As Michael stated, with their latest attempt to try and deploy 2.3.5, 2.3.6 and 2.3.7 versions of the Android and IOS apps, hell is going to have to freeze over before they get to this request. I think they might have fixed most of IOS, but sounds like Android has ongoing issues. My guess is it will be fixed with 2 more hot fixes (2.3.9) and I will stay on 2.3.5 until they do.
And as for ActionTiles - Does it have some shortcomings that need be addressed, absolutely. It needs some added flexibility for user layout and work around media functionality and browser compatibility and a matrix of what works and doesn’t work (some certification matrix between OS and Browser type), but what they have delivered up front in a short amount of time that it’s been here is pretty amazing. Short of configuring things like automations from the mobile app, having dashboards setup, replaces the need for even having to go into the ST Mobile App. You have visibility, accessibility and functionality of all devices you authorize giving you control and status of almost everything that you can do in the mobile app.
As far as lipstick on a pig goes, I will have to respectfully disagree with you. As much as I have disappointment in ST as a whole for my own reasons, what ActionTiles brings to the forefront adds another dimension or layer of functionality that ST itself doesn’t or can’t fulfill that hopefully they will see the light and eventually head in a much needed different direction to right the ship and bridge that divide.
I will say one other thing about my Apple watch, I love it! It’s a great gadget as is bourn out by all the very similar devices that followed it onto the market. When I was a kid the idea of speaking into my watch and things around me turning on, off or whatever was the stuff of Sci Fi fantasy, now I do it without a thought to its complexity. Mind you, I thought I would be living on a Moon base wearing a silver one piece suit by now too.
The Logitech Harmony app is landscape only on the iPad too and that p****s me off as well. I can guarantee no one from Logitech will read this either.
I’d be lost without my Apple Watch – – as someone who can’t use my hands much, but can turn my wrist, I use the watch for phone calls, voice texts, Apple Pay, and some home automation. I’m not saying it’s right for everybody, but it’s really valuable to me.
Interestingly, there was just a report last week that since they refocused it on fitness features and improved the waterproofing, Apple has now moved into the number one spot in marketshare for wearables, as its sales keep going up while fitbit’s are going down.
Choice is good.
4 Likes
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
15
I’m not sure where you are getting your user usability study data, but I assure you that if ActionTiles was “impossible for the vast majority of people” then we would have been out of business after the first week. A substantial number of our customers have explicitly stated that ActionTiles is easier to use than the SmartThings App, while our feedback surveys indicate that a non-trivial number, but, still, a minority find AT to be difficult to use or not user-friendly. Reducing that minority is a major goal of ours; so we would love your market research data so that we can more effectively allocate our resources.
The “limited functionality” of ActionTiles is in the eye of the beholder. We absolutely don’t have any intention of replicating all of SmartThings’s native App (and, due to the lack of APIs, it is impossible); that’s why I heartily support this Topic and others that continue to request the full SmartThings App on larger screens and web!
However, reduced scope helps keep ActionTiles less complex. A lot of folks believe that the configuration options of SmartThings (add Things, SmartApps, etc.) should be in a separate App from the day-to-day functions (view and control Things, events, and actuate Routines). Instead, we add unique functionality, such as the ability to mix-and-match Things from multiple Locations on the same dashboard Panels (no need to change to one Location at a time as in the ST App), and even multiple views of the same Thing (i.e., such as allowing the customer to include separate Contact State and Temperature Value Tiles of a multi-attribute Thing on the same Panel, unlike the ST App which no longer even allows you to choose which Attribute can be displayed at all!).
ActionTiles was created and released under the “MVP” (minimum viable product) business strategy (as was SmartThings 4 years ago). We use the feedback from various sources, including our own Forum, to plan and implement continuous incremental improvements, subject to our lean resources. Y’all are welcome to come over and visit anytime! https://ActionTiles.com/feedback
Pardon me for interrupting your Topic – iPad support is an important, persistent, and reasonable wish for the SmartThings platform – but by calling my value-add product “terrible” and “impossible to use”, you have clearly invited me to the discussion to ask for substantiation of those claims — or at least for me to offer a few words to rebut those unsubstantiated descriptions.
