Why I'm Ditching Samsung SmartThings (And Redoing My Smart Home)
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- Опубликовано: 10 июн 2024
- That's it. I'm done. Samsung SmartThings just isn't good enough anymore. I don't think I can use this smart home and home automation system in my home anymore. I'll be explaining why, and how I'll be evaluating a number of other smart home systems in 2024.
Timecodes for today's video:
00:00 - Samsung SmartThings is Dead To Me
1:09 - How SmartThings Failed Me This Year
3:39 - Broken Promises
6:50 - The Community Problem
8:46 - Why You Won't Get New Custom Features in SmartThings
11:00 - It's Samsung Only Now
12:40 - What This Means for Us
14:57 - What Smart Home System I Will Use Now
Hubs I'm considering:
Homey Pro - geni.us/HomeyProAYL (Amazon affiliate link)
Home Assistant Green - www.seeedstudio.com/Home-Assi...
Hubitat Elevation C8 - geni.us/HubitatC8AYL (Amazon affiliate link)
Aqara M2 Hub - geni.us/AqaraM2HubAYL (Amazon affiliate link)
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Thanks for watching, and Don't Hate, Automate.
Brian 
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HOMEY PRO, BABY!!! I absolutely love this hub and we're integrating it more and more into our channel as well. They are the first hub that seems to actually care about the user experience, which is so refreshing. If they can convince people to spend $400 on a hub, the world is their oyster (whatever that means). Home assistant shall remain king for tinkerers and total connectivity. Everyone else is just falling behind.
ahahahah Homey PROOOOOOOOOO
Are you in the EU? or USA?
To be honest every platform has disappearing smart home products, at least one a month I have to fix one of my 50+ automations for no known reason... smart homes are still for geeks only as the average person could not possibly manage one!
And you're always right I hear!
Wow Brian is on a terror. I’m here for it, for years Samsung was able to do whatever they wanted because of their name. Take the edge driver migration, this was a 3 + years process. Promises made were never kept. Way to go Brian 💥💥💥
Thanks Eddie! 3+ year migration and those promises you mentioned are disastrous.
Looking forward to seeing a deep dive into Homey Pro and head to head comparison with Hubitat. Currently running Smartthings, Hubitat with Alexa voice control. My new Homey Pro arrives today! Definitely want to maintain local control. Keep up the good work Brian!
Wow! You're doing lots!
Home assistant is all you need. I finally got mine setup for years I’ve been avoiding it but I’m so impressed
I'm so happy to hear that! I can't wait to truly test it out and go a bit deeper. :)
Man, I've been thinking about some of these issues recently, and this video is very timely and really hits home with me. I'm also taking some time to weigh my options right now. I would really like to see this smart home rebuilding series idea you floated.
I'm glad it's timed well for you. I hope I can help too!
Interesting video and I’m glad to hear it’s not just me having problems with it! I’ve spent years building up my setup, making sure every device I bought would work with ST, then last year they just completely flattened the whole setup. I’ve only just now got the motivation to essentially start again and re-add the vast majority of my devices - some of which aren’t even supported anymore!
The issues with the Hue integration are driving me mad as well. They won’t update status at all meaning that half my automations don’t work properly. Also don’t even get me started on trying to use action tiles without virtual switches!!!
I think I might make the switch to home assistant…
It's not just you. I experienced a lot of what you said
Amen to everything you’ve said. I’ve spent endless hours developing a ST home and the unreliability and unmet promises has me looking to switch soon.
Sad, sorry Kevin.
FINALLY Brian! It took awhile but you finally saw the light. You concentrated so much on Smartthings you were blinded to their direction and more notably the direction of other smart home platforms. I personally love Habitat. I find their community one of the best. They have so many programmers join the community AND lend a helping hand to ANYONE. I don't tunnel my views and keep an open mind and I'm glad you too have done the same. I feel this will make your channel much more appealing to everyone no matter what platform we use. All the best in the New Year.
Yep! Sometimes it takes me a while. I really like to give people/platforms a chance to come around to the potential they have. It's probably an Achilles' Heel, honestly. :)
That's ok, we'll go forward and I'm glad you're interested!
Well this is a surprise, Brian!
I have indeed noticed some mysteriously disappearing automations in recent months (I thought it might have been due to all sorts of Matter-related software updates) and I do mostly use Smartthings for some (mostly WiFi) devices while using Hubitat for others (mostly Zigbee devices). (I have no Z-wave devices.)
