Best Web Browser on iPad for Homey?

Questions & Help
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1

I have watched the launch of the Advanced Flow and I have installed Advanced Flow and really enjoying it!

Is there a web browser that will run on an iPad that will work with the Homey Web App?

I cannot be the only Homey user who uses an Ipad as their primary computing device and loves sitting on the sofa and grabbing the always on and ready device while watching TV to set up something on the Home Automation.

Is the Venn diagram of Tablet Users and Homey Users really close to zero?

That said, I am really enjoying Homey and loving setting it all up, and once I have got Homey stable and not having key Athom App just failing and if I could get it to remain online without losing network many many times a day I am sure it will be great. And yes issues reported to homey and followed all their guidance to the letter and still dealing with issues.

My interest is in seeing be the best :slight_smile:

I can understand that there is little support for Tablets because there is incredibly usage of Tablets in managing Homey, which it seems is somewhat cyclic. If there is not support for tablets then people can’t use Tablets therefore no one is using tablets?

Anyway I have been using tablets for over a decade, and my 12.9" iPad has a bigger screen than my Apple Laptop, so ti is not a screen size issue.

But I understand the limitations, but surely using a browser a Web App should really not care.

But using Safari or Chrome to access the Homey Web App is awful, to get a dropdown menu you may have to click on the button 100+ times to get the list to stay visible long enough to click on something in the list.

I understand finite resources, and prioritisation and I am not a developer so probably totally missing something obvious

BUT

How hard is it to make sure a Web App is mobile friendly, it cannot be massively time consuming or a major technical challenge to get ONE mobile browser compatible?

Also, while I am on a roll, why does the Mobile App send users to one webpage (https://insights.homey.app) for Insights and the WebApp a different webpage (My Homey) with different capabilities surely some effort could be saved by maintaining only one Insights site?

2

All web browsers on iOS are Safari under the hood, so if it doesn’t work with Safari it’s not going to work with any other browser.

2 Likes
3

I use the web app on Windows and android tablets, installed as a web app, and they work excellent. As Robert has pointed out, on your iPad the browsers are all Safari under the hood and therein lies the problem. Not sure how well safari supports web apps but as other colleagues of mine have pointed out for other services, try as I might they don’t have Homey, Safari is the weak link.
I use Edge on my devices, that’s chrome under the hood, and it works perfectly

4

I do find it odd that Chrome on the iPad is actually Safari under the covers.

The issue may well be an iPad issue but this is the first time in 10 years it has manifested itself, which is very odd indeed.

But does rather explain why Athom state that no one uses iPads to manage Homey, that will because it doesn’t work on iPads, well the functions that aren’t supported in the App.

I will raise a ticket on Safari that it is not compatible with Homey, will be interested to hear their response.

5

Any updates? I have the same issue. Cannot mod advanced flows on iPad. Very anoying.

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6

I solved the issue.

Published all Homey devices to MQTT.

Use Node Red to control it and it works great in safari, especially with an Apple Pencil :slight_smile:

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@Busta999 That is very clever, but not really a solution. More a workaround for enthusiastic programmers.
Still don’t understand why the web based version works for advanced flow editing on windows and macos browsers, but not on ipad or iphone. Going on holiday, I take an ipad with me, but now I would be forced to take a laptop?

This is really annoying.

1 Like
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I agree.

The Node Red ‘advanced flows’ work fine on a browser on a iPad so not sure why Homey Web App has this long standing issue.

Had to move a pile of devices off Homey as relaying to Mqtt was causing Homey to crash.

I have radically reduced Homey loading down to a few things that I have no other way of automating.

Dishwasher, Eufy cameras/ vacs, Tado, Zappi Homey is much happier now and rarely crashes now :slight_smile:

Homey has been the most expensive hub I have owned but does the least. So much promise and potential…

9

Is this still an issue? I’m new to Homey and considering the Pro but if there’s no way to reliably manage flows via an iPad that’s a show stopper for me (unfortunately). :frowning: