iOS

General Discussion
1

I’m really waiting for the Android version of the App, but in the meantime, does anyone know if an iOS app is planned for those of us with iPad1s?  I’ve been left behind the iOS upgrade train, and now have no App option for my Smartthings when they arrive…

2

The iOS app if for iOS 6+. I have an original iPad so its somewhat of a bummer, but I completely understand why.

3

Okay, I’ll bite…why?  Is there a technical reason 6+ is better for the app?

4

It requires a lot more development to work with iOS 5 devices. The population of iOS 5 users is a small percentage of all iOS devices and will only get smaller as time goes on. More than 80% of all iOS devices are on iOS 6+ and less than 10% are on iOS 5. So it became a question of if we needed to spend the extra development time essentially making two different apps for such a small percentage of the user base and we decided against it.

5

Andrew,

Thanks, I understand the 80/20 rule perfectly.  I am bummed, as it looks like I’ll have no way to interface with my system until the Android app comes out, but as a business this makes sense.

6

I’ve seen a lot of hacks to get iOS 6 on older devices, may be worth a look. I don;'t have any iOS devices myelf… so I have no choice but to wait for the android app im afraid.

 

Well I do have an old 3GS in a junk drawer somewhere… maybe I can get that to work.

7

A 3GS will run iOS 6 without any hacking required.

8

I was thinking the same thing with the old 3Gs phones. I have 3 old ones from the wife and kids after buying them all SG3’s for xmas last year. I’ve been meaning to put them on eBay, just never got around to it. I guess I can put them into service as SmartThings remote controls. What’s cool is that you can still use them with SmartThings without a sim card. Push notifications will still even work. App based, not carrier based texting will work too, something like Google Talk or WhatsApp Messenger. SmartThings Apps have the ability to send notifications either via push or text, so this is important.

I’m going to find one of those old phones this morning. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

Twack

9

Take a look at my project to start writing your own app for iOS and Android.  I have an open source sample app that I demo’ed at a previous SmartThings build-a-thon that allows you to login to your SmartThings account, access your hubs and control your devices.  I wrote that app in less then 2 days at the build-a-thon, so feel free to fork it an make changes to improve it, but I just tested it and the app works on both iOS and Android for basic device monitoring and control.  I have included a link to the APK file for third party install below.

SmartThings Project: http://build.smartthings.com/projects/appcelerator/

Sample App Source Code: https://github.com/alanleard/SmartThings

Installable APK File:  https://github.com/alanleard/SmartThings/blob/master/app.apk?raw=true

1 Like
10

Hey Alan…

I just grabbed your APK – thanks so much for sharing… I’ll join your “Project” page as well, I think.

I was just reading the SmartThings API documentation and thinking it wasn’t too hard to understand, but the only way to know is to write some front-end. I wonder if a WebApp would be doable (well, doable, of course, but at what speed…).

Anyhow – in short, thank-you!!!

11

The Appcelerator platform will allow for deployment to mobile web with the same source code.  I think it would take some tweaking, but the same source code should work and then you would just deploy the app on a server somewhere.  If you download Titanium Studio and grab the mobile app source code, you can then build the app for mobile web and start messing with it.  I am buried in other projects right now, but if you want to explore this more feel free to post on the project page.