Updates to the SmartThings Platform

I, being of sound mind and body, do hereby declare that I too do not want to share all my SmartThings devices with Alexa and Google.

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So stealing this!

Hi, I know I can run both on the same device. But my question is if I migrate on one device, will it affect my classic app on other devices? Does migrating affect my account or hub?

Thanks.

Out of general curiosity…beyond a company taking control out of your hands…why don’t you want Alexa seeing all of your devices? The first thing I do when I hook up a device is have Alexa discover it. I’ve never had a major issue. Or had Alexa activating a completely inappropriate device. The most that will happen is it hears me incorrectly and either says “did you mean…”, or “you have more than one device with ‘x’ in it which did you mean”…or something to that effect. That happens maybe five times a week, considering I call Alexa 100 times a day that’s good. So whats the deal?

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I also echo this sentiment. Furthermore, I do not want to be forced on to the new skill on Sept 8th due to some arbitrary deadline that ST are seemingly refusing to flex.

Please ST, listen to your community and delay this switchover a few weeks until this functionality is restored.

Thank you.

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This has been discussed at length in multiple threads with different people having different reasons. You can find a lot of this discussion in this thread above or in the following.

New SmartThings Alexa skill (2020)

One of the most common reasons is that people prefer to use the device manufacturer’s native integration rather than the smartthings integration because it provides more features. And because it will work even when smartthings isn’t working. Yes, you can go through the Alexa app and individually disable each of the devices but that gets to be a lot of work, particularly for people who have several hundred devices.

In my case, it’s even simpler: it could kill somebody. :skull_and_crossbones:

I have medical monitoring equipment which I never want exposed to any voice system, even for a minute, to prevent its accidentally being turned off.

Another community member gave a similar example. They have three locations on their account: their own home, their sister’s home, and their mother’s home. The mother has an oxygen tank plugged in in her bedroom. After the new skill arrived, the sister gave a voice command to turn off all lights, and it turned off the oxygen tank at the mother’s house as well. :scream:

Still other people have privacy and security concerns: they just don’t want a list of all their devices showing up in their Amazon or Google Home account.

The main point is that this was an unadvertised change, and there was no way to go back. For something with potentially fatal outcomes, that’s pretty serious.

So from a convenience standpoint, the duplicated devices probably affects the most people. But from a feature design standpoint, killing even one of your customers is bad business. Just sayin’… :wink:

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Considering the state of SmartThings, I wouldn’t want it there either :scream:

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Same here. I have to. Everytime I delete the Classic ST Presence and create the New app presence, it dies within a week, and I have to go to the classic app and recreate the Classic presence. Since I have been using both of them, they have actually been MORE stable. :man_shrugging::man_shrugging:

Exact same for me. Only I used one app or the other. Every time I tried the new app, presence would just stop working within a week. When I started using both apps, it started working and has for almost a month now.

@JDRoberts

I’m genuinely shocked that someone such as yourself continues to place so much confidence in a failing system. I can’t get my head around it.

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That just sounds a bit harsh. Everyone has their reasons for using a certain setup. In my opinion,. Smartthings is not a failing platform, it’s a changing platform. Wink was/is a failing platform. It’s a huge difference.

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Preconditions in all of my automations used to work until yesterday. It isn’t working anymore. Anyone having same issues?

You can breathe. :sunglasses: I don’t want to go into all the details, but as I have mentioned before, I don’t have anything that’s mission critical left on SmartThings.

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That’s good to know - I wouldn’t even have my fish tank monitored by ST, and that’s coming from someone who has, for years, boasted to others about what a wonderful system he had… The best part being that off-the-shelf was pointless. But customised was amazing! Now? Pretty much want to forget about it like a bad relationship.

After jumping ship, for the first time (ever), the wife is commenting on just how great things are now. For those of us who value the WAF/SAF, take a moment to digest that. She’s never liked it. Because there’s always been some annoying niggle or failure.

I still don’t understand why a user who helps (and I do mean that - I love reading your contributions) to maintain an enthusiasts forum can portray such positivity. It feels a little like someone moderating a “Nissan micra” fan forum, whilst simultaneously admitting that his own micra has always been a POS so he relies on a Ford fiesta for his daily journeys, but “the micra is still very, very good!”.

But this has now pole-vaulted way off topic =p

I’m just keeping an eye out over here out of interest whilst I slowly decommission my v2. =)

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I think you’ll find that for the last two years over 90% of my contributions have been about devices and Network protocols, not ST-specific.

So to use your analogy, it’s more like being on a Nissan Forum and talking about tires and spark plugs. And oil, definitely lots of threads about oil. (Plus a FAQ on why “SN” doesn’t stand for “Synthetic.”) :wink: :red_car:

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Haha, amazing reply! =) never let it be said you’re anything but helpful. =)

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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Alternative Hubs

I agree with 100% of what you said, buy why would you have medical monitoring equipment under the control of ST, or any other consumer-grade automation platform for that matter?

I’d think I would have that type of device on a dedicated circuit, with battery backup. If you want to monitor its status, aren’t there passive current monitors available that could provide that information, without compromising the integrity of the circuit?

I don’t trust that ST is going to turn on a light reliably 100% of the time, and it doesn’t. And whatever trust I had in ST has pretty much gone out the window with this current fiasco. I wouldn’t trust it with anything of any real importance. That’s why most of my automation is controlled by the zwave module in my alarm system and alarm.com, which has been rock solid for close to a decade.

He discussed it earlier in one of the threads. He has medical equipment that sometimes has to be power-cycled, and he doesn’t otherwise have the ability to physically do it himself.

He has been around on these forums a long time, and is one of the most knowledgeable people you’ll ever find when it comes to home automation, be it SmartThings or otherwise.

He knows very well what the risks are, and he has chosen the setup that works best for him given his circumstances.

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I noticed the other day when I put the word “test” in front of a device name, Alexa didn’t like it and the device didn’t show up there from the skill. I’ve heard of others using special characters in the name of a device to throw her off too.

Not an ideal solution to keeping her hands off devices, and no idea if it works in Google, but it could work for things you don’t want her to find other then disabling the device in the Alexa app.