Given that the Hubitat team has stated that they intend to only support local administration, what does an app give us that the dashboards and official integration with a presence service (Life360) and a push notification service (Pushover) don't? I'm still struggling to understand what functionality an app would give us that we don't already have. I don't mean this aggressively...I'm truly asking because I feel like I'm missing something.
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Well, the same benefits that you get with any other app vs website, like the eBay app, the Kijiji app, the whatever app. They are a lot faster (please don't use the ST app as a reference, lol), they do not rely on bowser's rendering which create inconsistencies, they look nicer, they are user friendlier (specially for the average Joe), they provide much tighter integration with the OS than a simple web page ever could, like notifications with inline actions, etc.
For example, due to my work I go to bed quite late and at different times every day, before having Google Home in my room it was pretty simple to use the ST app shorcuts to run the night routine (swipe up on the ST icon and hit Night without having to wait for an application to open or render anything). Now I just say "Ok Google, Good Night" and it makes sure all my lights are off, my doors closed, notify me of anything that requires my attention before closing my eyes, etc. But without Google Home, this would take a lot longer...
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I think people will see things differently and as such expect different responses.
For me currently you need:
- You need to have an Hubitat dashboard (Browser based).
- You need to have Pushover app and account - Another 3rd Party App
- You need an Internet Connection to pushover. Without an internet connection even if an event occurs you will not know that it occurred as notification was never sent unless you connect to hubitat and check if something happen when there was no Internet connection.
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Widgets (is there an equivalent on iOS? I'm an Android guy) would be cool...I can see that. Inline notification actions...also cool...but I don't think ST had those? Regardless, would be a neat feature with a lot of possibilities. The rendering too, I can see that. Also, the one and only thing I miss about the ST app is being able to easily see device history, which is cumbersome locally and not possible remotely, so there's that too.
I set up a Favorites dashboard, with a space in front of the F, so it's always the top left tile. With a Chrome desktop bookmark, it's 2 taps away...easy enough to get to that wifey and I ditched our bedside button controllers. Made sure to bookmark the Local version, so it's quick too. Quicker than a cloud-based app would be.
Ok, I'll even admit that I was hesitant to add multiple apps when I first got set up too, although in my case I went from 4 apps (ST, Tasker, Autolocation, Sharptools) to just Pushover and Life360, so it was a reduction for me. I also justified it by the increase in capability that these two apps gave. With Life360, wife and I can see each other's location so no more checking in to see how far away or what time we'll be somewhere (whether this is a good thing or bad thing depends on the user 
), and Pushover gives the ability to direct notifications to one or both of us and also set priorities to determine if it make a sound or not, and if it rings through DND mode. These are all things I wished ST would have done...wife doesn't need to get low battery notifications, and I can't tell you how mad I used to get when we were woken up by "Hub Offline" notifications. So those were wins in my book. But different people, different requirements.
As far as internet connection...I'm not a developer and don't know capabilities or intentions, but even when the HE app comes out I'd be surprised to see it support local push notifications. From a process standpoint, it doesn't make sense in my head...the hub would have to know if your phone is connected to the same network and route the notifications differently if so, which seems overly complex. Could very well be wrong, but notifications seem like something that would be cloud based, so no better than the current solution if internet was down.
Challenge for me on this front it's I don't use a Pc or Mac anymore, just mobile devices. Well @ home at least.
Also agree that this would be the wrong approach.
I see this working more a broadcast command to all registered devices (similar to what Google does).
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Basic dashboards are fairly easy to set up on mobile devices. For anything using images or stacking tiles or whatever a computer is definitely easier. Modifying the dashboards can be done remotely....I like to create the dashboards at home on my phone, then work on them at work using my 3-screen setup.
I'll keep trying. My only zigbee devices are lightbulbs and contact sensors. I think.