I've been busy with two major home renovations this year (NOT relating to my smart home) but will be going back in the new year to managing my automations (including those in my new kitchen and backyard deck).
I generally like my Samsumg galaxy phone and have a few other Samsung products in the house, so I'm not planning to ditch Smartthings just yet.
My household is also what seems to be in the small minority that makes no use at all of smart speakers ("No spies in the house!", my wife insists...).
All of our automations and interfaces are done using a screen (on phones, tablets, computers) with room-by-room controls.
Most of my automations, etc. use SharpTools (and their Rules Engine that mostly works well for me). They currently integrate Smartthings, Hubitat and Home Assistant, I believe, so if - in the end - I do need to move my old WiFi and new Matter-over-thread devices to an alternative platform, it's likely to be HA.
But do keep us informed about Homey Pro (and any potential alternatives by way of more or less "one stop" interfaces that can help span multiple hubs while we wait and see if the promises of Matter ever get realized). I'm especially keen to see if I'll be able to incorporate all my new Govee products (and also my new TP-Link Kasa/Tapo Matter devices) into a single interface.
Very interesting David! You have this interesting mixed bag of stuff, but it sounds like you're bringing it together pretty well. Advanced stuff and I'm glad to hear you're going to be automating much more this year!
No spies in the house...ya I have heard that! You should tell her about those phones. On second thought...maybe don't! 😂
I agree completely with your assessment of Samsung. Apparently I'm not as patient as you because I dropped SmartThings a couple of years ago because of devices suddenly disappearing, automations just stopping working and other issues that you mentioned. The final straw for me was when I contacted "Support". No response at all for a month and then what I got was clearly boiler plate with only a peripheral relationship to the problem I was having. After three back and forths with "Support" (which took four months!) I just said to Hell with it and got rid of SmartThings. It simply was not worth the hassle. Unfortunately one of the things I got to go with Samsung automations was a TV. I've about decided to junk it too because it has "quirks" that sometimes, not always, cause Routines to just not work and then mysteriously start working again.
Really looking forward to seeing what course you take in re-automating your home.
Thanks! And this is not the first time I heard that SmartThings support was like this. Sorry for your experience!
I'm moving into a 20 year old home soon and plan on doing a complete smarthome from the ground up. I've done SmartThings in my new home for the last 5 years and am so done with ST. I like a possible hybrid approach (smart hub (HA or Homey) and Google). If you didn't have any legacy constraints and were also moving into a 20 year old home (may not have neutral wires), what would you recommend for the smart hub (HA? or Homey?), still use Google for front-end/dashboard? and what about light switches (Lutron?), thermostat, cameras, etc? Appreciate y'alls input.
20 years old may not have neutral wires? Dude. That's embarrassing that you think this.
Great stuff Brian. I had the exact problems you were describing with smart things. Most notably the broken promises (and the impact this was having on the community!). A lot was promised from the switch to edge drivers but it just created more problems and delays- eventually I took the plunge with home assistant and am incredibly happy with my smart home now.
Sad story there. Should have been simple.
For me it's always been about the broken promises and missed dates. I just wish they would come even close to delivering what they have promised. Great content as always, I'm really looking forward to watching your journey!
Right? Just come close to the Sept 2022 date you said.
When will you be making your follow up video? I'm very interested in making my own monitored smart security system.
Which specific follow-up video? I've made one about Homey and we're starting coverage on a few other systems. :) What are you wondering specifically?
I don't blame you Brian! As a long term android user, but currently not a Samsung phone user (but I was previously), I was disappointed that Samsung Smart tags were not available and that some of their newer Samsung devices required users to have a Galaxy phone to unlock all their features. I'm still on my V2 hub and I was hopeful that a new version (v4?) might someday fix my Phillips problems, resetting dropped Z-Wave devices problem and double Smarthings/Google device issues.
As you are to us, many of your followers are the "techy friends" that others look for our advice on smart homes or other techy things etc.
As per our previous conversations, I've never been an iPhone/Mac fan boy, because of their "locked in" Eco system strategy. I'm seeing Samsung going down that same hole. I'll be looking carefully on buying future Samsung devices in general.
I'll be following your progress, with an eye to moving myself to a new platform in the future. Thanks for your bravery in posting this video!
