After all the requests and well founded complaints about v 1.x we get 2.0. Certainly there are some improvements, but…
No landscape mode, still? Really? As my title says I have to wonder if your development staff are just lazy or are they just out of touch with your customer base? How about us folks using tablets, or even better tablets mounted on a wall? Do you just feel we should rely on the community to make things for you?
Please please please get it together and make modern apps with features and capabilities all other application providers deliver as a matter of course. Your app not meeting expectations is annoying and makes our lives more difficult.
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tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
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I empathize … but SmartThings has a lot of different priorities, so I can’t blame them for “taking advantage” of the Community – When the Community does a great job, I guess why not?
I agree with you @santiagodraco! I was looking forward to an much improved upgraded iOS mobile app that had a better UI on both iPhone and iPad devices (and Android users). What was delivered by the upgrade team was a much less functional iPhone only portrait app.
What a huge disappointment for all of the dedicated ST users with Apple iPhone 6 Plus, iPads or the the newly announced iPad Pro. This work is certainly not representative of typical Samsung quality, but reminiscence of companies like, Microsoft (Windows), Palm Pilot and Blackberry, who for years, ignored their base of dedicated customers, created buggy and dysfunctional releases and enjoyed declining marketshare.
This is an issue with every software product. I used to be a serious gamer before I had 2 kids. Back then games were released half baked and you’d have to download day 1 patches or pay for extra maps. It seems like many software companies are all about getting the product out the door and then adding the things they missed or hadn’t thought of.
The one feature I miss is the ability to search for an app.
I think we all were under the impression that we were getting an all new redesigned app. Instead what we got was an upgraded hybrid app with new view controls and a few new features. I can understand and relate with the difficulty having to completely re-write an app from the ground up and still maintain all existing functions and compatibility.
I have been using the newish app for a couple weeks now it is actually growing on me with exception of the all white design. I’ve actually been impressed by the fact that they have already pushed out 2 updates to the app in just under 2 weeks. I really think they need to focus on bringing the Android and iOS apps graphically in line with each other.
In a different direction I also would like to say that I have had zero issues with my V2 hub. Currently I have 45-50 z-wave devices, 5 zigbee devices, and 10-15 Cloud and Local IP devices and I thought the discovery process was way easier to discover/pair devices and I also think that it sends commands to devices way quicker than the old hub which was already extremely quick. (This based soley on my opinion and facts to back it up)
With all of the above said I have experienced some back-end software issues affecting the system’s reliability (for example the device’s on/off state is not always in sync with the actual state, and some routines refuse to trigger a Mode change) which is not a complete deal breaker but a very annoying one. I have just been reporting any issues I’ve experienced to the support staff and they have for my never failed to be very fast in responding and friendly. Despite my previous concerns (or rants) i’ve expressed in the past i’m feeling a lot more confident that in the next month or two things will become much more reliable and that new features will progress along quickly to become more user friendly.
Until that time i’m begging SmartThings to please fix this Mode issue.
Unfortunately, the app does need a full redesign. What we got after a year or teasing is just a minor cosmetic uplift with some reshuffling and renaming, but regretfully, not much has changed in the app design.
This is your perception, right? I’m wondering if anyone has actually analyzed the V2 performance. At only $99 it’s not a big expense, but I don’t want to drop money for a new plastic box if my old one does the same thing. From what I’ve read so far there is no benefit whatsoever to upgrading aside from promise of a better tomorrow. I’ve read a few posts reiterating that Ben warned of this, but dang…there must be some upshot to the new hotness.
Definitely out of touch with their customers. I don’t know why ST thinks that their system should be setup on a darn phone app that does not even have landscape mode. If ST is a cloud service, make the stupid app a cloud service (website), and let us use a real computer with a full keyboard and mouse to set things up. Installing a few devices here and there with the phone is OK, but when you have to move over 40 devices from a v1 hub to a v2 hub because ST did not care about providing a migration tool (did I say out of touch already), using a phone to do so is ridiculous. I am sure ST’s staff ears are ringing from all my swearing.
That’s one of my issues with Wink. It doesn’t fail to trigger my Hues like ST, but it can seriously take 10 seconds to act. Where oh where is the One Hub to rule them all?
Well, the reduced smartapps and functionality combined with local processing reduces Cloud processing costs for SmartThings. Come on, upgrade and help SmartThings make money.
No, I did not say that. I said I prefer to setup everything on a computer, and then use a web based app to control everything. I don’t even use the ST app after things are set up, I use SmartTiles on my phone.
They are a company which means they need to generate revenue… I’ve never been charged a fee for anything other than buying a hub. Wow they really are some greedy people…
Wow this forum is starting to turn into every other forum on the web. Just a place to come to piss and moan about everything and vent because it’s true no body is ever happy with something ever. The one thing that i’ve learned is that this complaining in a forum is actually counter productive. All it does is take time from the staff to reply to the same complaints over and over.
We need to start moderating some of these topics because they are getting out of control, and we need to create a priority list of the most important stuff to be addressed. This forum used to be about sharing info and collaborating and now all I see is hundreds of pages of people whining, and barely anything valuable.
I look at it this way I paid $99 for a hub that helped me bridge all of my devices together. I’m given the ability to create just about any integration that i want. Also nobody ever once came to me and twisted my nipples and forced me to buy a smartthings hub. Please stop complaining and contribute something constructive. These forums are not your free therapist session to vent your life’s problems.
I completely agree. I’ll admit, I had some heated posts about problems with smartThings when I was on V1, but I have had a really great experience since I’ve moved to V2 and the new app. All of my lights are using the smart Lighting app and other Stock apps. I have one or two custom apps as well. Maybe it’s changes they made to the backend or the new hub, but things are working great. Most of my problems are self inflicted now.
I don’t think ‘lazy’ is the right word, but I do think that SmartThings has different priorities from what I would like to see happen first.
Example: I would like to see more complex pairing of rules (being able to add ‘and’ or ‘or’ statements to triggers for Routines, such as only go to “Goodnight” if there is no motion AND my bedroom door is closed) built into the apps rather than requiring SmartApps for everything) and every SmartThings-written SmartApp should have mode restrictions (so that Gentle Wake doesn’t trigger if I’m not home), but it’s clear right now that the biggest priority is building out the video and home security side.
I do think that similar to a few of the comments here and in another thread that this has a long way to go before being ready for the general consumer though; there is far too much coding needed - not that you need to be a programmer but you have to be familiar with some of the logic to customize existing stuff.
And honestly, I’m not sure what they were thinking removing the ‘lights’ dashboard for grouping of all of a room’s bulbs… but again, none of these complaints are things that I would call the ST team lazy for.
I take the route of humor in response to mediocrity and the many broken promises. I still contribute to the community and help others. A sense of humor is a good thing worth trying. I guess you have the right to free speech, as long as you ain’t dumb enough to try it.
You make a good point, and I think it’s because ST is picking up more non-coder types like me. I would expect a lot more of the same in the very near future. I’ve been to a few Wink forums and found that many over there snagged the original loyalty offer since it included two sensors. Wondering now if that wasn’t the plan all along. Regardless, these folks are used to an entirely different system and it won’t all be candy and roses. Then add the Best Buy crowd to the mix when it drops there. Storm brewing.
