It is hard to believe that it’s been a month since @bravenel withdrew support for his Rule Machine app! The day that happened, I decided to experience “first-hand” how the (recently announced) platform improvements may alleviate consumers to have a better HA experience.
Over the past four weeks, I have used (mostly) official SmartApps and device handlers to assess if the experience of a “less-technical” consumer is really any better than that of a fanatic hobbyist, like me.
DISCLAIMER: what I am about to say and show, represents my personal point of view, based on my observations.
Conclusion:
While Smartthings’s performance and stability shows significant signs of improvement my conclusion is that current experience for a less technical consumer is significantly worse than that of a hobbyist. Based on my observations, an average consumer, most likely, would have packed and returned the hub. I know I would have, had I not thoroughly enjoyed tinkering with my absolute favorite HA system!
Six of the 18 categories monitored, had 0 issues in 30 days. These categories are most important to me, because they are easily noticeable by other family members, if they are not working properly, like the sensor controlled lighting automation.
Among the 12 categories with issues, the worst performer was the LAN connected Life 360 app (87% reliability). The ST presence app has had 4 days with at least one incident (not caused by the Life 360 service), which triggered a lot of angst among the family members - making routines to run and modes to change unexpectedly. Other categories with issues were related to unannounced changes in device handlers and occasional server hiccups.
@alex thank you for the continued efforts in improving this platform. The recent changes implemented are working and I hope that things will only get better from here on!