Thanks so much! It did take a bit of bravery to do this...a little scary honestly!
Absolutely interested in a series on rebuilding your smart home. As someone who has been heavily invested in the Google Ecosystem since it's inception, I would love to see what Google products you still have that you are able to incorporate into these other platforms, especially Homey.
That's one of the big questions I have. Alexa's been great so far!
I did it. I dumped Google last yr! I had enough of the Nest integration failures. The lethal combo of Google Home and Google Assistant made it a deep hole of confusion at times. I was experiences camera failures on all my Nest Hub Max units in both homes. Last time I checked it’s been over 2 yrs since Google announced they were aware of the issue but no solutions are refunds and their costly subscriptions!
That was the last straw. I waited for sales in Alexa products, and I will NEVER GO BACK! I think I have had 1 wtf moment and it was quickly resolved. Multiple screens, speakers etc. All my lights, outlets, and bulbs operate with zero issues.
I do want to completely get of the cloud however. This will be something that may very well require an entire overhaul again! But I will never go back to Google. They had it all, and threw it all away. I recently discovered Alexa app for IOS was updated and it was a pleasant surprise.
I'd like to see some videos on the Homey Pro. Having a hub where all my smart home actions would be performed locally is kind of a grail for me. Speed, reliability, access during outages -- it would be worth the $400 if it can be set up reliably and with a minimum of fuss.
That's my feeling about it too. If it can ACTUALLY do it...it'd be worth it.
Agreed. Homey Pro looks pretty awesome, but I think any home automation needs to strike that perfect balance between techies and every day users who don't want to delve into the why's and how's and just want things to work. I tend to categorize people into 2 groups, Apl users and Andr. users. Bringing both together seamlessly in a hub would be the grail to me...I suspect AI voice integration / coding devices within a hub is the likely end result that might accomplish it.
Interesting topic. I am intriqued about Homey. But when I went to look at it I couldn’t tell if it supported the two technologies that I use most in my smart home: Insteon and Wyze. Do you have any ideas? Thanks for the great videos
I don't believe it does, and I'm not sure it will. Wyze has been pretty closed. Insteon is pretty old...
Also hope you show what st devices will migrate to your new system…will be watching to see that.
I'm interested to see where you land. I'm still doing ok with SmartThings, but can see what you're talking about. My biggest fear/peeve is that I started on Wink, and I don't want to have to keep hopping from platform to platform, which kind of hurts Smart Homes in general. If you can't stay on one platform and have to redo your home periodically because of it, what good is a smart home?
It's no good. You're 100% right.
Hey Brian, great video. I left smartthings back in January because of a lot of the same issues you mentioned. The mishandling of the Edge driver program was a huge turn off for me. Also taking away the IDE, and the lack of functionality of the Windows app/ browser. Even going back to the classic app vs the "new" app, the classic app was better in my opinion. You had the best Smartthings tutorials and news. Speaking of news, it makes sense to hear you say it was lacking. There seemed to be no voice from Samsung ever giving any news on new features or anything. I made the switch to Home Assistant and it's been great. Way more options to tinker and ways to troubleshoot if an automation isn't working. I wouldn't be concerned about the time commitment. The GUI of Home Assistant has gotten really good and you'll be able to do everything that smartthings can do within the HA GUI. Also a great thing about HA is that if your smart home gets too big for your HA Green you can easily move your configure to more capable hardware. Best of luck to you and your channel. I think your upcoming content will have more viewers because it won't be smartthings focused 😀
Thanks so much for the message. It helps to hear people say that the content felt a little off. You don't always know these things from this side of the desk, ya know?
@@AutomateYourLife Hey it wasn't off from your end. It just seemed like there was no news to report but there should have been (if Samsung cared about growing the platform in the same ways it was started). But seems like they really don't so the whole product, even though it has the same name, is really not what it was created as (a hub to pull in all of your devices from different manufacturers). Things change 😉. Smartthings was great (for me) from like 2015-2020, then it wasn't and naturally there were other products there to take Smartthings' spot. For me, I thought I was going to switch to Hubitat, but in the end ended up dipping my toe in the Home Assistant water (with a very small Raspberry Pi investment) and was able to figure it out. If I didn't like Home Assistant I would have gone to Hubitat but the way you can ease into Home Assistant is nice. For about a year I still used my Smartthings hub as an input to Home Assistant, which kept me from having to buy Zwave and Zigbee dongles. There was really no commitment to Home Assistant while in this phase because all my devices (wifi/Zwave/Zigbee) were still attached to Smartthings while being able to be controlled through Home Assistant. I think that is a major plus for people thinking about moving from Smartthings to something else.
