Avid Smartthings user here, and although I am not very active on this Community, I have so much love for Smartthings and have gotten many friends to sign up for Smartthings.
Knowing that the Mobile App is going through a redesign (hopefully into 2.0). I can’t wait for its release and would like to provide a list of things that I think the Mobile App can be even better at. Some of these wish lists come from using other apps such as Wink, and others are just hopes and dreams of having a great app.
Interface
Consolidate Dashboard - My Dashboard still shows too many items ranging from Shortcuts, Things, My Apps, Convenience, and SmartThings Labs. I know it would get even more items if I were to install more Smartapps from another category. Personally, I would love to see the app initially lands on Things and takes just one click to see my SmartApps. Since the SmartApps usually run in the background, they don’t need to be on the Dashboard.
Shortcut and Things feel redundant - Shortcuts aren’t any faster to get too, as both requires two clicks to operate any Smartthings I have. I would love to see a better managed Things page instead of Shortcuts like “Doors & Lock,” “Lights & Switches,” or “Home & Family.” Seeing the success of Smarttiles (shoutouts to @625alex), I think most users would like to have all of their Smartthings on one page.
Better Utilization of touch screens on all the modern smartphones - I don’t remember seeing any other touch screen actions other than tap inside of the Mobile App (actually you can long press to move things around, but i think that’s it). It makes for a basic and functional app but you are required to put buttons everywhere. I hope Smartthings can introduce long presses and swipes to the functionality of the app.
For example, on the Things page, each Thing has a gear icon on the upper right corner, instead asking people to press that (so hard for fat fingers), I think a long press could be a nice way to handle it (there can be another way to move icons around).
Swipe on the dimmer icon itself instead of needing another click to go into the settings to dim.
There’s certainly room for improvement! The decisions aren’t always easy. For example, long presses are good for some people, bad for others. I’m quadriparetic, so anything requiring touch is problematic, let alone different kinds of touches. For me, the most important thing is that the app be voice and switch friendly. Things like putting primary navigation at the top of the screen so I don’t have to step through every other option on the screen first make a big difference in accessible usability while other people might not even notice.
There’s a sneak peek of the new UI currently in development, have you had a chance to look at it?
I went through it, and I am not extremely excited. I see your concerns with the long presses but having small buttons to press all over the app is also very difficult. I think the mobile app should utilizing the primary navigation less. I rather see them have a great initial landing page where most of the data and switches are easily accessible.
Agreed! I hate having to launch app, just to have to ‘click’ again to get to ‘Things’ (Oh and wait for it to load!) just to control switch/ see data I want. This is primarily why I choose to use SmartTiles right now as one click and I see the Switch/Data I want with a very short load time.
The other thing I would love to see for iOS app is a landscape mode Anyone else?
I would want to see landscape mode. To me, it should be one click into the most important features, which are the things. I am not sure if other people see it the same way.
One key question raised on the Developer Call, by @April, was not clearly answered. The question was if the new UI would have a default view of ‘Rooms’ or could users configure the landing page to something else, e.g. devices?
Anyone from ST have more clarity on this? Rooms is a great addition but for me Devices may be more useful as landing page. Hope the app has the flexibility to support different user preferences on landing pages (i.e. switch between Rooms, Devices, Etc.).
Anyone else?