Hi! Homey user for 3 weeks now. Iād like to share my feedback. This is kind of a review, but thereās a lot of suggestions so I put it in this topic.
The Good
I came to Homey Pro after several years on Home Assistant (HA) on a Raspberry Pi, due to an upgrade dead end: I had chosen an install method that was discontinued, so I had no upgrade path, and had to start over from scratch. I also needed a faster Pi anyway, so I started reconsidering.
My power company recommends Homey, and they provide real-time power consumption data and price-based automation (e.g. start car charger when power becomes cheap). Homey is costly, but I liked the all-in-one features. Iām using both Zigbee, Z-wave, and 433 MHz devices, and my Pi closet was by now looking like a spaghetti casserole with all the connected devices and power supplies. The info on the Homey web is quite good. There is a comparison article with Homey vs. HA, and despite some natural pro Homey bias itās quite fair and well put.
The setup was easy. Adding devices is easier and more consistent than with HA. All my existing devices from the HA setup work with Homey, with the exception of two Nexa 433 MHz door sensors that seem not supported. The visual programming is conceptually similar to HA, but easier in Homey due to better device organisation, itās easier to find the device Iām looking for. Wireless reception seems good. I had a problem getting Homey+ subscription up and running, but fixed that with quick help from support.
The Bad
Thereās a lot in here, but please know Iām actually quite happy with the Homey so far. There are suggestions as well as complaints. I try to sort them by biggest problems first.
- Insights: Thereās no persistence. It forgets my carefully set up graphs as soon as I click something else. This constant forgetfulness discourages use of an otherwise well made feature.
- Flows: The when-and-or-then-else paradigm is often too limiting. A simple if-elseif-else requires two flows, one calling the other.
- Insights: Should not insist on same unit of measurement when making combined graphs. It can be quite useful to combine watt readings and temperatures together, for instance.
- Limited sharing seems missing. For instance I might like to share my outdoors climate data with my neighbour in the same building, but thatās not possible. Iād have to share the whole house, it seems.
- The phone app should represent the phone sensors/values as Homey sensors, like the HA app does. Like temperature, acceleration, proximity, charge status, etc. Example use case: A flow that switches off the socket which is charging the phone when charge reaches 80%, to extend battery lifetime.
- 433 Mhz: Hit & miss compatibility. Many things work, some donāt. Some work in the brandās own app, some require another app. Some work if set up as another device that apparently has the same internals, but it takes trial and error to find such matches. I need many apps to get all my old stuff working.
- Flows: Lots of scrolling when editing due to the many apps I need. It does not remember my most commonly used apps.
- The web interface often gets āstuckā with old sensor data. An F5 refresh solves it. The app also gets stuck quite often, then it shows a refresh button for me to tap. Couldnāt it refresh by itself?
- Zones is the only way to group items, and an item can only be in one zone. Metazones/tags for multiple types of categorisation would be nice. E.g. āall thermometersā, or āall motion detectorsā. There is some of this, like for lights, but itās limited.
- The Chronograph app is essential and should be adopted as official built in functionality, if the author is willing. Also there seems to be no built in way to react to the content of a http response, thatās a rather basic need.
- Naming: I have to add the zone to device names to tell them apart, since the zone is not shown in all contexts. In other contexts it is then redundant, like āLiving room: Living room thermostatā.
- Lists: Items are not always sorted, like HomeyScripts, so I always have to scroll down to find my stuff, or delete all the examples.
- Hardware: No ethernet.
- Insights: Graph hover doesnāt sort values. When a graph has several plotlines that cross above and below each other, Iād expect the legend in the hover box to be sorted top to bottom in the same order as the graph at that point. Currently itās easy to get confused.
- Flows: A āview/edit as codeā for flow cards would be handy sometimes. If the use of this permanently converted a flow to a script, that would be ok.
- 433 Mhz: Has crashed on me twice. All 433 devices stopped sending and receiving, all other devices were fine. Restarting their apps had no effect. Had to restart Homey, then all was good again.
- Insights: Donāt exist in the Android app. A web page link doesnāt quite cut it.
- Insights: Filters should return only matching sensors, not all sensors of a device, when only one matches the filter. Now thereās lots of scrolling to add sensors. Though persistence would ease this pain (see above).
- Customisable dashboards like Home Assistant Lovelace could be nice. It lets you build your own view of graphs, toggles, numeric values and action buttons, as you wish. Kind of like the favourites on the Home view in Homey, but more powerful. Can also become a neverending quest for layout perfection, thoughā¦
- Bug: When a flow card text parameter is large enough, the end of it becomes inaccessible. It wonāt scroll to the bottom of the parameter, but drops me out of edit mode.
- It would be nice if the light ring could go much weaker than the minimum setting it has now.
The Ugly
Ugly is a strong word, but Homey could have looked better. In good light it looks like a rather plasticky white plastic ball. A darker shade or some texture might help. Maybe some slight transparency to make the ring glow wider. Metal might look good, but is expensive and could block antennas. Wood finish might work, or a pearlescent finish. Imagine it in tweed fabric or a knitted pattern. Or like an eye, with a big pupil and eye lashes. Or how about a globe print, like the earth or the moon? Thereās space for personal creativity here, but given the cost one wants to be careful.
The conspicuous ferrite lump on the cable isnāt really necessary for mere power delivery, is it?
BTW, my first HomeyScript is this little bit which I use to pull a random quotation and say it, every now and then:
const res = await fetch('https://api.quotable.io/random');
if (!res.ok) { throw new Error(res.statusText); }
const body = await res.json();
const quote = `${body.content}` + ' - ' + `${body.author}`;
log(quote);
await say(quote);
Thanks for reading.