My first experience and oppinion with 2.0

Aside from starting the first two items in that list! i’m not sure I could’ve done it without you bvdbos!!

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Touchez. My apologies for my childish reponse.

But I’m curious. Do you really think that what Athom has provided, warrents a ‘v2’ from a pure functional perspective? Maybe I’m just too critical (I know I can be), but it’s just that this product has so much potential, but the company behind it just doesn’t seem to do it logical to me. They’re focussing on the wrong things from my view.

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From a pure functional perspective, I do think it warrents a v2. Simply being able to make the flows on the mobile app is enough to give it a version upgrade IMO, irrespective on the other parts of the app, and irrespective on whether or not you like it.

Next, I think Athom does focus on the correct things for Homey. Simply put, I think the main current problems on the forum boil down to a single issue: the people that have a Homey are tech-enthousiasts, while Homey is made for non-tech-enthousiasts.
If you look at all popular smart home devices (Google Home, Amazon Echo series, Apple Homekit, etc), they have 1 thing in common: they are incredibly limited in what they can do. The reason they are limited is because this simplifies the end-user experience. None of those devices are made to be completely customizable (heck, you can’t even send custom HTTP requests from any of them, which they all support), but they are made so that anyone can use them.

This is what Athom wants to achieve with Homey, but with the added benefit that tech-enthousiasts like you and me can get more out of it. I believe that if you have this in the back of your mind, all design choices make sense. The app needs to look and feel nice, a press of a button should do something, all devices should be listed, and flows should be able to be made anywhere, by anyone, on the devices that are most popular: mobile devices (keep in mind that none of the big smart devices have desktop apps due to this same reason: phones are everywhere and used by everyone, desktops aren’t anymore).

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Amen.

Thank you for your complete reply :slight_smile:

I can partially agree with you on the basics, but where you see it as an added value to be able to manage your Homey stuff via a Android or Apple phone (too bad for Windows phone owners), I see it as a limitation that it’s only possible via a phone, but that’s just my perspective. I can’t look into the head of non-tech enthusiasts and if the majority of that group would see this as a limitation and/or if they would dislike it or not.

My problem with Athom’s focus, is that it appears they are trying to add more and more and more features, rather than getting the basics to a ‘great level’ (For example being unable to change order of flows/devices/zones/rooms as a small/silly example) before adding new features. (Of course a balance is required, but from my perspective that balance is way off)

As for all the other assistants, I have no idea what they can do more or less than Homey in regards to controlling certain items in your house. They of course lack zigbee/zwave/433 antennas, but for the web controlled stuff I have no idea.

Both Google and Amazon have an APIs and webhooks you can poke into (no custom HTTP-requests, per say, but it can be quite powerful from what I understand from it. I’m not sure about Apple (though I suspect that Apple probably won’t allow it without actively interfering with it :slight_smile: )
I have no idea how forthcoming they are as the method that Athom has created for Homey, but it is there.

As for the design of the app, it looks ‘nice’, but it doesn’t feel very functional due to the limitation/decisions I wrote in my opening post. (why would I want to see the ‘wall button’, that functionally does nothing in the app (other than, if you press-hold it, show that it can’t be managed, it’s good that it’s there of course, but I can’t hide it from my overview for day-to-day usage)

That’s absolutely true, but all the big smart devices have a singular function (be it a washing machine, thermostat or a perfume dispensor), Homey is a Smart Devices hub on which you can ‘automate everything’. There’s a big difference in that.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing Homey can be managed by an Android phone or Apple phone, but limiting it to those two doesn’t feel very good. (being able to switch on/off the lights from the couch is quite handy even, but creating a whole series of flows is a very tedious job to do on a phone, at least in the way it is implemented now). This even counts for the Google Home/Amazon Echo type stuff. They have singular functions (talk to it, they do a single action), you don’t customize their functionality.

At any rate. We clearly disagree on this subject :slight_smile: which is good. Keeps everyone on their toes :slight_smile:

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Regardless of how I feel about the new v2.0 app or the new v2.0 core.

The under lying code has had a massive shake up, where the code from the app is now completely separate from the core (as a start). And the app just used the webAPI to interact. It has broken backwards compatibility, it looks and acts completely different user expectations created in v1 (icons like the broken links etc etc) have all been over hauled. And the UI is ‘new’ (cough apple/material). And of course there is the marketing reasons.

So to answer your question. Yes absolutely I feel like it deserves a 2.0 moniker.

I feel like arguments about it are largely pointless, and this will be my last post regarding it.


In regards to the desktop app pros/cons, if you would like to continue to discuss that I suggest you head on over to the thread made specifically for that topic. Here.


I don’t disagree with some of the limitations of the current app, (let me write notes for a flow, or search for them, etc) andthere is a thread here which explains what to do about it.


