Companion app for iOS 2023.12: Let’s go!

ali_ilhami · January 11, 2024, 11:39am

There are no accusations actually. I am an enthusiastic user which adopts amost every feature HA team develops and being a evangelist of HA. It is not possible for a user to debug every other plugin or custom card if that’s the cause. I have already opened the issue on github like many others.

Here is all the related open issues on github. I’ve found them today by doing a searching. Almost all of them includes the version and the operating system details. I know HA is not a “for profit” project and I have utmost respect to all developers putting effort on this. I just wanted to emphasize that one simple bug is there for almost 4 years.

parautenbach · January 25, 2024, 6:56pm

Could someone please help me understand this better?

This does not mean your iOS 12, 13, or 14 devices have become unusable. You can still access your Home Assistant using the browser if you have a device that can’t update past iOS 12, such as the 2014 iPhone 6 or iPad Mini 3. All other devices currently capable of running iOS 13 or 14 can be updated to iOS 15 or higher and use the new versions of the iOS Companion App.

I have some old devices like these.

Past this last release, will the last supported version of the app remain usable (it just cannot be updated), or will unsupported clients be unable to connect to an HA instance? I’m ok with an unsupported app that’s effectively feature frozen, as long as it can still connect.

What happens with background updates such as location tracking? When opening a page in the browser, I’m not sure auto update functionality such as location tracking will work reliably. I rely on this heavily. Secondly, running from the browser might also mean certain sensors won’t be available.

bkbartk · January 25, 2024, 7:06pm

Your app may stays working but it’s not guaranteed.
You can use sour browser means safari/firefox/chrome etc….
Location tracking may fail. As alternative you can consider the ping integration to check if your device is home or not. However my xp is that ping works better for android devices. As iOS devices use a battery safe function.
Maybe not 12. But 17 does.

parautenbach · January 25, 2024, 8:31pm

I appreciate your input, but I hope one of the app devs such as Zac will chime in too.

Ping sensors either cause battery drain or are too slow to update with less pinging, and I track more than just the home location, so it’s not a workable solution.

As for backend compatibility, I’d like to know if there’s a current roadmap or architectural decision (AR) for it. I don’t mind a cut-off: I just want to stay ahead of the curve.

javalsu · February 12, 2024, 4:36pm

Any chance we can expect an update to allow the native swipe/back iOS functionality in the app?

parautenbach · February 12, 2024, 8:22pm

@bgoncal could you please clarify this: For unsupported devices will an old companion app installation be actively prevented from logging in or stop working against a certain server version? Using HA on older devices via the browser won’t work well with background tasks to update sensors, such as for location tracking, I think. This is a major issue in my case, since so many of my automations depend on whether people are home. Using ping sensors aren’t a viable substitute for me.

bgoncal · February 13, 2024, 10:26am

The 2023.12 version of the app will keep working

parautenbach · February 13, 2024, 10:29am

Wonderful, thank you so much.