What I miss the most from ST (but love HE and intend to stay here)

[825d60685b34c4f304ab]

After a very successful and mostly painless migration from ST, I've taken some time to reflect on what I miss from ST classic on a day to day basis. While a lot of that newly migrated community focuses on dashboards, I realize I don't really use them all that much. I've tailored a couple to my use and while they could be nicer, more device-agnostic, etc, they're fine for me. It takes a little bit of work but you can set those up pretty easily and we have Sharptools as well as AT supposedly coming down the line. I also use "HomeRemote" (iOS) which I think is pretty good. And I don't use dashboards all that much.

What I do however miss is a list of devices I can get to quickly, select one, and have a few tiles that display the various states and the important commands in a way that's device-type specific (Switches provide an on/off button and when appropriate Wattage info, RGB lights provide on/off and Hue controls, ContactSensors show open/close status and maybe temp when appropriate, ...). I am guessing this was done in ST through JVM reflection (based on Groovy being a JVM language and seeing that device handlers list capabilities). It included for each device detail screen a default rendering for all the common actions and variables (temp, voltage, On/Off, RGB controls, etc). It also gave access to activity history. That UI was very polished and some ST device handlers customized it (Rboy did that well for example).

(The popup that comes up when you click on the trip dots for a device in a dashboard isn't a good substitute and often renders all wrong for me)

Someone on Facebook pointed to the Device section of the web app or mobile app but I see that as a setup/configuration/troubleshooting screen with way too much detail that I don't care about when I just want to look/control a device or devices. And when you click on a device on that list, it's again a setup kind of screen.

I want:

1. a simple list of devices, maybe grouped by room (I don't think the concept of Room exists in HE yet but that's a minor detail).

2. Once I click on a device, I just want to see the "user-facing" states and commands. Some would be grouped into a widget (On/Off as one command), other would-be ignored (Configure, Send Command). Refresh would exist as a refresh button/icon. And I'd be able to see the recent activity.

If you've used the Smartthings Mobile app, you'll know what I mean. otherwise, I can provide screenshots for example.

HE has been a relatively easy transition and I don't miss anything critical. I wish that Ring & Harmony were more open to allowing for a better integration but that's on them and how they treat the ecosystem, not on HE. What I described above though, would make a huge difference for me. Maybe it's something I can find time to code or partner on.

[eibyer]

Yep, I agree on the device list (and rooms). Something you don't use often but nice that it's there.

[danfox52]

If you're on Android (not sure about IOS) the Google Home app does this pretty well.

[tgrant48]

The Alexa app might have what you are looking. You can get a list of devices, turn on/off, dim etc and group by rooms and it intregrates well with HE. If you use Alexa.............

[bertabcd1234]

@825d60685b34c4f304ab

I am guessing this was done in ST through JVM reflection

It is/was actually done in the DTH on ST, specifically the tiles section if you've ever coded one or looked at an open/custom one. This controls how the device displayed in the mobile app UI, or at least it did in the Classic app. I'm honestly not sure how the "new" app handles this...

Anyway, Hubitat doesn't use tiles in its drivers, so that's off the table. But it seems like what you want is already possible: you can create multiple Dashboard tiles that all point to the same device. Just choose different templates to represent the different things you want. For example, you're not stuck with just the "Switch" template for a switch. In your case, the "Power Meter" template might add the extra info you want. Similar, you can use the "Temperature" template for a contact or motion sensor. Some people won't want all tiles the same height, and in that case you can use a trick: make your Dashboard twice as tall as you want, then make "normal" tiles height 2 and "small" tiles height 1. Voilà: small tiles! Alternatively, community apps like SuperTile can help combine information in a custom format into a literal single tile if you prefer. (Yes, it might be nice to have more information available in that way by default. SharpTools can actually do some of this natively, e.g., temperature from sensors as a sort of secondary attribute.)

A custom command would be more difficult to run, but "Refresh" shouldn't something you need manually run on most devices (yes, it was in the ST tiles on most devices). It's still possible to do things like this, but it's a bit more work (virtual button, using the button on the tile, and triggering some automation based on the button's events is one way). If you have a specific reason in mind for wanting this, someone may be able to suggest something more tailored for this purpose.

Similarly, despite the lack of rooms or device organization, you can create multiple Dashboards and then "link" from one to the other with a tile (or not and just open the one you want for that occasion).

Personally, as it seems like you're also leaning towards, I rarely used Dashboards now, despite having a neat ActionTiles setup on SmartThings (where I also more or less came from, with a detour to Home Assistant in between). Everything I care about is automated in some way, whether from sensors or manually "overridden" by me using a real button/scene device (or less commonly, again because I don't find this as good, voice command) of some sort.

Just a few ideas that might help fill the gap!

[EdMcW]

If you an iOS user and are willing to run Homebridge, integrating with that is a very easy way to get a view of all your devices sorted by room.

[Bloodtick_Jones]

Just build your own application with SharpTools. This is my living room on a iOS device using the 'add to homescreen' icon function of Safari. Have one similar for the other rooms. Also, have different layouts for Fire HD 8s in other rooms.

Pre-Hubitat, did something similar with SmartThings+ActionTiles. And really never used the native ST app again. Now with Hubitat+SharpTools you can even bridge platforms - SharpTools supports both platforms seamlessly.