"SmartThings Classic" vs "SmartThings (Samsung Connect)"

Apps & Clients
690

I’m just thinking after they finish the transition, if ever, they will kill all the customization, and limit supported devices to nothing, and limit automation functionality, and it will turn into something that barely works, good for just turning on your lights with your phone and maybe at a set time, nothing more.

I will say that Home Assistant has not been easy, but I’m getting the hang of it. Some stuff is easier, like adding support for my Honeywell Wifi thermostats, Life360, Neato vacuum, etc… Just added 3 lines to a config file, restart a docker container, all flawless. All my August locks, few lines, done, native integration.

Pairing is where it lacks, lots of manual stuff to do there, zwave has some in the UI, but you still have to look at log files, override some zwave parameters per device, understand the devices part much more. So far I’ve gotten all the zwave stuff working.

The zigbee support is basic, but works. It doesn’t report battery levels yet, but hopefully will come soon. Nothing in UI, if you remove a device, you have to use an editor to manually open a SQLLite database and remove the device by deleting rows from a database table.

So that part is not for everyone.

As for customization, Python and yaml files, it’s actually just as easy if not easier than the ruby stuff in Smartthings.

Adding basic automations isn’t in the UI though, so everything down to yaml.

We will see.

All local, all behind my VPN now, will work on battery backup, no internet needed, built in HADashboard so no more ActionTiles and needing the internet, can completely customize the dashboards and web/mobile views, so all that’s nice.

Right now you need to be technical though for sure.

2 Likes
691

I created another family account and I sign into that on my iPad. This way I don’t have to worry about the presence sensor created multiple times. On my iPhone, I use the classic app. I keep the extra account logged into the new app on my iPad. So in case I have something that needs the new app, I use the iPad to set it up. I do believe the new app will be better in the long run. They have just done a half ass job of releasing it and causing way more trouble that was needed.

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692

You can also use the same account and simply not install the presence sensor on the devices you don’t want them installed on.

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693

While I’m aware that is true, I prefer to do it this way. I was having refresh issues from going back and forth. And even if I didn’t turn on presence in the new app, originally it was showing up twice in classic. I can also use it this way to just get notifications sent to the iPad for certain things as well.

694

So do presence sensors work or do they not? My wife’s is like 5 minutes behind…

695

I recently started testing Life360 as an alternative to the ST presence detection. It’s Ok in the classic app. In the new app the presence devices show up, but they can’t be selected - “Can’t connect to device”. No big deal, just wondering if other people see that as well?

BTW, Life360 is creepy! Find my Friends is acceptable to me, but Life360’s tracking on individual journeys my wife makes is a bit much! I guess I just shouldn’t open the app…

2 Likes
696

I am new to Smarthings and installed the STSC new app when I first set up my ST hub (v2). I have since learned that the functionality I need is only in the ST classic app (specifically I want SMS notification to a different number, as well as access to test functionality on my Halo alarms). When I try to add a device to the classic app it first says to type the access code for the hub. But when I do that I get an invalid code issue, and based on the help topic it says I need to reset the hub. My fear is that if I reset the hub I will lose all of the automations and devices that I have already set up. How do I access the hub in the classic app to get around the invalid code error?

697

Logout of Classic. Login as new user, use your same credentials from the new app. And then check the more menu and make sure your location drop down is correct.

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698

I am not sure the exact order I used, but after days of attempts I did get it to work. I think the trick was logging in as new user and then having it automatically find my Samsung account on my phone, as opposed to existing user. Thank you.

4 Likes
699

So i figured that the problem wasnt with the presence sensor. I might have siad this in another thread…my brain doesnt work anymore…The problem was that I was not using rountines to automatically Disarm the SMART HOME monitor so it was always alarming. I am using Routine Director to do that for me and now it works nicely. I just wanted to clear that up and not keep the blame on the presence sensor. I did notice however that the battery on the presence sensor did drain down rather quickly. Recently my wife got a new cell phone so now we are using that instead…

NEWBIE TRICK #691 Save the battery pull tabs to put back into the items that you no longer use.

Peace!

1 Like
700

Does the new STSC application not support sms text messaging. I seem to only be able to trigger push notifications.

701

I haven’t seen any any of the standard smart apps that allow it.

702

Dave, love the brain part. :wink:

1 Like
703

Came back to see if any future updates were worthwhile, not shocked and still disappointed.

1 Like
704

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For now at least, in the STSC app you’ll get a reminder to manually change SHM security modes instead of it being automated like it is in the Classic app .

3 Likes
705

Interesting!

706

Weird!!! :crazy_face:

7 Likes
707

where the heck is this setting ?

708

After setting up or modifying SHM, it’s the last option before saving the settings

1 Like
709

BTW, this is exactly the process that the big-name security companies consider best practices right now. They hate the idea of using Geopresence for arming and disarming for residential systems, although they are somewhat open to the idea of it for commercial systems. But they’re OK with the reminders.

They seem to be particularly concerned about the idea of someone stealing a phone and then being able to walk right into the house without even unlocking the phone.

Also, many of the purpose built security systems have the option of a “duress code” which is a pin code that you enter which will locally disarm the system but which also notifies the monitoring center that you’re being forced to disarm the system. There’s no way to do that with geolocation-based automatic disarms. So the security companies feel that automatic disarming is a step back from the features that they already offer.

It’s an understandable argument, although I don’t think it’s what most customers want: customers want the choice.

4 Likes