I’m impressed with SmartThings…sort of. The idea is certainly very interesting. The user interface, however, has a number of disturbing flaws in it.
The latest one I think I’ve run into involves adding a new user to the system. In my ignorance, I attempted to do that by downloading the SmartThings app to my wife’s iPhone, and then tried to set it up the way I had set up my iPhone.
After entering the requested welcome code, I got an error message that said the account was invalid or something, and then was directed to a page with instructions on how to reset my controller.
Sadly, I am no longer able to use the SmartThings app on >>my<< iPhone, which I initially used to set up the system. Apparently, trying to “add” a user the way I did caused a lock out.
I guess I don’t mind, too much, having to reset the controller…although I will be really bloody annoyed if in doing so I lost all the configuration I did the other day setting things up.
But what torques me is that – assuming attempting to add the second user is what caused the lockout – it should never have happened. One should not create mouse traps for the unwary in defining a user interface. “Oh, I’m sorry, attempting to lower the windows in your car before starting the engine requires a factory reset of your engine” would never be tolerated in an automobile, and innocent mistakes in using software should not cause this kind of problem.
Of course, the lock out/need to reset may be caused by something else…in which case, what kind of system initiates lock outs without warning?
- Mark