[RELEASE] ActionTiles, the homepage for your SmartThings home!

I just tried out Smarttiles and added all my"THINGS" and I don’t like how it just lays them ALL out one after another. I see there is a way to change the order, but when you have a whole page full it’s just horrible to locate what control you’re looking for. Is there any way to drag and drop the “Things” into different quadrants or something and separate the rooms a bit?

Thanks, Todd

And maybe a MASTER switch, for each quadrant,
to turn just one group of rooms OFF and ON?

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I’m in. Can’t wait to see it.

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The license fee overall seemed reasonable to me… at first, until I realized that would cover only 1 location. This is a significant factor, for me anyway. I have 2 hubs - home and cabin. Obviously I would want to interact with my SmartThings the same way for each location so it’s two licenses or none.

Not meaning to complain just providing some feedback that for me it would be hard to justify the price of two licenses . Especially since I primarily use my SmartThings for monitoring and security.

I’m happy that it’s a one-time fee.

Thanks guys.

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I’ll answer with ActionTiles features:

  1. A new ActionTiles feature is “Tilesets” which I think are nearly equivalent to the “quadrants” you mention. It keeps groups of Tiles together for easier management.

  2. ActionTiles supports the creation of unlimited number of Panels instead of just 5, and you can link between them with Panel Shortcut Tiles. A good way to separate rooms if you don’t want clutter up one page.

  3. Currently there is no command / function grouping (ie, for master Switches or Alarm Zones etc) in ActionTiles; but this is on our feature request list. It is a potential for us to leverage the Tileset feature.

  4. We still recommend folks make use of the SmartThings platform for “automation”, which includes having multiple lights triggered by a Virtual/Simulated Switch (a feature of Smart Lighting or CoRE) and then you can add the Virtual Switch as a Tile.

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A significant new feature of ActionTiles is that Things from multiple Locations can be added to the same Panel(s) — mix and match — even if they are Locations in separate SmartThings Accounts!

This is currently something that is essentially “impossible” in SmartThings own App, and in Alexa, and other SmartApps.

We hope that Customers with multiple Hubs/Locations find this tremendously valuable.

And, well… such Customers have made an investment in multiple Hubs ($80+ each) and usually that means extra Thing hardware too. That’s a bit of the logic behind our thinking: ActionTiles’s value to the Customer is somewhat proportionate (or maybe extra-proportionate) to the complexity of a Customer’s environment and the budget they are allocating to their smart home(s).


We’ll always be looking for ways to make ActionTiles an affordable, great, but business sustainable, value.

Per Location pricing is the Introductory license model. There may be different options in the future. Needed to start with something that’s simple and a good deal for the majority of households in our market.

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Glad to see it ended up as a 1-time fee rather than a subscription.
Also happy to see it isn’t a per device cost.
I was invited to Beta but didn’t set up a dashboard because I wanted to know the pricing before I got involved/invested in the new version.

The pricepoint feels right on point with where it should be; equivalent to the cost of a device, but less than the cost of the hardware it will run on (cheap tablet such as an Amazon Fire, for most people).

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Thank you! It’s great to here of these upcoming feature, soon!! Great job!

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Are there details some where of what is different? I am having trouble finding this / figuring this out.

We’re working on a detailed comparison chart; but, honestly, we really encourage everyone to just “try it” (14 day free trial per SmartThings “Location”). It is the only way to really experience the new UI and performance, etc…

###But the highlights:

  1. All configuration is browser based. No need to use the little preferences pages in SmartApp config in the SmartThings mobile app.

  2. Events are reflected “instantly” on Tiles (well… as soon as SmartThings itself processes the Event Subscription). This is a huge improvement over the 30 seconds periodic refresh model used by V5.8.

  3. No longer a 5 Panel (dashboard) limit. No longer a single Location limit (Things from any number of Locations can be mixed / matched on any Panels).

  4. No longer a SmartThings driven login timeout. ActionTiles has its own login and password and doesn’t use SmartThings login except to connect the Location once. Our login sessions don’t timeout (or will be configurable), so: No need to use your SmartThings password that grants access to the IDE and native App; no need for cumbersome refresh workarounds or password managers.

  5. Panel sharing is now secure. Does not use access tokenized URLs, but instead you share (and revoke) Panels with any other ActionTiles Account via its email address.

  6. Various feature improvements on various Tile types. Battery level included on the Tiles themselves so Battery Tiles not required (but still available). Dimmer is a highly granular popup instead of just 10 levels on the Tile. … etc.

  7. More Capabilities / Tile Types supported; including full support for Capability Garage Door.

  8. A powerful back-end platform that will allow us to build all sorts of new features; some obvious and some more innovative (such as, perhaps push notifications, who knows what else!). ActionTiles uses a SmartApp for connection to your Things, but is no longer contained inside the SmartApp. That means we handle nearly all bug fixes and add features without having to repeat the SmartThings approval cycle. Issue handling is very streamlined.

And more!


Unfortunately, one step backwards for a while:

  • Custom CSS not available at launch. We are looking into more “user friendly” customization options.
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This really sounds like the ST app that everyone has asked for in the past. A way to give someone access to switches or control certain items in the house without having to give them full access to ST. Nice.

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My biggest request is color changing tiles. Green=On, Red = Off. Door open Red , door closed Green , Configurable temp tiles <35*=Blue 35-75* Green , above 75* Red Etc etc etc .

Quick glance from across the room if everything is green you are good to go :slight_smile:

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We’re going to hold off on considering “Feature Requests” until the product is live, that way we are starting with an actual baseline. We will then enable ActionTiles’s own Feedback Forum so that feature requests can be discussed and voted upon.

We have a list… The key is to allocate our resources to the features that will attract and benefit the most Customers first.

(Color Tiles based on state is a good idea, though; and also a highly ranked request from our Beta Participants!).

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Great to see a date set in stone, exciting times :slight_smile:

Just a thought here, does the fact ActionTiles is soooo seperate to ST now mean that you could in the future for instance make your own API links to other platforms without the need to go through ST and show them as tiles alongside STs asif they were all integrated cleanly… for example:

ST tiles for switches and automations

NEST tile for doorbell

IP CAMERA tile to show any IP cam feed

HARMONY tiles to show dorect harmony buttons

Etc Etc, but they all show nice and cleanly side by side asif it was one big platform, if so your onto something even bigger than i first realised.

Ps: i know they was poor examples but people will be able to use there imagination to see that anything with an API could essentially have a plugin within ActionTiles to be added maybe.

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We’re going to honor our roots for quite a while and concentrate on our core strength of being the premiere web-based alternative controller/viewer UI for SmartThings.

Direct integrations of other smart home products is certainly a logical destination to head towards someday.

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Ill take that as a YES ITS POSSIBLE :wink: haha

Will SmartTiles still function when this is released?
Some people have a lot invested using custom CSS and until ActionTiles provides that they may want to use them hand-in-hand.

Will SmartTiles stop working or are people free to keep using the last release indefinitely?

Will definitely be purchasing this on release day…well done!!

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The previous response from SmartTiles co-creators is that it will function for a limited time (yet to be determined). It will be phased out.

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SmartTiles v5.8 will be deactivated sometime after ActionTiles is proven reliable. We’ll try to give a generous migration period, but, in all honesty, I doubt it will be as long as current users would like.

A more positive angle from which to consider this eventuality, is to recognize that the extensive Beta period and other delays getting ActionTiles to Release has resulted in a few months of unexpected extra life for SmartTiles.

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