Really excited for this as I’m hoping to start my smart home this year and currently thinking of homey pro
Awesome! We'll discover stuff together
First time I’ve seen you and you channel and I’m impressed by your honesty. I have some smart plugs and echo devices so that I can light my way in the morning and make sure everything automated is off when I’m ready to sleep but that works out to about 6 strategic lights and my TV. What i don’t like about smart homes and actually believe is really dumb - is the use of them to create routines where certain lights come on and off at certain hours or your system wakes you with the news or something at the same time every day. It all feels very “Stepford” to me and like I’m now allowing the “smart” tech to control when and what - possibly even how I do things. I don’t live my life “exactly” the same way every day and I’m not giving up manual control of my decision making process to automation just because I can or it’s “cool” that tech can automate lights on or off, up or down, music or news etc. when my “routine” shuts off all the lights and music in my home at 9 because that’s my programmed routine and I have a house full of party guests and can’t find where I left my phone to fix that - its a problem. One I created when I dumbly decided to automate my life and let tech tell me what to do and when to do it. I’m not saying it’s all bad - but it’s a very long way from being all good. 🤷♂️
Thanks so much Michael! Personally, I love a good scheduled Stepford type of automation, but you really have to think those through!
You have been my Jedi master on this journey. I started with Amazon, you taught me to to branch out and truly showed me that smart homes are more than just cool features, it can actually save you time. I went headfirst into SmartThings. Over the last year, too many incompatible devices, issues with drivers, and all the broken promises you mentioned, I made the move to Home Assistant. I even emailed you about it and you responded to me in one of your viewer question emails!! I felt like I was cheating on you leaving SmartThings. lol. But your last two videos have shown me that you are feeling the same frustrations I am with Samsung and the smarthome industry as a whole. I love your honesty and the way you talk to us. It’s like we share your channel with you. You’re always keeping us in mind, and we appreciate it. I have a feeling I’m gonna be tempted to move to Homey after a few of your videos, but after two hub switches in one year, and lots of money, I should wait a while before I start fresh with a new system. You’re the best
Thank you so much Jay!
I'm glad you tried it! I hope it's working out well and just gets better for you. Maybe next time I'll email you for some help 😃
Love the direction you are taking! Can't wait to see more on Homey Pro. Reminds me of something called Stringify several years ago. It was awesome.
Stringify was amaaaaaaaaazing!
@@AutomateYourLife you'll love node red on HA then. It's almost identical to how the homey pro clips you showed work.
Switched to Home Assistant and haven’t looked back. Very stable and they are always adding new features.
Glad you're happy!
You and the Channel took me from zero to Automated Hero and while I have managed to develop workarounds for the current state - I am with you on your Journey to Homey Pro. I will hold off a bit before converting but am looking forward to the videos you share.
We'll go to superhero together Heinrich!
Sigh, this is so frustrating. I mean, I get it, I really do. You have to do what's best for you, and Smartthings has been a real mess this year. My smart home is Smartthings and Alexa, the two that all my favorite smart home channels are bailing on. Smart Home Solver talks about very little besides Home Assistant these days, and just posted that he's dumping Alexa too. I'm probably not going to bother with his channel anymore, but that's been coming for some time. He hasn't been relevant to me for a while. Craig's Tech Talk, I usually ignore... and so on. Anyway, I'm glad to hear you're not abandoning us entirely. I'm frustrated too, and Samsung needs to hear this!
I'm sorry Brad! I get it. We will do what we can, and maybe Samsung comes back and lays out all their plans and they're amazing. I'm definitely not saying for you to tear down your smart home. :)
Hey Brian, thanks so much for this video. I have been using SmartThings since 2017. Mostly with good results, but I have had some issues. I was debating on waiting for the new Aeotec with Thread/Matter but now..... not sure what I want to do. I was also considering Home Assistant since I have seen so many RUclipsrs talking about it, but I also watched your unboxing video on the Home Assistant green, and not sure if I really want to spend so much time learning it. I liked what you said about Homey, but I just don't think I can fork out $550 for a hub. As a teacher, my funds for smart home tech is limited. I really miss the early days of smart home tech because it was so exciting and looked so promising. Then with the Matter alliance, it was like "yea, these companies are going to help us make this easier" but now, its soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo frustrating. My whole family wants me to dump it all. Which I'm not ready to do.......yet. I'll be interested in your upcoming videos on the hubs. Thanks for being so informative and so transparent about your journey.
