I have not been very active here for the past few weeks due to vacation season. I’m about to reach my 3 month anniversary with ST and aside from stability improvements there hasn’t been much said about where things are headed.
What changes are coming to SHM? (i.e. entry delay, exit delay, multiple devices to trigger alarm)
Where are the SHM widgets for doors & windows, locks, lights, etc?
Will developers ever get the ability to create dashboard widgets?
What is the status of official integrations (i.e. MyQ)?
What new integrations are coming?
What is the status with V1 parity? Why the delay and absence of any timelines?
What changes are coming to local processing?
I can definitely see and agree with the need for back end improvements, but the recent announcements on the Grails upgrade has left me wondering why there has been virtually zero focus on feature improvement?
I think if you read Alex’s posts you’ll see that they’ve been focusing on reliability first, features second. I’ll leave debate on the efficacy of that for other threads, but I don’t think we can rant about reliability and accuse them of stagnation at the same time. It’s mostly one or the other. If you feel the platform is stable enough, maybe it is then time to turn focus back on features, but I for one am not ready for that. I’d like to see a longer period of stability first. My humble opinion.
I agree Brian but it would be quite timely to get an update on features, capabilities and vendor partnerships in the near term.
Stability is king right now but a good number of die hard ST fans are seriously looking elsewhere (due to stability concerns). We’re suckers for new so a good defense would also be to go on the offense too.
I wrote to Alex @alex on the back of a recent update but did not get a response which is unusual given his participation in the forums.
I think they’ve been burned too many times for overpromising and then not delivering. (cough, cough, Bluetooth, cough, cough) So sometime a few months ago, maybe in February, they said they were intentionally not going to announce most features ahead of delivery.
I personally don’t have a problem with that as long as what does get delivered is reliable and valuable to me, and as long as there are occasional new reliable, valuable features.
JMO
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tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
6
I guess they learned this one from their own experience:
JANUARY 5, 2015
A plethora of new devices will soon join the many connected products that already work on SmartThings’ open platform.
These include:
• Netgear and D-Link cameras
• Somfy window shades
• Racchio water irrigation system
• Chamberlain garage door openers
• August locks
• Weatherbug climate data
• Samsung smart appliances
YET. they are completely full of bull. They are announcing integrations such as skybell.
That contradicts the explicitly stated concentration on reliability, that they use to excuse away attention on the things the community holds dear - such as… oh I don’t know… reliability and Local processing.
The GALL the organization has to announce that while Reliability, MyQ, Local Processing, @alex weekly updates all are not delivered is astounding.
I assume they finally reached the five 9s and are ready to launch a plethora of new devices. Time will tell. Hope your My Q will soon join the many connected products that already work on SmartThings’ open platform.
I mean, way more important that reliability. AMIRIGHT.
Who cares that SHM reports as disarmed when the hub is not in fact SHM disarmed.
Integrate and layer more stuff. super important. Skybell. SHM what? Skybell is where it is at. Does ADT monitoring look at my skybell integration? Heckz ya bro.
Well not all development is done by the same people. So Skybell could easily have been a simple legal document away from being done. You can’t actually have all hands on deck when the deck is small.
That’s certainly true, and @slagle pointed that as well. It seems reasonable. Although I am fairly certain ST has trotted that reasoning out when other things that were broken or not integrated as promised .
‘Sorry. We have prioritized focusing on reliability over this or that’…
Perhaps I am wrong, but I will keep an eye out for those and make sure to post up in reply if and when I find them.
I forgot all about this thread… I guess that’s what happens when you post then go on vacation for a couple weeks.
So here we are 2 1/2 months after I originally posted this. So what has really changes in the past 10 or so weeks? Not all that much. A firmware update or two, some minor UI tweaks, no change in stability (possibly less since it appears some multipurpose sensors are having issues), and no new widgets for the dashboard, no changes in backend performance, etc.
Alex has disappeared. He must have run out of creative ways of spinning the lack of progress into something more tangible.
I can sum it up with one word; stagnation
Perhaps sales are down and therefore resources are being scaled back. Only Alex really knows.
