I’m choosing to stay to see how it shakes out and for the most part my environment should be fine (but Im not webcore or heavy on smart apps). I use Hubitat as well and its a good platform but its not perfect either. Not a fan boy, just saying change happens and sometimes the pain is too much, sometimes its worth going along for the ride. At least its not Insteon or Wink.
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May I ask what (if anything) is less than perfect about it than SmartThings?
LOL… my X10 stuff still works, along with a decades old HW interface/app that lets me communicate to my HA server and SmartThings via AppleScript calls. Sadly, I think that communication to SmartThings will be ending soon.
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Just my experience with the C7:
- When I started with it, people had regular issues with database corruption. That has gotten better but you still see people needing to restore backups and do soft resets. I’ve never once had to reset anything on my ST hub.
- The 700 series zwave radio in it for some reason tends to have more issues with ghosts than the 500 in ST.
- “Reboot often” was a thing for people. Thats gotten better and I dont think people are doing that as much anymore, but i’ve never had to reboot my ST hub.
- The antenna performance for both zwave and zigbee isn’t as nearly as good as ST in the same physical location. An aftermarket antenna mod helps with this greatly.
- The mobile app is not as friendly as ST. Its getting better and closer.
- The backend UI on mobile is nearly unusable for me. Not responsive at all.
All that being said its a good platform and the forum over there is filled with people who can help and provide support. Lots and lots of pros with it too.
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I have to say, I am incredibly disappointed in this. I spent a lot of time tweaking Smartthings and getting SmartApps and Device Handlers for retail products that I purchased as they work with ST and also a few custom integration type things. Now with this change, my smarthome will essentially be broken. Fortunately, I have a few home servers and have fired up HomeAssistant on one of them and am starting to learn it. Between the unreliability of this platform (“Somethings not quite right”), the changes being made with little regard to customers setups, investment in products, near non-existent customer service, etc, I am abandoning Samsung entirely. We’ve bought their phones, tvs, appliances, mini-splits, etc for sometime just to keep things in the same ecosystem but its just not worth it. It doesn’t matter what product line you choose, the customer service is scripted and awful. I remember a year ago there was in issues with Honeywell and Smartthings not working for a few days. I contacted both and both kept pointing the finger at the other. LOL In the end it was Honeywell but Samsung didn’t even try to help or make contact with Honeywell. Anyway… I have lost all respect for this platform and its constant changes from classic which was a nightmare to migrate from and I do not seeing this much better. With the amount of smart home products I have, I am not going to run around like an idiot readding them all and trying to figure out how to make it all work yet again.
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There may be a way to play a favorite via a simple POST command to the SmartThings REST API, but that’s one command I haven’t exposed yet. I got several commands working in the limited time I’ve spent tinkering with it, but not that one … yet.
Some years ago, I started running node.js on Raspberry Pi and installed jishi’s code to control my household Sonos system. It’s still running today and remains my go-to as it has all the advanced capabilities (and more) that I could want for controlling my system. Plus, the Pi being a always-on local device, a playlist can be invoked via a group preset or to a single device by making a simple one-line request like this:
http://localhost:5005/living room/favorite/myplaylist
These and other requests can easily be included in Routines and Scenes in SmartThings (but not SharpTools, which does not have local access) using a Edge Driver like this one.
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That was a very specific case related to old V1 hubs. At some point ST changed the way the hub is informed where to pickup its firmware (in preparation for the new infrastructure if im not mistaken) that required a firmware update to tell devices where to pickup the new firmware and then later sending down firmware from the new location before decommissioning the OLD location - But by that time the V1 hub had been unsupported for quite some time so there was literally no way to tell the hub where to pickup the new firmware location, let alone the firmware itself. Manual intervention would be required on a hub that had already been more than a year out of support and multiple years from its last firmware update.
That said, I put my v2 online every couple months now… Just in case. I’m due to do it again this weekend in fact.
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Customer support needs guidance. A few weeks ago. I was installing a new device and it had issues. I was told to uninstall edge drivers because they are beta and go back to groovy. WTF. That is not even possible as far as i know once a device installs with an edge driver you cannot go back to groovy. I was told to reach out to the community forum for help.