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This isn’t possible, at least for iOS. Push notifications require a “push” server which then communicates with a cloud based API to deliver the notification to the device. SMS messages obviously require a third party communications provider like Twilio to bridge the hub and phone again which is cloud based. Local TTS or light flashing, or something the hub can control is going to be the only solution.
Here is how to setup an iOS notification server as an example:
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I'm conscious that "real" Push Notifications need to be registered with Google Cloud Services or Apple Push Notification Services.
This is not the solution I would be considering. I was thinking more on this lines;
- The app periodically connects to a local server and asks if there are any pending notifications and throws a local notification if that is the case
- HE sends the notifications via a UDP or XMPP connection while your app listens on an open port (this would allow in theory, to either send direct notifications to the device ip or to all devices using a broadcast).
I was working a while back on a IT project for a defense project where this was implemented through wifi with no access to Internet.
Life360 is a pretty invasive app, since you cannot turn of tracking history and use it with HE. I use it because there is limited options at the moment, I do not need to know everywhere I went for the day nor does my wife.
There are other options that work with HE.
Nothing that integrated directly without the use of a third party service, hub, etc. My data is out there enough, I try to at least limit data collection if I can.
I find it quite interesting that people sometimes disregard why most early adopters are looking to move to HE... Local processing.
Local processing is not only have your devices loaded at hub level but also have as many little of things in the cloud and using as little as 3rd Party services as possible.
What I find ironic is "edge computing" is becoming popular which is basically just another form of local processing with additional functionality, so we are basically going full circle.
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Hubitat is definitely a form of edge computing and exactly what I want. I don't want cloud only, hence the reason I'm here. But I certainly don't want to be cut off from cloud options, because the fact of the matter is they are really useful and so many devices utilize it, if not depend entirely on it.
You can say, well that wrong, and I want to focus entirely on local. That's fine for you., go right ahead. I just don't want that decision imposed on me though.
I agree it should not only be local control, always good to have the option for cloud integration. But in my opinion, for core functionality like presence, device control and notifications there needs to be an app for both IOS and Android. The idea of automation is to make things easier and less hands on, if I have 10 different 3rd party services to manage, that is defeating the purpose.
I still think keeping the administration part of HE to the local web portal makes sense, no need to have this in the app.
Agree with you and @SmartHomePrimer.
The whole idea of HE, ST and other similar hubs is to centrally manage all your IOT devices from a central local or cloud standpoint bypassing the need to use the different Mft apps and ecosystems.
If we need to use multiple apps why use the hub at all we might as well just use the different Mfts apps and gateways.
So yes who wants a hub want to have a central controlling point that not only allows the different iot devices to communicate with each other but also that provides the ease of use by removing the need to use multiple apps.
I do agree with administration should stay at hub level and not on the app.
Presence is likely, but not easy to accomplish with a mobile phone. So the chances that the experience will be little different than other already available options is high.
Device control, I have to disagree on the importance. That's a step backward and doesn't relate to automation. It's what people are used to because nobody has been giving them true automation. They've been introduced to a bunch of boxes that turn your phone into a remote control for your lights. Almost nobody's home is smart, and very few are really automated.
Local notifications? Hmmm, I'm going to say that a text message is about the closest thing to that. Everything else is cloud, and there's for sure a cloud instance sending the text messages.
Not sure another app is going to rock my world with any of these things. Just my opinion though.
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We really just need simple presence detection for mobile, nothing fancy. I know I personally always have my phone on me when I leave the house, so it makes sense to use this as a presence sensor.
While the automation should "just work" in the background, I still think a simple clean app is needed for interacting with devices or viewing certain statistics. This is more so when not at home if you need to control devices. While the dashboards get the job done, they feel clunky and are not too intuitive to setup.
While texts messages work okay, its not robust enough and there is still a 10 text limit. I should be able to customize notifications. For example if my house is burning down or the burglar alarm is going off I want my phone to notify me as much as possible even if its not right next to me. But if its just the garage door opening or someone arriving at home, I need something less obtrusive.
Not for everybody but I use IFTTT for notifications. Works great