We gotta find easier stuff too Buddy. I think that's the key for all of us going forward. It'll be fun to showcase Homey Pro, but I'm not going to ignore the need for simple, effective, inexpensive automation. :)
This is exactly what i'm planning to do, as I'm not as happy with my smartthings, as I was a year ago. I just moved a couple of months ago and did a total reboot and even though I now know a lot more than 2 years ago when i started my smarthome adventure, it's now much Haarder to make it work right and be consistent and easy to pair new (or even old trust devices) and linking hubs (Hue for exampel) to use cross platforms, but I have to use a hue outdoor sensor inside, to tigger my Philips Hue, as I can't get my Hue or ST plugs in Hue to work from smartthings as I used to 🤔
So im thinking of buying myself a Homey pro and a couple of Homey bridges to use as satelites, so everything is going to be optimal from the start, but I can't wait to see what your experience os going to be and how you do it, as you seem to be very in depth with the stuff, but still keeping it very simple to both understand, but also not just buy everything from the top shelf, but mingle to make stuff work how we all would like it to do.
I do have a Samsung Galaxy phone headbuds and tv, so I think i might stil be using my ST hub for automations or maybe even buy the new ST station for triggering scenes when charging my phone etc., if Homey can't do those things by itself, with ordinary wireless chargers and a smart plug perhaps :)
Keep up the good work Brian!
Best Regards here from Denmark.
You gave me something to look into here. Can I use Homey Bridges as satelites for the network? Very interesting!
Anyways, thank you and I'm looking forward to our next steps together. :)
I don't blame you for leaving Smartthings. After being a loyal user for years, I had to do the same earlier this year after virtually all of my devices disappeared from the App. And the solution from Samsung Support was to reconnect/re-add them all. So I bit the bullet and reconnected them all to Home Assistant. Don't worry, your loyal subscribers and members will not abandon you. Keep up the great work and I'd be especially interested in your HA content!! Merry Christmas to you and your family!!
Brutal. Just BRUTAL.
I am physically disabled and I need technology to enable me to be independent. I am aware that vital devices should not be connected for obvious security. But when it comes to lights, fans, curtains, and other aspects of daily life, I'm extremely disappointed with Samsung and their development team. I'm proud to see your message coming up, Brian. I'm behind you and I'm confident that the best structure will be presented to us soon, hoping that Samsung will still be part of it.
Thanks Alain. We'll get to a great place together.
I'd love to see remake of your smart home. You'll get a lot of good advices on how to do certain automatization better or be more efficient. Your community will support you on this journey :)
Oh man, that advice is going to be invaluable. I have to find a way to bring that advice in.
Very well done and thought out video with full disclosure of experience. I have been affected by this. I appreciate this.
*and Post!
Thanks for sharing!
I can't use the humidity sensor on my aircon to trigger an automation. The Samsung aircon measures humidity, and displays it on my SmartThings hone screen but that's as far as it goes. I've tried contacting them, but the feedback is tedeous and a generic process which doesn't allow you te get in contact with a human to analyse what you're experiencing and add it to the Dev team's backlog. I'm also looking at moving away from the SmartThings WiFi as the WiFi performance is dated and need to redo my entire setup. Been quite an issue trying to figure out what combination of hub/s and WiFi aps are the best options to go for.
You touched on a big thing there...WiFi and hub combos
If I have a V2 hub, and add a Smartthings station for matter over thread, will automations between those 2 still be cloud to cloud?
Today, yes. I don't think this is a long term issue though.
The fact that this is even an issue is absurd especially between their own devices. Thank you for the prompt reply.@@AutomateYourLife
Looking forward to see what platform. You end up going with. Just a novice and always used Smartthings so afraid of having to learn a new platform. Keep up the great work!
Hey if you're still happy, that's great! I just want folks to be happy!
I would definitely like to see videos on setting up a smart home with Homey Pro. I'm in!