Someone needs training or just admit there will be no support for anyone and the customer is on their own.
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At the present time, before they turn groovy off, a custom groovy DTH will take precedence over a production edge driver.
So to go back, you would have to:
- remove the device from your account
Two) remove any custom edge Driver for that device
Three) add a custom groovy DTH for that device
Four) re-add the device.
It should pick up the Groovy DTH that time.
And, yes, that means you have to re-create any rules, routines, and automations that were using that device. So annoying, but possible.
The purpose here is no doubt to avoid the likely significant cost of freely hosting DTH and SmartApps on Amazon Web Services. I, for one, would have gladly paid a reasonably monthly fee to maintain the ability. I do think these changes are going to be good in the long run but wonder if we’ll lose some functionality and capability.
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I initially thought that but really found the old DTH setup was too slow. I originally migrated to Hubitat and HA but I find Hubitat slows down and regularly has to be reset.
I am actually fairly happy with the new edge drivers and have moved some stuff back to Smartthings that I had migrated away. I think these new Edge drivers gives Smartthings a new lease of life.
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Smartthings is ‘value add’ nothing more, nothing less.
Modern devices such as phones - have or are nearing a zenith of development, camera quality is very acceptable, phone speed is very acceptable, different sizes of phones are available so how do you keep selling your products ? By adding value add software on all of your products
If a few people get burned along the journey it is regrettable but unavoidable. Corporations need to sell products, no sell, no money, no Smartthings.
Smartthings has been a corporate addition since its purchase by Samsung, it is less hobyist and more mainstream, i have been known to grumble here and there about the UI which is poor in multiple areas but i understand the world we live in, more over i am very pleased to hear a new app is being developed… lets hope it is an improvement, i may be alone on this but i look forward to the future and if i have to reset some devices i am sure i will manage.
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Yeah I agree.
I’ve tried HA with some success but it’s alot of work.
If ST doesn’t work in the new year then it’s hubitat. I’d say the grass isn’t always greener though. One thing ST does very well is simple control and automations.
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I’ll admit, I’m curious to see if SmartThings releases Matter support before the final Groovy shutdown, and if so, whether that makes any difference to customer satisfaction.
It should mean lots more inexpensive devices running locally to choose from, without requiring custom code. RGBW LED strips could be a good example. Or being able to bring in Aqara devices by adding their hub, again without needing custom code, adding to reliability.
Unfortunately, since Samsung has chosen to support only a one way integration with Matter (you can bring Matter certified devices into the ST app, but you can’t add the ST hub to other Matter certified controller apps), we won’t get to take advantage of more available rules creators in the same way. 
But still…it could be an interesting plus for the ecosystem as a whole. Again, though, it doesn’t help with zwave devices.
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Has there been any discussion about what will happen with devices not successfully transitioned? Will they remain in the device list, but be non-functional and allow the user to try and apply an edge driver, or will they disappear? The former seems easier for us non-power users. The latter sounds like a huge amount of work.
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The understanding is it will be given a designation as ‘Thing’ which keeps things the same as the present naming convention for items not immediately given a driver that matches
What attributes… if any, ‘Thing’ will have i am not sure
For ZigBee and Z-Wave devices it is possible to create a fingerprint that will match any device. as far as I can tell, Zigbee devices will migrate as a ‘Zigbee Thing’, which just has the refresh capability, and Z-Wave devices will migrate to the Z-Wave Switch driver using the switch-level profile which supports switch, switchLevel and refresh.
So is now the time to create more location modes while we still can? I’m assuming that when all the dust settles in December and January, we will not be able to create anymore.
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At this point it probably will not hurt to have some spare location modes, I created some last week just in case.
Rebooting the hub is also one of my concerns, some have suggested adding a wifi outlet, but what if you need to travel 1200 miles to do that?
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In 5 or 6 years i have rebooted deliberately maybe 3 times, we have had the occasional power cut over those years
A wifi plug is an option at distance if you are concerned though but dont forget they are less reliable after a wifi drop out than zigbee or zwave
That’s disheartening to hear. Which ST hub are you using (I have the V2 and don’t consider it very good in this regard)?