when it tracks your position as changing.
Just weather apps, or certain widgets that show location. For maps, I open them and they are correct, but ST did correct itself after I opened it as well. I don’t know what life 360 is, but I can google/bing it. I don’t have facebook, twitter, instagram or any other social media, so if it is tied to that, I would pass.
Within iOS itself, you can share your location with anyone, and on demand, they can see your location. As I mentioned, I would be more than fine with a little less battery if the location worked accurately. For me, it just seems like it “falls off” every so often, like it forgets to check my phone. I also have the app open quite often, so it is not like I never open it.
Life360 is a free app available for both iOS and Android. It was originally intended for parents who wanted to check and see whether their school-age children had arrived home on time. so it’s designed to set up a “family circle” where each member of the family can see where all the other members are and where they’ve been.
It’s pretty easy to use, and there’s an official integration with SmartThings so it will show up as another presence sensor under “family” in the SmartThings app.
Because it tracks your position throughout the day, it’s really good for testing whether your phone is correctly reporting your position, because it’s not updating only when you open the app. In other words, if life 360 also thinks that you’re still at home 30 minutes after you left, you know the problem is more than just SmartThings.
Quite a few people use life 360 just for themselves with SmartThings because they find that it seems to be a little more accurate than the official SmartThings mobile presence on its own. This appears to be particularly true for android phones. But in any case it’s very helpful in troubleshooting if you want to go to that amount of effort.
Is someone with ST able to comment on this? Is this something that is being improved on ST’s end or something that even can be worked on? I am just curious to know if I need to start trying to find alternate methods/devices. While this might not seem like a big deal to most, it is to us. If this is something that can’t be improved specifically on ST’s end, I would really like to know. It’s fine if it is not being worked on, and can’t be improved from ST’s side, but I would rather know that, instead of waiting for something that isn’t possible. Granted most things can improve over time as the technology gets better, but I am looking for more than a generic answer.
I have almost clicked “by now” on the arrival sensor numerous times over the past few days, but I know that wouldn’t work for us as the answer. As I stated before, (like most people) we take our phones everywhere, but we don’t always take both sets of keys. The only sure fire way, besides having a reliable presence sensor, would be for the last person to manually select the routine after they left, and the first person home to manually select the routine before the enter. Again, defeats the purpose of being automated.
Sorry guys…I know I am probably beating this down.
Follow up on my disappearing header on the More screen. It is with the iPad version of the app. It does not happen with the iPhone version. If you open the More screen, minimize the app and open the app after 5-10 minutes, you get the missing header. Only way to get it back at that point is a restart of the app. I tried removing/reinstalling the ST app but was still able to duplicate the situation described above.
Can we please update the font that appears on the heating and temperature circle icons to the left of the sliders to be the same size as is displaying on the battery status icon?
Have you done any testing to see if your phone knows your location correctly for other apps? Maybe install life360 and see when it tracks your position as changing.
