Looking for a little direction and input from beta testers around what features you most care about in the iOS app.
Location tracking/updating
iBeacon support (which also would enable in-home location tracking, aka knowing when you enter/leave a room in your home)
Push notifications
Controlling devices (This is a big one to tackle because of all the device types that Home Assistant supports, and is a bit of a challenge UI wise, but i’m up for anything )
An Apple Watch app (most likely starting with a complication)
On device automations (i.e. being able to trigger events in Home Assistant via a URL like homeassistant://event_name?event_data=foobar
Device automations. I don’t have a better name for this right now, but it’s things like firing events to Home Assistant when a new contact is added. Let’s say that anything that the IFTTT iOS app can do are things that I can do, and a little more.
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Let me know if there is something on here that you don’t see but want as a feature.
For me, reliable presence and notifications are the priority - that enables me to ditch a couple of other apps, and also integrate nicely with HA’s Zones.
An Apple Watch app would be cool, but not as high a priority - in my last HA system the only really useful thing I used my watch for was the equivalent of running scripts (and then just to open and close my garage to impress my friends), so I would prefer to see a simple interface to scripts/scenes rather than any particular status info on my watch.
I am intrigued by iBeacon support but haven’t played with this yet, so its probably a thing I would take a look at as/when it became available in the iOS app. One thought on that - is it possible to make iBeacons work eith the Apple Watch rather than the phone? I am guessing not at this stage but that seems like a more useful thing given that I wear my watch but don’t always carry my phone around the house.
Agreed on reliable presence and notifications. Notifications are very solid now, location got a massive upgrade with build 23 but still can use some work.
As for the Apple Watch, I don’t expect to ship an app for a while. However, I am thinking about shipping a complication as well as an improved notification screen for Apple Watch.
iBeacons can work with Apple Watch :). There’s already a home automation app that does exactly what you want, and I plan to add similar functionality to the app. I think the coolest part of iBeacon (for me at least) is going to be determining what room you are in so you can start doing room level automations instead of whole home (or having to put motion sensors up everywhere).
I think the UI has the highest priority and on the other hand is the most difficult one.
BTW I did a prototype for an home automation system, last semester at the university. Nothing really working, just a prototype to show what the UI should be capable of. @robbiet480 if you want those infos and/or want some help, just say it.
I actually moved to HA from OpenHab BECAUSE of the UI. I see there is some progress on an android app for OpenHab but I have fallen in love with HA so I’m staying
Here are some ideas from that app, just for reference. I am also an iOS programmer so I know those components may be a bit difficult to implement but hey, we can still look!
to be honest, real estate aside, that first one actually wouldn’t be too bad on native iOS… looks ripe for a UIStackView with just a small amount different templates…
I’m a native iOS dev too, wish I had the time to help :\
You might not like this, but what about leaving the UI of the website inside an embedded browser and put all your extra’s in the background (i.e. non UI).
That way if alternate UI’s come to HA then it will be easy to just adjust settings and pick from multiple UI’s or skins.
Nice job so far! If there’s a way to collaborate more just ask, I couldn’t find a github repo for this project so I guess you don’t plan to make it open-source, right?
Voted for improving the device control (colors, faders) but also would like to have some apple watch app for quick scene changing (siri through homebridge is not reliable imo).
Notification Center widgets would be really nice to have. I’d like to specify which devices I could put on the notification center so I could quickly see the temperature in a room or turn off a light.
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