I have noticed that more and more companies no longer make interfaces for “HOMEY”, but rather work with Apple, Google and other smart home systems.
I don’t know why it has become like this, but I have noticed that this started approx. 2 years ago.
I, for my part, have started to get a little tired of having to search and search for new updates, when other smart systems do this automatically.
Yes, I am aware that HOMEY also makes updates, but only the official ones, and then we can only hope that the authors of the other apps also update.
Either the company is still too young, or simply too small to make an impression on the big guys.
Now I’m actually considering changing “HOMEY” to a new system that has much better collaboration on the system, and a much better “API” that I think “HOMEY” gives a poor and unclear overview. In addition, I have also struggled with the fact that “HOMEY” has become more and more unstable.
Have noticed that several of the actions from for example switch to light. roller blinds etc. now take several seconds, and have to restart the “HOMEY” for things to return to normal (have now created a restart routine that runs once a week). If, on the other hand, I run directly from Phillips, IKEA, Aqara or other HUBs, the functions work immediately.
Have more people started to notice the same challenges??
No problems here, even something like victron (wich i suppose doesn’t has a lot of users) is supported and with a simple question to the developer of the app a lot of stuff is even added. And prove me wrong but outside of HA i think homey supports the most stuff out of every smarthub in a simple and elegant way. Of course there a few bugs and problems but its not like the guys at athom are sitting still. Only downside could indeed be that some apps are not further developed anymore, but feel free to go to github and develop it yourself or maybe ask kindly to another developer on the forum to pick up the app. (and maybe donate some coffee sometimes to the developers of your favorite apps to keep them motivated😇) Just have a look at this recent forum topic how easy it is to connect something when there is no official app already: App creation for HomeWhiz support (Beko / Grundig)
Meater. Unusable app, still in the App Store, company changed API, tried contact the dev without any luck.
I’ve bought the Meater just because “it talks with Homey”. Not anymore
That seems a different problem than the one that started this thread. Apparently just no one has bothered to update the Homey app (or create a new one) for the new API.
Always worked without a hub. Then they developed new products ( HUB required ) and made a new app that did not support The older rts screens …. Old app not updated to 23 version
After a while and many emails they did add.
To simply update firmwares to get errors out and product working :
Fibaro hub. € 140
Aeotec stick € 50
THAT IS € 1039 worth of hubs !!!
Not even talking about wire spaghetti
And then i am just starting.
Not even talking about the things i want in the future but all require a hub or a separate base station.
I am pretty sure that no hub is needed if the manufacturers WANT. But then they have to invest time in an homey app or Athom needs to write apps. A forced hub is a nice extra income for manufacturers also off course
Nice example
I need a 2.0 hub from luxaflex for the blinds i have.
For the new blinds i need in the back of my house i need the gen 3 hub . From what i understand i need 2 hubs because the gen 3 does not work with gen 2 !!!
GEN 2 = € 240
GEN 3 = € 239
That is almost € 500 … just to get my luxaflex connected with homey !
And then in a tweakers review they say you can connect everything with no issue and not much talking about more and lore hubs.
Basically i did pay 399 for the homey FLOWS only. That combines the above products Hubs in one APP by combining flows. All the above hubs can also be controlled in one Apple or google app.
( bit black and whit i know … but understand the point )
BUT … if Athom would sell just a FLOW APP for € 399 nobody would buy
You’re missing the point of why brands create hubs: they want to create walled gardens.
It’s not in the interest of manufacturers to provide access to their products through different means other than their own, because that way they can’t collect data from their users, or get away with using proprietary standards that will require users to spend money buying more products from them.
Also, manufacturers typically don’t care about interoperability, as long as it works with their own products/hubs/apps. Providing access to different platforms means thinking about security and having to deal with support questions from users that can’t get it working.
And Homey apps need to be written for device support regardless of whether a brand uses a hub or not.
Yes i know they want to support their own environment and do not care much about homey. They do not WANT to spend time and money on another company ( homey ). And earn extra money by selling hubs … and bind people to their brand at the same time.
