Attention grabbing headline, unfortunately left feeling like it’s true. The same Curry’s PC World sticky from last year greets me every time I log in and check the UK forum, no news or roadmaps giving any sense this is an active current product.
I chose Smart things over Vera and Fibaro as it had the active github developer base enhancing what seemed a sound commercial product from a big name. No UK support.
The big Evohome hype- has this reached a supported stage?
Supporting common UK specific devices like Qubino- even just a list of what has been achieved? Not a whisper.
It’s six months since I asked about a roadmap and I just don’t get a sense that this is the active, supported platform it should be.
In honesty it feels as though as soon as Samsung TV hub is complete we’ll be left with a white elephant.
Don’t get me wrong, tech support are very responsive when contacted- but can anyone from from Smart things give an inkling of a future or maybe even a glimmer of marketing hype that takes the UK news past a large retailer being able to sell us stuff?
Long term reviews are due on the home automation sites- sorry to be despondant but does this product have a future in the UK- and if so apart from selling us new paid services what does it look like?
Sorry, title is accurate- there is a question mark at end.
I log in less and less occasionally as I have to read a lot of posts to get the summary status which seems to be “working on improving stability, enhancements deferred for now”
At the start of the forum is always the annoying “we’re selling Smartthings in UK via PCWorld and Currys” Is that really the last accomplishment or news?
To avoid everyone wasting time looking through many posts to see What’s new a sticky or similar is needed- ie August update"
Otherwise I’m sorry, but I don’t feel supported- there is no summary of the position of features/ devices including some I was told were there when I bought the product.
Or are customers supposed to spend hours trying to find a way to get things working with mixes of info from USA which isn’t always relevant (wasted days finding this out) and failed attempts with 100+ forum posts in some cases.
It’s simple or should be- "dear UK customers- we’re here for you and working on things-this is the summary
Here’s a good example of how I think this wastes everyone’s time (not just those of you reading this!)
“More Devices Now Available In the UK”.
Directly adjacent
"The SmartThings + Honeywell Family is Growing!"
That’s a link from the UK website on what’s happening…
Is this not what UK forum is for?
Further, the lack of a roadmap for a feature that’s was written on the marketing colours on the box really does make me wonder if there is any point wasting more time getting Smartthings to do what I want- I’m left feeling that we may never get these things (there is no timescales)- a usual vendor approach for "you need Smartthings V3 to get this) AKA a Samsung TV
We are definitely still moving integrations ahead for the UK. We have a roadmap, and I cannot provide specific details, but we are working on a few exciting announcements in the upcoming weeks (hint on #1).
Actually CSC, yes- isted, devices sold as supported don’t work
It affects me as every time I log in I scroll through pages of the same questions from others to try to find out what’s going on. Today’s login had another whole new Evohome thread to waste time on.
I don’t get the pushback? It’s a simple question:-
Give us a summary that’s UK support specific and and answers FAQ’s. This will actually help support.
Let us know that the product has a future and isn’t going to be dropped so it’s worth spending the considerable time it takes to set it up. Answers like the Evohome one of doesn’t work, don’t have a timescale just sounds like a product without a future.
Like I said, email support is great- but there’s still real confusion around UK website referring to US blog when some info is not relevant, and just a simple story.
Anyway, thanks Aaron- I asked before but again, please think about a sticky/ UK specific blog or something so I and others can quickly get the current state and a warm glow. I don’t actually mind waiting as long as I can then just get on and do what I want to do.
I do mind wasting time trying to figure out which post has new or interesting facts amongst the repeats…
I’ve read your post and while I’m not in your shoes, I am in the UK, I must say I’ve always had a response from support when I’ve asked a question. So I feel like they do support us even if the list of official integrations is shorter.
We have seen ST stop sharing roadmaps (if they ever did) but that is probably the right thing to do so they don’t over-promise what they can’t deliver. So I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom for the UK there is not a platform I’ve seen that can compete on flexibility and value yet. But there are plenty promised!!.
That said I’ve managed to get over 100 devices integrated whether supported or not and that’s where the community takes over. someone somewhere can get it working.
The only UK support issue I’ve see is when Fibaro pulled a firmware change in the UK with no announcement and left the smartthings team playing catch-up.
One issue I have seen in the UK though is Currys/PC World a running down their stocks so I can no longer buy off the shelf as easily as before. But if that means others will be selling it soon that should be good news.
For reference, we have a UK specific compatible device list and support pages (although changes to both are coming soon). It’s still a work in progress, but we are getting better at cleaning up the newsletters, blog posts etc. to distinguish content that is US only
I have posted about this on some of the Evohome threads, but the delay in its compatibility has been an edge case (and yes, we know it’s annoying). Evohome is a very visible request (and Honeywell is a super valuable partner) and the delays have been due to combinations of API readiness (on both our side and theirs) and our platform health & beta tester customer feedback. I am not offering a timeline, but it is a project we are actively working on.
as in my other post I’m not wanting Dates or 100% commitment. this sort of information that it is on the priority list (Or not) lets us know how to plan out home. if a blind system or a security system is on your radar for integrating it allows us to wait or plan which system to buy knowing that longer term it can be one interface.
We do not have an official blinds integration on the immediate radar for the UK. However, there are numerous Somfy and other integrations floating around the community (you can see our beautiful model @Tylerdemoing in our old office).
in terms of security options, we are improving and working on features for Smart Home Monitor. These will generally apply to both the UK and US.
A beautiful sunrise is on the horizon… unless you are in England - in which case it’s generally grey and cloudy (but we do have good features and integrations coming!)
I’ve been blogging about this sort of things, and I’m currently writing this one up, but basically it’s a SmartApp to receive the temperature change events that makes a HubAction call to my local server which then adds the data into an InfluxDB database with a Grafana front end.
EDIT: this is the blog post which also contains links to the other posts I’ve written on getting it set up.
