I have been working as a volunteer all my life, and never expected any payment, why should this be any different… if people try to give me money during my volunteer work, i just point them to the organisation i work for at that moment.
if you do not want to do it freely, then, do not do it, it is that simple…
so in short, some “apple” lovers whining… thats all, happy to have moved on…
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Athom is a commercial enterprise, its founders just sold shares worth tens of millions of euros. And a not insignificant part of the worth of the company is based on the work of dozens of community developers who have created the apps required for Athom to be able to state that Homey “supports more than 50,000 devices”. This not a charity.
Not really.
Too bad I can’t stop my apps from being used by specific users 
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Good for you,
But your last sentence says enough.
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Add licensing?
Homey is a product which has a certain open character and most apps are created by people who bought a Homey, missed a function and start programming and shared the app with the community. And almost anybody was a programmer who used the homey platform.
Now the Homey platform is stepped up to the mass and the mass is no programmer and often ignorant, because the do not really understand what open source is. They just expect a product and apps to work and if it does not work they demand a solution.
If I need an app change, I ask friendly and if it is implemented I send a big donation. The mass is not friendly, they are demanding and sometimes agressive, brutal and clumsy in communications.
But one thing the free and independent developers can do is ignore a user and decide themself when and if they solve an app issue. IF you let you pay for apps than the free will disappears! You get paid, which gives you responsibilities to support all users and solve all issues. Make a road map for your app and investigate and plan feature requests. The time a popular app will ask from you will become more and more and it will fastly feel like working, including the stress and pressure. Maybe that is what you want, but only a few developers will earn enough money to make a living of it. Most will not earn enough but are still pressurized to work on the app.
And tell the local government about your income and do Tax reports, not to difficult, but extra labour for you.
What if there would be a separate association without making profit profile (in dutch vereniging of zonder winstoogmerk (of stichting)) and in the homey app shop independed home developers can mark their product to be bought for x euros. Then a developer can choose to sell the app for a small fee, or even more difficult sell a subscription. And every developer need to pay a commission or subscription to the association.
On that association are at least 3 board members, a website need to be created and a complete international shop with good financial registrations must be made and maintained, for years and years to come. Sounds a bit like AirBnB, maybe there already exist services like this which can be used.
Don’t forget that you work with money to international customers and must comply to all Tax and other legal requirements on this world. It can be a financial headache and a lot of work to stay compliant.
That’s why I always say that a donation is for work that’s already been done, not for work that should be done.
This would depend on Athom setting up a way of asking for payments in their app store, and they will never do that because it’s not in their interest to have users pay for apps.
I am not sure, but it will need some rules. For example that and app need to be installed at least x times and have more that x thanks (or reviews) before a developer is allowed to register the app for payment or subscription. If Athom made (or has) an API for these questions, then it could work. And yes, without working together and have Athoms coöperation it will be difficult.
I would say that commercial apps are never sold, these are already supported by the parties behind it.
This makes sure that small and less used apps are stay free to use, to protect the users and small developers against themself. But for apps like Heimdall it is no problem to ask a fee.
Then you have to figure out what to do if the fee is for an account or for a device. Or have higher prices for business users who use one account with many devices whom sell there services to their customers.
Like google app store or apple app store concepts
Like I said though: it’s not in Athom’s interest at all to allow for paid apps in their ecosystem.
Homey is being sold as a premium device, at a premium price, with the promise that it supports many thousands of devices and many tools for home automation, and users have no idea that a lot of these devices and tools are implemented by community-developed apps (also because this isn’t mentioned at all in Athom’s marketing material). This doesn’t fit a model where users would then have to pay extra money to actually get that support.
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I have the same issue with my phone 
That comparison has been made before, but Athom isn’t Apple or Google. And a home automation platform isn’t a phone.
Thats right, but why should they be the same? Its about comparison, thought directions and brain farting
Partly a technical solution already exist: https://homeycommunity.space/
Add a store in it, create the association where all developers are members of the association, make the rules together and start small.
And maybe dont pay for the app, but buy additional app support subsciption?
I think that Athom turns a blind eye to the existence of the community app store as long as it doesn’t threaten their business. When it starts offering paid apps, or subscriptions, my guess is that Athom will start blocking it.
I, for one, am not interested in putting any effort in an enterprise that doesn’t have Athom’s explicit consent, and the kind of third-party store that you’re talking about will certainly threaten their bottom line. There’s a reason why this guideline exists.
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Why not?
Speaking personally; I think it’s an interesting concept. But it will require a lot of work behind te scenes
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I explain why in the paragraph following that line
Start by removing the guideline that I mentioned, that should be easy.
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It probably sounds strange to many of you, with high knowledge in this field, but for the majority, Homey is not self-explanatory. I definitely belong to that group who just read the ad and really had no idea what I was buying. I just wanted a better functioning system with far more options than what I already had. And was willing to put money into a new gadget, precisely because I was tired of what I had not working so well. And I would like to believe that the vast majority of people who buy e.g. a Homey Pro belongs to precisely that group. We think we are buying a fully tested system, which is easy to set up.
The first evening was an aha experience where I first thought that this was too advanced for me, before I slowly cracked the code and also eventually understood how dependent the system is on volunteers who create associated apps. And I’m in the category that finds it exciting to make such gadgets work as intended and is known for not giving up until I figure it out, - and now I’m already a bit hooked on this Homey. It’s probably a bit unusual for a lady of my age, who passed 60 this year… Anyway, I’d like to think that there are many relatively unused Homey Pro in the thousands of homes, where the owner either hasn’t had the time or ability to find out how it all works, while at the same time expecting that it just works, for all this, the advertisement said absolutely nothing about. Many of these users probably don’t find their way into this forum either and if they do this forum is not the easiest to navigate for a newbie.
This developed into a long post a bit off topic, but the point is that Homey’s users have very different starting points and that it would be very nice to have a easily accessible, short an easy user manual that explained things to ordinary ignorant newbies, including what is expected in terms of donating for the app, to those who make them. Explain that this is time-consuming voluntary free work. That one should click like to vote apps you use forward. Explain the difference between official apps and community apps. And what is a decent amount to donate? One amount regardless of how popular the app is? I have no idea, so I hope someone can say something about it. 
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I still wondering about some guidelines, about what’s a decent amounts to donate? Someone with experience should be able to say something about this, I guess?
Whatever you’re willing to give the developer 
There’s no right amount or wrong amount, sometimes I get €3, sometimes I get €25.
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Hundreds of € would be nice, but so would 1€
Normally people say buy a coffee so that’s a good guide.
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