I Private Messaged you yesterday, respectfully and politely (IMHO) suggesting removal of your strong critical words about SmartTiles from the Topic, since I believe those words do not contribute anything constructive to the real subject: A plea to “God” for an iPad App!
With sincere respect to you and the SmartThings Community, I wish we would make a bit more effort to just be nice to each other? I hope y’all can realize that expressing our solidarity and long-suffering desire for improvements to the SmartThings App (the product of a $ billion company), can be done without backhanded slaps to result of thousands of hours of development and marketing effort of a 2 person venture?
Thank-you. … We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming… sincerely, “God”, .
Awhile back, when my iPad was jailbroken, I ran a tweak called FullForce which would make most iPhone apps full screen on an iPad. I’ve included some older screenshots. It’s not perfect but if a simple tweak can do this…
smartthings doesn’t even have a tool to migrate devices to new hubs, a more fundamental need for any user across different mobile device ecosystems. they haven’t and won’t fix this, so its best to just not worry about it
2 Likes
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
19
Good point … I am definitely very, very worried about the lack of migration tool(s).
Folks like us on the Forum, in particular, are more and more likely to have complex setups with lots of Devices, and, technically a distinct issue, lots of SmartApps. At the very least, having a de-reference layer between Location/Hub IDs, Device IDs, and SmartApp connections would be tremendously valuable.
ActionTiles customers are building more and more complex Panels delivering wonderful value. We can only link to Device IDs, and unfortunately these change when SmartThings Customers must manually migrate to a new Hub. That means a complete “loss” of ActionTiles configuration as well. We could try to implement a de-referencing layer on our end; but that wouldn’t help the thousands upon thousands of customers using other SmartApps.
But how do you rank iPad vs Migration in priority?
(a) iPad is used by a huge proportion of customers (but is partly solved by ActionTiles), and the product is “fully functional” without an iPad app.
(b) Hub failures & Migrations are, especially in the unplanned case, rare; but are an extreme inconvenience for the growing set of power-users.
I’m also curious to hear who the OP has spoken to that shares the opinion that AT is impossible to use and terrible. Maybe this is an inappropriate attempt to highjack this thread, but I’m not the one that started by shitting on a community developer for filling in a hole that ST has been refusing to patch for over a year now (i.e. a functioning dashboard). Whether community-created dashboards are high-quality or not seems to be a totally separate issue from the lack of a native iPad app.
That should really put those actiontiles developers in their place!
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
22
We’re glad to hear of the SmartThings App’s new features – Except for Landscape Mode, actually, we’ve already been aware that “Favorite Tiles” for it’s “dashboard page” were under development. I think I’ve mentioned it in a few threads.
But… ActionTiles offers many features that are not available in SmartThings App. I’d better get to work writing them up!
You saw my post on the 2.4 Android release about the widget and all the routines. Why is this something they didn’t focus the dashboard efforts on? Taking that widget that currently contains all of my routines, and add Things to it, and then allow you to customize what Things or Routines show up on your widget? If they had done it in the widget, there wouldn’t be as big a need to ever go into the app. My home screen with things and widgets and then access to everything else in Action Tiles without ever having to step foot into the mobile app.
From my post just above, if they were to truly create what I call a dashboard, lol, well, that would put AT outta business
For those in this thread, here is a screenshot of my widget:
1 Like
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
27
That’s why ActionTiles decided to name our “dashboards” … “Panels” (as in Control Panels).
Differentiating in a name helps ST and AT coordinate support; and also helps identify our distinguishing features.
We have built a pretty powerful engine behind ActionTiles. While I absolutely don’t want to imply any sort of road-map; @625alex and are I always thinking of ways to make ActionTiles more attractive and useful. Spinning off a “native widgets” App would be very exciting. It is just such a very broad possibility, we’d first want to explore where to start … e.g., perhaps read-only, or perhaps replication of SmartThings’s Routines Widget.
Anyhow; getting off Topic; please feel free to bring this up on our Forum: ActionTiles Forum / AT Support & Ideas ; even if we mark it for the “back-burner”.
I agree, the ST app needs to step up their widget game. I would love to be able to toggle a thing directly from my home screen. Video support is important to me as well, until the ST app can view my IP cams I think AT is safe.
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about the lack of migration tool(s).