Athom has and will continue to struggle for ‘balance’ - for ever, and not really through ally fault of there own. Simply put - you can please everyone. The more changes to make for every day users (let remove that wall button that does nothing) the more upset the power users will get (Where is my crappy html desktop website).

But thats really just the tip of the ice berg, i’ve been watching the same people complain about the priorities of athom (apps, features, stability, compatibility) - stating X should be the highest priority, only to later state Y should be the highest priority. (in one case it was with in 24 hours).


I personally want Athom to do what ever they need to do sell more Homies. More Homey = More money = More resources = More Apps/Features/Stability.

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I just lost my patience. They announce this is the stable version. Joke. Every update some of the apps stop working e.g Fibaro, the update was done automatically 2 hours ago and none of my Fibaro sensors work any more. The same with other apps. Really waste of money for that controller. The support doesn’t care either. I can only see those lovely emails describing all functionalities of the new v.2.0 OS. Again waste of money. I just lost half of the functionalities when upgraded to the leastest release.

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I think the app is OK, I don’t miss the desktop that much. I have used V2 since RC1 came out. Still I agree that the app needs more work to be finished. History takes to much space. It would be better to have a front page that looks like a dashboard with possibility to show temps etc.

What I also miss is acces control where admin can change flows and settings, and other users only can control equipment. It’s not very safe to give kids access to the app like it is now.

Most of all I think Homey V2 is better than 1.5 and I believe it will be even better in the future.

You’re very optimistic. Since the upgrade I see more and more bugs with apps. Like I said half of the functionality is already gone.

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with no desktop app or web if the internet goes down i have no way of controlling homey - this is it’s biggest selling point over smartthings IMO

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Why would you need a desktop or web app to control Homey if the internet goes down? The mobile app can control Homey over the local network in that situation.

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really? i tried last night (when my internet went down) it wouldn’t connect

If that’s the case, it’s worth mentioning to Athom (https://support.athom.com/hc/en-us/requests/new), because they have claimed that it should work locally when your internet connection is offline.

That’s strange @Dijker took the effort to do some testing with one of the Alpha releases:

He used version 2.0.0-rc7 and for him everything kept working.

Hi, as this is my first Homey into my existing smarthouse i do think there is Room for improvment.

I see / read that the IR functions has some issues.
My expirience is that IR is not working property.

I got the latest 2.0 firmware.
I see that there is a lot of apps that not are working.
Specialy the network apps. (Ping or device check).

I am not soure what the problem is, but i am not able to connect my Homey om Bluetooth.

My last “bad” experience. My Homey does stop prosessing the flows… I have to reboot it to get it back on track.
(And i have’nt found any auto-reboot, local flows to reboot, etc)

Som for the goddies…
It was easy to adopt it into domotics thru webhook/api.

The logic in flows its easy for human logic and use cases.

The app that Are working is working like a charm…

I see that the new pro is annouced.
I would prefered to get a stable firmware instead of a new product.

Tnx, Eddie

Bluetooth May be used for presents of devices in the house…

Nfc need to be close and Wi-Fi is to fare away.

Loads of issues with Fibaro RGBW controller. Not usable any more. I’ve bee adding, re-adding no difference. Just bad at my self as I believed in slogan - stable version. Again using only the phone for the setup is pain in the back side. Who cares…

Really - I think you must mean the other way around. It’s seems to me built entirely for tech-enthusiasts. It’s certainly not suitable for mainstream / family users.

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Please take a look at the actual competition in the field before saying something like this.

Hardware/software that can do roughly the same as Homey are:
Domoticz: Here you have to install your own Raspberry Pi with their software, add Zwave, 433 MHz sticks, etc ports, install them all via command line interface on the RPi. Next to this (and correct me if I’m wrong here), Domoticz doesn’t automatically support something like Homey’s flows, but can only be observed/interacted with from a dashboard (which again, you have to build yourself).
Home Assistant: Here you again, have to flash your own RaspPi and add Zwave, 433 MHz and Zigbee if wanted. For configuring you have to write your own code (much like writing Homey’s apps), and settings need to be edited via command line interface.

Homey is absolutely the easiest amongst the home automation hubs you can have (which support multiple protocols and actual automation rather than a fancy remote). I agree with you that it’s not suitable for tech-impaired people, but it is much more accessible than other options out there.

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I have. In many respects Fibaro for example is far superior (reliability, built-in apps for heating, alarms, restricted user access, etc.). Sure the UI isn’t as pretty, but at least it works.

However, my observation has nothing to do with home automation competition - it’s relative to normal human beings at home that have some familiarity with consumer applications. Your reference to “tech-impaired people” made me belly laugh! - that is exactly the kind of attitude that allows such poor design to persist and keep products from being successful at scale.

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