Is SmartThings dead? (March 2018)

I ran the old version of the app for precisely this reason. I want to click once and then dim something, not click three times to do the same thing. Not only that it looks stupid having the dimmed percent twice on the same device. I never will understand this change that to me is completely backwards. And were still don’t have entry/exit delays to get around there buggy/borderline non-functioning presence detection. I’m still waiting to see how the whole Hubitat thing plays out especially since my system is relatively simple.

The staff that is on these forums has said multiple times that they track requests for changes or new features when someone puts in a support request. But never have I seen a official survey sent out by SmartThings asking its users for feedback on what they would like changed or improved. They have everyone email address, it wouldn’t be hard. It does seem they will do what they want to do when they want to do it and just try to sell as much hardware as possible to get people locked in. Just my impression lately, hopefully I’m wrong.

What scares me is they are combining Samsung Connect (that still thinks my dryer is a washer) and Smartthings (that connect even turn my Samsung KS8000 TV on).

Connect seems to be for the general public who just want simple and I am afraid we will end up with more “simple” and lose a lot of the features that Smartthings already had (as we have already lost things like “double tap”.

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+1 for porting all Routines and Automations into WebCoRE, discovered this little nugget at the weekend after SmartLights randomly stopped working and found it to replace about 5 custom SmartApps through complex logic rules and triggers :slight_smile:

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Eh maybe this upcoming update will breath life into the platform. Barely knew groovy… I guess never stop learning applies everywhere.

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You’ve clearly never designed a logo before and had to have it approved at all levels by a company as big as Samsung. I’d much rather develop code. It’s a nightmare swamp of subjectivity.

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Certainly in the UK Smarthings appears to have all but disappeared. All major retailers have abandoned sale of Smarthings branded devices and other than those available as clearance stock there are no devices available. I am trying to find some additional outlets nd no one stocks them - can find them on eBay bet that is it,

If retailers done stock stuff, I’d say its dead.

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It’s possible that this all has something to do with the Samsung/SmartThings rebranding effort. Just a guess at this point.

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Or getting rid of old stock in anticipation of newer version devices being released soon?

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Or everything related to ST in the UK is a fire hazard and they recalled everything :joy:

Oh the possibilities are endless.

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Based on recent experience it seems pretty self evident that ST’s support for the UK , or indeed any International market is over.

K

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To the contrary!

Samsung is determined to see SmartThings available in every country in the world that Samsung serves. They are spending extraordinary effort, for example, in adding international language support throughout the system.

I suppose they may be temporarily pulling-back from existing overseas markets while the new SmartThings Cloud and SmartThings App are evolving… I guess.

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I’m sorry but the current circumstances show the opposite.

Their UK support champion spokesperson has vanished.
Their product is becoming increasingly unavailable in every retail store
Their release of UK versions of their drivers / apps is almost non existant
They do not release US versions of their apps to UK users or create UK versions
Even long promised releases are shelved and never released anymore eg Honeywell EvoHome
We are very much second tier / neglected users, other language markets will fare even worse.
Some UK product is defective and dangerous but they ignore the issue and user requests for replacements
Store offers are invariably US only.

In fact I can’t think of anything positive to say about STs UK evolution over the past two years

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I’m not saying that the current situation isn’t good; and this is particularly painful for UK customers and fans. (Only about 10% of SmartThings’s total sales, though.)

I’m just saying that the future is one in which Samsung SmartThings is everywhere :world_map:.

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Roll on the future then.
Because it’s almost impossible to buy any smartthings in the UK.
And when was the last time support for any new devices was added?
The promised Gear S2 app didn’t appear, neither did the Gear S3 app.
I’ve got 2 apps both called smartthings on my Galaxy S8 and neither of them work properly.
As a customer, should I be happy with this?

The U.K. retail shops are in crisis, Maplin Electronics has closed, that was where I managed to get some additional ST stuff. The starter kit I got from Curry/PC World, but it was very old stock and a battery inside was leaking. (I had to buy a replacement and clean it up myself as it wasn’t covered by the warranty).

So many of the links to purchasing other items in the app are dead or out of date.

It doesn’t inspire confidence.

I understand that of course that we have different standards in the U.K. and use different frequency bands for ZWave, which stops us from importing non U.K. products.

Off topic comment:
Smoke and heat detectors and CO detectors are another problem area, as our regulations are about to change and it will be a requirement to have such things in all properties, new and old, private and rented. They will have to mains wired it seems, and interlinked and so on.

I’m glad now that I didn’t go ahead and try and add something myself to my ST hub because chances are it wouldn’t comply with the new regulations.

I am not complaining about these new regulations, they are a very good thing, too many have no detectors, or no batteries in them if they have any. It was not right that some types of premises were not subject to having mandatory detectors, as all lives are equally valuable and everyone deserves to be protected from fire and smoke and carbon monoxide poisoning in the home.

So as soon as the new regulations for Scotland are formally published I shall be fitting whatever is needed. But it won’t be ST. How could we depend on that?

My previous AlertMe system had detectors that sensed the noise that smoke alarms made and alerted me via the app, that was a good system.

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My wife had a Gear watch that I bought her as a gift. It was that debacle that put me off Samsung as an entrant for any future purchases of anything. Because they would not do anything about the charger that, literally days after the warranty was over, would no longer connect to and charge the watch.

It was in that same timeframe that the stories of the self-decapitating Samsung washing machines came out, and there were other major stories of problems with various products that they were refusing to live up to the warranties… combine that with the shoddy responses to issues here, and it’s a no-brainer.

To be a “Samsung customer” is to be a fool. Which is ok. Fool me once, that’s fine. Fool me twice?

So this year I’m re-doing my entire kitchen. All new appliances. Easily $6K or more in upcoming purchases.

Guess what company’s appliances I’m not even bothering to look at.
Which is a shame, because they are supposed to “work with SmartThings”!!

Samsung is a sales company. That’s all, nothing else.
They are most certainly NOT a customer service company. They are the opposite of that.

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But Glen, you are still here as a SmartThings customer which still makes you a “Samsung Customer”. :slight_smile:

Yeah, well… lol

But seriously, I’m not here as a Samsung customer. I’m here as a customer of, and hopefully contributor to, a community brought together by its travails with a particular Samsung product. Let’s face it: would this place even need to exist if the product “just works”??

Don’t get me wrong; I grasp all that’s involved in this particular type of product.
But I’m certainly not on a Samsung Gear web page. I’ve abandoned that, as Samsung abandoned it and its customers. I’m a SmartThings customer.

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I’m just razzin ya. I get where you are coming from.

Having played with it for just a week (a week during which the UK server has been down for over half of it), I think I’m out. I’ll be boxing up what I can and seeing how much can be refunded.

There are a lot of WiFi plugs out there, which can be controlled from an app on your phone. Much cheaper then the Zigbee / Z-Wave ones too. Same with thermostats, burglar alarms etc. From my limited experience WiFi seems to be far more reliable, especially when you’re at home on your own network. I’m going to hold off for a little while, buy a cheapish burglar alarm system which I can control from an app and wait for the time when there is no proprietary tie - everything just runs direct from WifFi or a generic app which can use the device api’s.

Unless I’m missing something? (Very possible, I haven’t been following this stuff at all).

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