Being super happy with my own Homey Pro, I gave a Homey Bridge to a family member as a gift. I am sadly quite disappointed. I thought it would be able to run the same apps as before, since I had not read anything else (bad research on my part, lack of info on Bridge sale page).
The opposite is sadly the case: most apps are not compatible, e.g. Papertrails Log (essential), < group > (essential), IKEA Tradfri Gateway (essential), Countdown (essential). I have not gone through the whole catalog, just those that I needed to install first to get started.
My concern is: how will this affect the app community going forward? Is this just a temporary state of things? Will apps need to lose significant functionality to become Bridge compatible, or will Bridge allow more current apps to run? If apps are not compatible with Bridge, will they be updated and maintained going forwards? The the last question, I think they will!
Thanks for that clarification. I misunderstood how Bridge works. I thought it would be like a virtual instance of Homey running on Athom’s server, where it could run apps like timers, logging etc. Now I understand that it has no such abilities, and can do very little of what Homey Pro can. Sharing Flows between Bridge and real Homey users, will be very limited, since it’s very unlikely a standalone Homey Flow will be able to run on the Bridge.
I feel the same way Karl. I watched the keynote and was left under the impression the bridge was a cloud alternative to the pro. Designed specifically for people to pay monthly instead of a large amount up front. First day I opened the bridge and it’s useless for me, none of the apps I need are installable on the bridge, only on the pro. It’s definitively not the experience sold by the keynote.
Thank you guys for bringing up this topic.
For users like me that are not very techy, would it be possible to elaborate a bit on " apps that provide support for local networked devices, or offer useful tools (timers, logging, database support, Homeyscript, Homekit, etc)". Are these apps that extent the feature set of homey (like time and date apps and other apps providing core features) or are these also apps that are to control devices?
Thank you ( and sorry if this has been discussed in other threads that i haven’t found).
Homey Bridge cannot be used to control devices that require local network access to the device (in other words, WiFi or Ethernet-enabled devices that don’t use cloud services to be able to be controlled, or, technically, devices that can be controlled through a cloud service or local access and for which an open source cloud service implementation doesn’t exist).
This Homey bridge is a pièce of sh*t
I have the same problems as you, nothing is compatible except hue and it makes none sens ! Each of my device aren’t working but hue, that represent 80% of my installation it’s 60 bucks in trash.
And the homey pro still unavailable, it would be stupid to buy an older one 300 buck for second hand device
I am very very disappointed
Why would that be stupid, you can always sell it when you want the new model?
I bought my first (used) 512MB Pro a few years ago for E180,- and am still happy user.
I think they pretty much keep their value, compared to other electronic devices. Like, what is your 3 year old laptop / smartphone / TV worth today?
For many reasons it is stupid, first second hands are sold the price they cost new, bo warranty, I guess they won’t be matter friendly, the new one comes in few weeks I suppose but no information about that and when it will come to market the older one will be certainly sold the half of the actual price. If your brain works well I guess you can understand at least one of my arguments.
Then it does not mean that bridge if useless for most people
Well well, I don’t know what state you are in, but you don’t have to insult me.
I just understood by your remark, you were held back by the price difference between the bridge and a new Pro. But that does not seems to be the issue.
That’s why I pointed out the middle option, buying a used model. In your country the second hand prices differ very much from what I’ve seen.
Don’t respond to me anymore. Thank you.
This solution is perfect for me. I am just new to homey, and was playing with cloud compatible apps, hue works like a charm, and i only need to add somfy control, some temp sensors and some door sensors. Plenty to choose from if i use the Bridge. It simply works, and i believe that the quality control of the apps is more strict then with the onprem unit.
But it is important is that more external cloud services become available to homey cloud.
Like (burglary) alarm saas services, microsoft power apps etc.
In my case, more home users will use it, so it must be robust.
Also, i will use it to monitor the house of some elderly people 100km away.
That is why i have 4g internet backup with different isp to my 200mb fiber based internet access.
Plus the critical items (lights/hue) can be operated locally. In the rare case that internet access is down, ok i lose the extra automation.
It looks like homey cloud is running on aws (frankfurt site) so i assume that they use zone redundancy there
