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Android app

Hi

One thing that me and my wife always say is annoying is the time it takes to start the app when we want to set our light in the main room, start, fade.... and then set %.

How about the homey app? Can we add switches / scenes to startup screen?

Niklas

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Comments

  • Well you know, you could just ask Homey to do it without even touching your phone... ;)

  • Yes but wife and tech stuff :-)

  • We currently have a HomeWizard and although it started with using the app frequently, now I only use it to make manual corrections. We have remotes and wireless switches on strategic location. The are programmed with scenes which include set dimmed values, colors, etc.

  • supericesuperice Member
    edited December 2015

    djesko said:
    Hi

    One thing that me and my wife always say is annoying is the time it takes to start the app when we want to set our light in the main room, start, fade.... and then set %.

    How about the homey app? Can we add switches / scenes to startup screen?

    Niklas

    Rick, the Android Developer here. I think this is a very good idea, I'm not sure when I'll get to it, but implementing widgets to use as buttons right from the startscreen is awesome! The first version of the app won't ship with it, but I'll certainly add it later on. I imagine it would be as simple as adding a litte colored square to your homescreen and adding it as trigger in the flow editor. If you have any suggestions for this or similar features, I'd like to hear your thoughts anytime.

  • The Philips hue app lets you select scenes to place in the widget view, same as you describe above, works great, easy to use, unlock phone (if needed) one slide, one click to turn of the lights. Would be great if homey flows can be started likewise! (Not justed on android, also on iOS ;)

  • superice said:
    (...) I'd like to hear your thoughts anytime.

    If you start on the widget buttons, please add the posibility for icons and text in every widget ;)

  • DieterKoblenz said:

    superice said:
    (...) I'd like to hear your thoughts anytime.

    If you start on the widget buttons, please add the posibility for icons and text in every widget ;)

    +1

  • honeyhoney Member
    edited December 2015

    Hi Rick.
    How about if we make our own widgets as well? All we need for that are accessible shortcut commands/activities of the Homey app. I was googling if there is a specific name of it but seems like these are just called shortcuts. I hope you know which one I mean? We could use UCCW
    , Buzz widget, or most launchers to add scenes, settings, flows to the home screen. Or could even use Automate
    with custom voice commands via google now.

    Will we have these accessible shortcuts/activities?

  • honey said:
    Hi Rick.
    How about if we make our own widgets as well? All we need for that are accessible shortcut commands/activities of the Homey app. I was googling if there is a specific name of it but seems like these are just called shortcuts. I hope you know which one I mean? We could use UCCW
    , Buzz widget, or most launchers to add scenes, settings, flows to the home screen. Or could even use Automate
    with custom voice commands via google now.

    Will we have these accessible shortcuts/activities?

    That might work, but I'm not sure what kind of API I would need to expose to these apps, so I'd have to read into that. For now I think these other apps don't provide a lot of functionality that isn't already in Homey, but again: I'll have to look into it.

    For the first version I would create a simple wizard that allows you to create a simple 1x1 square widget with an icon and a short piece of text (e.g. "Movie mode"). This 1x1 square would be visible in the Homey flow editor as a trigger, so when you tap it it would start a flow. This flow can be your 'scene': you could make a flow that dims the lights on tap and turns the TV on for example.

    I rather liked the idea of putting in an icon of your liking and a short piece of text. Currently we have your phone only as 'output' kind of device, meaning you can send push notifications to your phone from the flow editor, but I really love the idea of using your phone as 'input'-device, a trigger for flows :)

    I can't really think of a scenario you would have to use third party apps, because the flow editor already is so flexible. It may be much more interesting to make these apps connect directly to Homey, instead of relying on the app. However, if an app is really interesting we might just integrate it, but for now I think we're going to leave that to the community. We have to make some choices in development, and I'd rather create a very powerful core product that is easy to extend than try to get everything working all at once and screwing it up.

    I'm not sure when I'll get around to implementing these widgets, I'm working on other features right now (such as a badass pairing wizard for infrared device, which I'll show off in a video later today), but they're definitely on my task list. This is something I would want to use myself for sure!

  • I think this topic is about a widget (buttons on the startup screen). Of course the widget always has less functionality the app itself (if they are comparable) but has a giant benefit: super quick and easy to change the setting/status of something. These 3rd party apps are just widget makers which helps to make highly customised stylish widgets. It is not not necessary to use these as most launcher can make shortcut buttons as well (but they are not really flexible and stylish). Anyway in both scenario the accessible shortcuts are needed.