I'm extremely interested in your journey with Homey and will be following your channel closely! My "hub" is only Amazon at this point, and I'm finding the phone software it to be very limiting in capability and the interface is very cumbersome after you get dozens and dozens of devices. I've looked into Home Assistant and even have it loaded on an old iMac but I just haven't wanted to dive down the rabbit hole and start the learning curve. I'd also like to see you cover some of the basics of the home router network system since all this automation sits on top of one's home network infrastructure. I have AT&T fiber with great speed and reliability, but my home network is an old Apple Airport Extreme with three more Extremes acting as extenders. I know it's time to upgrade but since it's working and 100% stable I'm reluctant to make changes.
Don't make changes for the sake of it! A good working system is worth more than the rest.
I'm confused because I use Hue with smartthings and can use it with the hue app separately mine works great is it because I have a galaxy?
Maybe you're just extra lucky! Honestly, with just those two things, it's generally OK. It's when you get more complex.
Brian, thanks so much for the honest video. I have many of the same problems you describe. Especially the frequent self-disabling of routines drives me crazy. I don't know how often I have changed batteries of Zigbee devices that stopped working, only to find out that the real problem was a disabled routine. There is simply no excuse for that! Devices "falling off" the network for no comprehensible reason is another thing I constantly fight. These are local Zigbee devices, and they just go offline anyway. I would like to switch over to Home Assistant, but I am afraid this takes too much time to set up. I sure am a nerd that wouldn't have problems with it, but I also have a full-time job and a family (both of which the typical HA freak apparently doesn't have, so he can invest all of his time on HA...).
We will find a great way to do these things...that hopefully doesn't take a year to do. Family first!
Im all for learning about restarting. I started with google, expanded to smartthings, and got invested in their webcore system. But since then samsung bailed on hardware which seemed to trigger other failures and as you put it broken promises.
Aqara has been the system i have been considering but i have been unwilling to commit to making a change at this point.
I look forward to you helping me figure out what could be my new automation system, and which voice assistant works best with the new ecosystem.
Thanks so much! I'm looking forward to this too!
I hear you. Few things have been broken (Presence on android, automations, etc), but before I give up, I am going to give them a chance to finish the full transition and execute at least majority of their vision. I can understand and appreciate that projects like this can be difficult and for sure it seemed half arsed, but their overhaul project was not simple and I prefer them taking us along rather than burning it all down and starting from scratch which they could have. My perception is that all of the platforms are still too tinkerey and it will take an apple, samsung or google to nail it down. PS I miss groovey, but running apps on their cloud was doomed from the start once too many users joined in.
I did get a raspberry pi as a contingency if I am to move as well, but I'll wait a bit longer. I don't blame you at all. Communication by Samsung has been weak.
Looking forward to seeing the next videos.
I like your plans. Well thought out and preparing for both scenarios. Honestly, I hope ST works it out.
Excellent. I agree with you 100%. I would love to dump Smartthings for all the reasons you say plus a few more. I think they have NO IDEA what a terrible customer experience we have. Its like living with pre beta solutions. The unreliability is terrible and the customer support has deteriorated dramatically. I will watch your transition with interest as I cant wait to dump Smartthings in the trash. Samsung have treated their customers terribly the last 2 years and they don't deserve our loyalty. Gradually migrating a live customer base who had paid for and set up a stable smarthome was a decision which showed utter contempt for their customer base. Withdrawal of features, random device disconnections, buggy software and no viable presence sensing make Smartthings unusable now. I cant wait for this next series from you Brian.
Thanks Stuart! I hope we find a good solution for you.
I’m finding that my Google hub is doing the same thing. I have several Leviton switches and plugs that have always worked. Now some of my automations loss connection randomly. They are fine in the Leviton app on my iPhone. Getting frustrated with smart home equipment. 😢
I think Google Home is in a worse place when compared to smart things. We will be having conversations about that platform very soon
I have issues with SmartThings as well. Would be good to move to another system…. But.. I would like to use the sensors I have. Would be good to know what you suggest.
I want my sensors to come too. I'll be working on that.
I am completely with you Brian. Smartthings has been my main hub ever since starting smart home. But there are so many things that stop working! I would expect that in Home Assistant, but not smartthings. I've tried to get Samsung to play nice with matter products and it just hangs like you showed in your video. My problem is that I COMPLETELY RELY ON MODES and I don't know what platform I can switch to that has the same thing. I don't have the time for home assistant. Are you able to help?
