[Ovio] An alternative companion app

[rienkkk (Rienk)]

Ovio - An alternative companion app for Home Assistant

I have been a fan of Home Assistant since learning about it. However, one pain point I had when I started is that I had to invest quite some time to get a dashboard that I (and my partner) were satisfied with. This led me to (a bit naively) start building an alternative app from scratch that would be quite opinionated yet intuitive and quick to set up.

Since Ovio is opinionated, it is less customizable than Lovelace. This comes with the advantage that setting up the app only requires logging in. It also enabled me to create tailored interfaces for each control category (lights, media, etc.).

Some of you may notice that there was another app named Ovio. That was actually the previous version of this app that has since turned into Ovio Canvas, which focuses on automations. This app builds upon and expands on the learnings of the previous app.

To keep the app ad-free and support future development as a solo indie developer, additional features beyond mobile home controls (e.g. tablet mode, custom scenes, photo frame) are available after a one-time payment (~29 euros).

Demo
If you want to explore the app, you can check out this web demo. Or you can download the app below and try the in-app demo.

Links

• Google Play Download link
• App Store Download link
• Website Link
  
  

Feedback
The app is an active work in progress, and I’m currently working on adding camera integrations, better sensor insights, and vacuums. If you have any feedback, please let me know down below.

Quick overview

Quickly control your home, get insights, and activate your favorite scenes at a glance.	Control (the color) of multiple lights at once

Group/ungroup speakers and control your media	Hide and reorder items to only display what is relevant

Switch from photo frame to a dashboard with a single tap.	Set the right atmosphere with pre-made scenes

[brunogoulart (Bruno)]

I really liked the project, and the design looks awesome! That said, I’m not planning to use it as my main setup just yet since I need to integrate security cameras and the alarm with its sensors. Do you have any plans to add something like that?

[rienkkk (Rienk)]

Thanks! I am actually currently working on redoing the whole ‘insights’ section. So sensors, alarms and adding camera’s. Currently I am in the process of gathering feedback on the current implementation/design. So it would really helpful to hear your feedback on it (I can send some design screenshots via dm).

[snador]

Thank you for the project. I am also a designer and frontender myself and always looking for the best UI with the best usability. Since you want feedback, I would like to do the same for the very good work here.

What you have achieved here is great. If you keep at it, it could become something really big. I know it’s always difficult to find the balance between customizability and perfect design and consistent UI. The more customizability, the greater the potential for chaos and reduced usability. I bought the Pro version to have a look at your work and I like it at first sight. But there are a few things that are actually missing and where I would like to see a bit more customizability. For me personally.

1:
The color contrasts are too low for me in some places, e.g. when displaying a slider bar over the background of the tiles. This can quickly lead to situations where the UI is no longer easily recognizable in bright environments (sun shining into the bathroom). In a bright environment and in dark mode, for example, I can no longer recognize the tiles on the phone and it visually merges into a common background. For user experience reasons, you would say - anything I can’t see, I can leave out. But since the visibility of the tiles makes a lot of sense, customizability at this point might make sense. I would like to be able to adjust color values, transparencies, etc. here. In order not to exceed a certain sensible level (in the sense of a consistent UI), you can perhaps do this as ready-made presets or select certain properties and colors only in certain predefined steps.

2:
Icons and typography are very small and discreet, which I personally like. However, it can be too discreet for some people in relation to the operation of a UI. Here it could be useful to be able to customize both the icons and the typography in 3 predefined steps without losing the consistency of the overall system.

3:
Smartphone: Here I would like to be able to adjust the size of the tiles to a minimum extent. For example, it bothers me that the tiles only take up 50% of the width, I would like to have the option to make the tiles 100% wide and have less height. Here, too, it could be useful to be able to select a few presets for the basic layout of a tile.

4:
I find the area with the scenes charming. However, they get in my way on the smartphone above the other function areas when I switch between rooms. A minimum of 30% of the vertical viewport of the normal function area is “lost” here. For some, this may be helpful as it is - for me, it’s the “wrong” place. Here are a few thoughts on this. It would be nice if I could, for example, set that this area gets another place, e.g. under the normal function area or alternatively like lights or switches gets its own tile with which the area then opens. However, the simplest solution would be if the app remembers when I have closed the area and does not open again with every switch to a room.

These are my first impressions when using the app. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for your great work and am seriously considering swapping the great Mushroom Cards for this app.

P.S. There are of course countless nice-to-haves, but we can talk about them later