  • honeyhoney Member
    edited December 2015

    Regarding the Automate. Yes indeed it is similar to the flow editor but you can do things with this what you cant do in flow editor (chiefly because this is running on the phone in the background):


    • Add custom google now commands: OK Google. Turn off the light in the living room. The app can do similar thing but only if it is running and on the active screen. Google now can listen all the time.
    • It can read the cell information of the mobile towers. So if it senses that you are in the range of a mobile tower close to your home it changes the status on homey from away to at home. This solution does not drain the battery as much as the GPS geofencing.
    • You have an incoming/outgoing call and share this info with homey. And homey turn of the volume of TV.
    • Many other solution depending on the phone itself…



      All it needs: accessible shortcuts. Looking forward to the video.
  • Fair enough, we might consider to implement it one day, but as you probably understand it doesn't quite have our top priority :P

  • PeaoPeao Member
    edited December 2015

    There are many apps or even stock roms that allow you to put any widget on your lockscreen. I think for the beginning its enough to implement widgets. You can even put them on an Android wear Device (app is called beautiful widgets).

    Btw: is there any ETA for the app in play Store? Or maybe a scheduled launch?
    Edit: ive seen posts about releasing the app when homey ja shipping, but I hope you keep the google certification stuff in mind, that can take a while.

  • Peao said:
    There are many apps or even stock roms that allow you to put any widget on your lockscreen. I think for the beginning its enough to implement widgets. You can even put them on an Android wear Device (app is called beautiful widgets).

    Btw: is there any ETA for the app in play Store? Or maybe a scheduled launch?
    Edit: ive seen posts about releasing the app when homey ja shipping, but I hope you keep the google certification stuff in mind, that can take a while.

    You're confusing Apple with Google. Google doesn't do certifications, and as a matter of fact, it's already in the play store, just not publicly visible. Until you have your Homey, it won't be of much use though. As soon as the first Homeys ship we will make it publicly visible :)

  • Oh now I got it.
    Thanks for your quick response!

  • Hi all, I just noticed that the Homey Android app is now available in the Google Play Store ;)

  • Fire69Fire69 Member
    edited December 2015

    Do you have a direct link? It's not visible in the Play Store here... :-(

  • Nice. Number 2 to have downloaded it. What a privilege ;)

  • Only for a phone not for a tablet (yet i hope)

  • Found it. Logged in. No configured Homey yet. You don't say ;p hope that changes soon

  • AthomeyAthomey Member
    edited December 2015

    Not compatible with a Note 4 Samsung Phone? Can't install it. Hmmm.... Must be a temporary thing.

  • My app can received my Homey with open armsWi-Fi . :-)

  • Not compatible here either on a Galaxy S6 :-(

  • O, here it is the Galaxy S5.

  • Probably because of the screen resolution? My wife's S4 is not a problem either...

  • F*ck, not compatible with my Samsung Note either! I hope this is something they'll fix before delivery :-/

  • Fire69 said:
    Not compatible here either on a Galaxy S6 :-(

    That's odd, it should be compatible with any phone, perhaps the screen size of the S6 is just a bit to large to qualify as a phone.

    Anyhow, there isn't any technical reason except for design reasons tablets are disabled for now, so I'll promise you that tablet support is one of the first things to be added to the app. We just haven't tested that much yet on tablet format. I'll check if I can fix the S6 and Galaxy Note issues, those should be supported for now, those screensizes and densities do not differ that much from my Nexus 5X :P Before the kickstarterbatch / preorders ship this will be fixed, I promise :)

  • Can't download it for Galaxy S6 Edge. I think this is a littke bit larger of the normal Galaxy S6

  • superice said:

    Fire69 said:
    Not compatible here either on a Galaxy S6 :-(

    That's odd, it should be compatible with any phone, perhaps the screen size of the S6 is just a bit to large to qualify as a phone.

    Anyhow, there isn't any technical reason except for design reasons tablets are disabled for now, so I'll promise you that tablet support is one of the first things to be added to the app. We just haven't tested that much yet on tablet format. I'll check if I can fix the S6 and Galaxy Note issues, those should be supported for now, those screensizes and densities do not differ that much from my Nexus 5X :P Before the kickstarterbatch / preorders ship this will be fixed, I promise :)

    Thanks! :-)

    Concerning the Note, I was talking about the 10.1, a tablet. I didn't know tablets weren't supported yet.
    So if you can just fix the S6, that would be great!

    btwvince said:
    Can't download it for Galaxy S6 Edge. I think this is a littke bit larger of the normal Galaxy S6

    Edge here also. Screen size is 5.1 for both.

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