Wink announces support for a ton of new devices

General Discussion
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From the Wink FB group:

“You heard it here first! I’m excited to share with you guys that later this week we will be launching a slew of new products to Wink including: Sengled bulbs, SmartThings Plug (V2 & V1), SmartThings multisensor (only open/close and temperature), SmartThings motion sensor, SmartThings Leak sensor, Iris motion sensor, Iris leak sensor, Iris door/ window sensor, and the Iris smart plug. Thanks for being such awesome users and enjoy adding these new products before anyone else!”

I’ve bashed Wink as much as anyone for their past business decisions and model, but if they’re going down, they aren’t going down without a fight. IMO, that’s a very impressive list of devices to add. I know I prefer that ST concentrate on the backend and our awesome community concentrate on the device support BUT I do think ST needs to do something to get the community excited again and soon. Thoughts?

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Since SmartThings already has support for all of those devices, it’s hard as a SmartThings user to feel much about the announcement except it might make it easier to move to wink 2 if someone chose to do that. And I noticed they still aren’t supporting the accelerometer feature of the multi sensor.

I think pretty soon SmartThings does need to decide what they want to be as far as competing with Wink and HomeKit.

If they want to be a real security system, they need to add an entry/exit delay, an officially supported keypad, A way to arm/disarm the system locally, user management for nonadmin users, better camera support and cellular notifications.

If they want to be a plug-and-play home automation system to compete with HomeKit and wink, they need to have an official way to group lights, an easier and more intuitive rules engine, better stability, more local operation, a functioning Bluetooth radio, better camera support and an app that works with voiceover.

If they want to be a maker’s platform to compete with homeseer and Vera they need network mapping tools, better stability, more local operation, vastly improved hubaction options, the ability to add and manage secondary Z wave controllers, full exposure of Device parameters, stronger zigbee implementation including groupcasting, and better support for zwave central scene management.

If they want to be the glue for Samsung’s appliances IOT then they have a lot of work to do on both the television and the appliances side. And add a good rules engine and better stability.

Right now SmartThings is a little of all of these four but not really enough of any to be first in class in any of the categories. So it’s really impressive when you’re just reading the top level specs, but in practice, there are just these big gaps.

It’s hard to predict what their next iterations will be because it’s hard to tell which of these four markets they are aiming for.

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JD, I couldn’t agree more with your assessment of SmartThings. Essentially, SmartThings is a “Jack of all trades, master of none!”

I still feel they are the most “developer friendly commercial platform” on the market today. However, it won’t take much to get folks excited about a new platform that can figure out out to excel at 2 or three of the items you mention above, while still being maker friendly.

Since earlier this year, SmartThings has been mentioning new and exciting things are in the works. Yet I haven’t seen anything for the past many months to get excited about. Instead, they seem to have “turtled up” behind the “we’re all working on platform stability” battle cry for the past 1.5 years. I understand platform stability is important, and I appreciate the improvements… But they need to show at least some progress on a few other fronts, like the ability to backup and restore one’s configuration to allow for easy hub replacement/upgrade, two factor authentication, entry/exit delays, local processing, etc…

The one exception that I must give credit where credit is due, is the recent Composite Device Handler that I had been waiting for since early 2015. Very nice to have native Parent/Child device handlers without need for an intervening SmartApp!

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BTW, personally I would like to see SmartThings focus on adding really fantastic integration with all the Samsung appliances, Samsung cameras, and Samsung smart televisions. And add a good intuitive simple rules engine, maybe just something on the level of SmartRules with a single level do while option. And a good app including Voice navigation even if it required Bixby to get it.

First, because I think that’s what people expect. It would be a differentiator, it would be useful, and it would make sense. Get the Samsung stuff right first, with SmartThings adding the ability to integrate with switches and sensors.

Note that I don’t think they will do that, because if they were going to do that they would’ve already done it. But if you want something really exciting, have an open extensible platform that absolutely nails tying together your washing machine, your refrigerator, your air conditioner, a robot vacuum, your smart television, cameras, gear Watch, plus the lights, locks, and sensors that all the other inexpensive IOT systems have. Then you’d have an IOT story that makes sense in every day life. And a Samsung brand story that would be very strong.

But again, for whatever reason, I don’t see them doing that or they would’ve already done a lot more of it. So I honestly don’t know what the next generation is likely to be.

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I tried Wink right before I bought Smartthings. I found a deal on wink gen 1 for $15 so thought I would try it. I will say what they do support seems to work well, and some even have more functionality. For example…And nothing against developers here, but wink does have official nest support. That would be nice. Another example is locks. Schlage connect on wink has every feature available. Add codes, remove codes, alarm set and change, everything. ST has… Lock/unlock. The battery percentage isn’t even right on ST.