But the general “noob” idea is that homey “covers all” …
After the youtube tweakers review of the HP23 i added a comment it was not clear that many hubs where needed. Found this missing in most reviews by the way ( even promoting the opposite!! )
After 5 minutes someone reacted that I did not understand homey because no hubs are needed because the HP23 had all antennas onboard
Also when i would buy a Homey as a noob today … it would not have been clear to me that i would need many hubs.
I do understand that its not Athoms fault that hubs are needed … but they are not very clear you need a hubs either
I checked the luxaflex app to see how it supported luxaflex before I bought them
Looked great … and NO mention a hub was NEEDED.
So i bought (expensive) luxaflex blinds. Then i found out it needed the GEN2 hub. After posting on the forum … a hub remark was added tobthe app page i think.
I Do not blame the app dev because for him it was logically… or he forgot (and he does a GREAT JOB)
This cost me a lot and binds me to luxaflex … and now i am stuck in the expensive luxaflex environment.
This for me is an very expensive “mistake”
Wife not very happy either
Because homey is “open” these thing happen. QA should check an app … and when a hub is needed it should be CLEARLY mentioned. But there is hardly any QA since this is an open environment.
Unfortunately the manufacturer wants to sell hubs … and its not in the interest of homey to shout that people need hundreds of euros on top of homey to get stuff working.
I really get your frustration but i don’t have any hubs (except homey of course) and have window coverings, lights, sensors, actuators, and so on all directly connected to homey. The trick is before you buy something to really check if it is possible to connect it to homey (ask the forum if you’re not sure).
Like i said … brel i bought years ago and they changed to the hub format ( fixed now ). Hue was because the app with no hub did not work with the outside sensor …. Luxaflex i did check but was not mentioned at that time … somfy well i wanted somfy outside screens ( my “fault” )
Before i used homewizrd … HP19 … no hubs at all but all was one way communication mostly ( Kaku / 433 RTS etc etc ) .
New house … so i thought lets do it good and on zwave basis …
well zwave is still drama … and I have a pile of hubs … the opposite i wanted and expected from homey
The biggest problem is the lack of features when using new gadgets.
Like Ikea, here I had to invest in HUB (old), due to problems with dimming, and the blind could not stop in variable position (only when the script for this). Now upgraded to the new HUB, but it turns out it can’t be added to HOMEY.
Then I’ve had trouble adding somfy products too, had to go to the step of ordering the Tahoma Switch.
But I now see that I can switch from one smart system to another without much trouble in the future because of invivated HUBs.
I can borrow Alexa & Google Assistant, and intend to take a look at the interface on these, and test them.
Sunway Window Coverings app
Bofu only supports off this app. And the don’t upgrade to SDK 3
The company Sunway Benelux B.V. don’t answer mail. They don’t answer to athom either
Actually I had originally the same thought and tried to move to Apple HomeKit (and compatible vendors) entirely. But was in the end very disappointed by its lack of functionality and lack of interoperability with leading and legacy vendors. And even if there is interoperability the user interface and ability to set up sophisticated rules is poor. Finally I was looking for a hub that is able to interact with HomeKit (and Siri) but operates with multiple vendors (Gardena, Devolo, Aeotec, Fibaro, Qubino, Miele, Bosch, even my old Intertechno stuff etc etc) and has a great user interface and ability to set up rules across devices and ended up with Homey Pro. Have not regretted it!
Having said that I would love Homey to speed up on including more compatible devices, e.g. around Devolo.
Even better: if a product does not connect to homey do not buy such a product and inform its manufacturer the reason you resigned buying such a procuct.
The more customers react like that, the better chance for a change.
I also get where your frustrations come from, but luckily there are a lot of devices that openly communicate and those are the only ones I’m buying. Aqara being one of them very good value for money.
However, homey is not maintaining those very relevant plugins which is very frustrating. Curious how this will become better with Thread/Matter as this will somewhat enforce interoperability.
Generally my H23 is very buggy and keeps crashing regularly, hopefully Athoms will fix it quickly
Also struggling struggling with Aqara - I can add the devices in HP23, but am unable to add them into the Aqara app directly without a Hub. I should be able to do this using the Homey Pro as the Zigbee hub… but no dice.
It depends on which models you want to pair.
Here https://homey.app/a/com.xiaomi-mi/
you can find out if your specific models are supported. Otherwise you can request for support with the developer.
Support links are present at the bottom of the app store app pages.
