NOOB Here, I was just wondering do you need a subscription to get notifications on your phone using basic rules? I set up a test to notify me when my side door opens but it doesn't seem to work. Also the mobile app is pretty much useless without a subscription.......is that accurate?
Welcome to the Hubitat forums!
The phone app works without any additional fees or subscriptions.
Not correct. They are two totally different things. The mobile app is how you control devices like turning on or off a bulb remotely or watching temperature/motion sensors. But what the phone app does not allow is administration of the hub like writing rules, adding new devices, and so on.
The remote access (one of the two subscription services) allows you to do everything remotely that you would do locally like writing rules, managing devices, seeing the Zwave tables, and so on.
The other subscription service is a cloud backup and extended warranty for the hub.
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OK, thank you for clarifying; I have a Google Pixel 5 and I have the following issues:
- I created a basic rule to send my phone a notification when my side door is opened, the side door has a SmartThings contact sensor, and I don't get any notifications
- I can't see any devices on the mobile app so I tried creating a room and I could see the room, but none of the devices in it
- My dashboard is just blank and I can't do anything with it
Please forgive my ignorance, I am a NOOB; however, I do have a fair amount of smart home devices and I'm usually pretty good with this stuff, but I need some help here lol.
- Ok, so the first thing you should do is see if the Smartthings sensor is working. Go to Devices tab (on a computer or web browser, not the phone app) and go to the device management page. Does the state of the device (presumably open and closed) match the actual physical state of the door?
Once we verify that, we can see if the notifications or phone app is not working as desired.
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The Devices tab of the mobile app only displays switches and bulbs. It is still under development, and was meant (at this point anyway) to give a quick way to start using the app without lots of work by users.
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You need to build a dashboard, it isn't done automatically. Some hubs just throw all devices into a dashboard without a user doing much or even having a choice. Hubitat has you add only the devices you want to on a dashboard. It is a bit more of a manual process, but gives you lots of flexibility of what is on a particular dash or set of dashboards. This video should get you started with putting that together. In fact lots of the videos on their YouTube page are very helpful.
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- Yes it does show on the web app, and does change state when I open and close it, also shows the temp and vibration
- Ok, well that makes more sense, but does that apply to a dashboard that doesn't have a switch or bulb, because I created a dashboard but still do not see it in the mobile app
- Thank you for that, I did create a dashboard but still do not see it in the mobile app, but I do see it online
OK, I figured it out, just had to clear cache/data, thanks for your help!
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So are you saying the mobile app can be configured to allow remote access to my hub from the internet without a subscription if I have the proper holes setup in my firewall (and a public DNS name)? I want to be able to use the app when I'm not on the local LAN, but do so without a subscription by connecting it to my hub directly over the internet instead of requiring "my . hubitat . com". Is this possible?
The proper holes, etc. would be to set up a VPN. Many routers have this capability built in, and in addition there are several good options that will run on a rPi or other always on device.
The phone app itself does not require any subscriptions, or VPN or anything of the kind to access dashboards remotely. Similarly, you can also create a direct link to any dashboard that will open in a browser window and access a particular dashboard remotely.
If you want to administer the hub (build rules, change settings, add a device, view logs, etc) remotely (I.E. not on your local network) then you need remote access or a VPN.
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