These are two things I feel wink does better right out of the box.

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Hmmm. Some interesting thoughts here.

Indeed the marketplace is a strange place. Ford, GM, Toyota etc nowadays have to deliver a complete package. But if you think about it, it was not that long ago that cars only came with an AM radio and if you wanted a cassette player (wait, that was 8 track! Lol) and/or FM radio, you had to go get parts and install them. And then it happened again with the advent of satellite and HD radio; it took years before those systems were even integrated into add-on radios, let alone as standard equipment. Same with nav systems. Or your sunroof that opens automatically. Used to have to get it done by a guy who took a sawzall to your car roof…

I’m quite content with my current system. ST, Alexa, Hue, Chamberlain, supported by some very sharp tools on android… I see where the future will demand the comprehensive solution that is mostly plug’n’play. But we are not close to that yet. All of the technologies and processes involved need to mature quite a bit to begin to approach that level of completeness.

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I’m content with ST as well. However, I think it has been awhile since the community has been excited about anything. The one thing that I’d REALLY like to see more local control. I would also like much better camera support. Otherwise I’m pretty happy with ST. On the other hand, I AM glad that Wink is trying to compete better and hopefully it motivates ST as well.

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What is this entry/exit delay you and others speak of?

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These are common in security systems. The exit delay to give the homeowner a time to get out of the house before the alarm goes off. The entrance delay to give the homeowner time to enter the code before the alarm goes off.

Say I have the alarm panel inside my house on the wall by the front door. I have a sensor which will trigger an alarm if the front doors opened while the system is armed.

In most security systems, there is a slight delay as follows:

One) when I’m getting ready to leave the house, I can Press a button on the keypad to arm the system, but I still have about a minute to get through the door and close it again before the System actually arms. That way I can leave the house without the alarm going off.

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Two) when I’m coming back home, I can unlock the door, come into the entry, and enter my pin code on the keypad before the alarms go off because of the entrance delay.

Again, this is just a standard feature of most security systems.

It’s true that if the only way I arm/disarm my security system is with Geofencing on my phone, there’s already a built-in delay which will probably work well enough.

But if I want to use other methods, in particular if I want to have a keypad where I can give the code to a dog walker or a house cleaner, then the delay becomes much more important.

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@vlad has mentioned that if exit/entry grace delays for SHM are desired, Customers should be sure to raise it up to Support@SmartThings.com

I’m not sure what drives Wink’s strategic plans, but I’m sure they’ve had a lot of pressure to integrate more devices. Wink customers are celebrating today.

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Clearly, Wink changed their business model the last couple of months - they’re starting to add quite a bit of hardware and obviously some of these vendors (like ST and Lowes) aren’t paying them to do it as their previous model required.

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Reach out to support or mention it in a review.

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Is a delay not possible with Webcore?

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Webcore can interact with SHM’s status, but it doesn’t control SHM’s logic. If SHM is monitoring for intrusion while armed, webcore can’t just temporarily override that

If a user really wants to they don’t have to use the SHM integration, they could essentially write their own security setup with pistons in web core.

but SHM is integrated into the SmartThings app, web core would require going into your web core dashboard to see status. One is more intuitive than the other in how it is currently being used

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Right, so if I wanted to do a security system without Smart Home Monitor, I could have Webcore turn on a virtual Alarm switch 1 minute after I enter a code on an Iris keypad. Then I could have all my security alarm automations only run when the Virtual Alarm switch is on. This would work right?

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Well, the keypad interaction is kinda piecemeal. If you use @bamarayne’s app, then enter code that triggers an action or routine, with webcore triggering Pistons off of these triggered actions, then yes it’d work. But the keypads done natively send their codes to webcore, so you’d have to use keypad coordinator tribe ring virtual switches

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Yes, if someone knows how to find and use web core, but web core itself cannot run locally. (No custom code can.)

So if the SmartThings cloud is out or the power is out at your house, there is no way to disarm smart home monitor and no way to use an entry delay. If you have it set up so that opening your door sets off your siren, that’s going to happen. There have been multiple reports of this issue in the forum.

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It will work if:

The SmartThings cloud is available
The internet is available
Your hub is on power

Most purpose built security systems can run on their own backup power and send notifications by cellular and still have an entry delay that works if the Internet is out.

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Done! Thanks, Vlad.

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Hi @vlad,

Just posted my update to the Play store and you may not like the Truth of my Post. Check it out. Hope this Kicks the headquarters into listening to us the community!