I will, as we go. Hubitat has modes of a sort. It's just a different way to manage it. H.A. does too.
And you're right, you'd expect things to break on a system made by a ton of different developers...but nope, it's the system that's owned by one company and one set of devs.
I had never heard of Homey until this video. I look forward to seeing more of what it can do. Having one hub that can work with everything is a dream and if the automations are stronger and more stable that SmartThings just another win.
We'll dream together Ryan.
Yes, your future vids on HomeyPro will get my attention. Very interested in how it will work with "old z-wave" Is there a generic z-wave option that will allow it to pair with older devices?
I see some of that, but it's not perfect!
Yes there is an option but imo it works best with fibaro system, almost all devices have great support out of the box
And that distinction makes sense. Fibaro is part of Nice, and is EU focused. Like Athom.
I was all in on your old video a few years ago now I'm glad to hold off
Sometimes the right choice is to wait :)
I've just recently started using the SmartThings ecosystem with my everyday devices. That is until the Aqara M3 hub launches. I bought an Aqara window/door sensor and realized that it doesn't connect to the Aqara M2 hub. It uses Matter. I tried using the Home Assistant Matter integration and the sensor kept going offline. I turned to my Samsung SmartThings Station I had lying around and attached the sensor through matter with it and added the hub into Home Assistant. It's been working flawlessly ever since. I'm in the US, so maybe that's why it's working well for me?
There shouldn't be a big difference, but I'm glad yours is behaving well at the moment!
If I add another Hub to my SmartThings account with the same location, can I have 400 (2*200) devices connected or not?
It's an app problem. Nope. New location helps though.
I'm considering leaving SmartThings to go to home assistant. It's a lot more complex, but I am running into issues with SmartThings like Govee or Wyse for example missing from the list, more local routines are needed as well.
Thanks for sharing!
Sad. I have a basic smartthings home setup and you were the biggest channel I've found for information on smartthings.
Sorry David!
I've been disappointed with my ST since they dropped the Groovie IDE. Ive had to many issues and been contemplating starting from scratch just to see if anything works better or even like it should. Although this would require just as much effort to switch platforms and in some cases much more ie HA. Is the extra effort really going to make that much of a difference in the end. It seems they all have issues of some sort. HA has my attention at the moment, just not sure if the ROI is sufficient enough to make the change.
I agree. The ROI has to be there.
I have no idea why edge devices often goes offline without being able to reconnect them unless I factory reset my ST station. No issues with devices imported from Hue bridge though
On Hue, that's my issue. That's an integration I used to get some custom features. Hue should be great otherwise. 😃
I left SmartThings when they bricked my V1 controller. Mostly due to the idea that they were eliminating the old IDE and pushing you to a new Samsung IDE which at the time had zero documentation and also certain features were limited to Samsung partners only. I moved to hubtitat which has a lot of nice features, but the dashboard was not one of them. I now have a hybrid where my Hubitat handles the Zigbee and Zwave, my Amazon Echo interface, and some of the more basic automations including modes. I then have Hubitat integrated into a home assistant instance. I primarily use it for my dashboard(100x better than anything Hubitat or SmartThings ever thought of), my smartphone presence detection, and my more complicated automations.
When evaluating Home Assistant, I would check out Node Red. It’s essentially the flows you were describing. In fact it looks like the flows in homey are a polished version of Node Red.
100% checking out Nod Red :)
I am curious why you did not include Apple HomeKit into your evaluation. I am uing it for some time and it works flawlesly
I think that's a different layer of automation. :) Those are simplistic automations that don't allow us a lot of actual automating. That's all. Nothing wrong with HomeKit, just when stacked up to these hubs it's not the same.
Best video yet. Thank you for being open and honest.
Thanks so much!
Wholeheartedly Agree!! Trashed Samsung awhile ago as all they are is a frustration factory!
It's very sad, since this platform could be great
Thanks Brian! I having been contemplating the exact transition that you are describing. I am trying to determine the best alternative for my situation before jumping the ship that Samsung seems bound and determined to sink. Looking forward to hearing about your experience.
First video coming soon! Just a how to guide for Homey, but we are starting now! We will go on the journey together. 😃
Thanks for your honesty.... Hope Homey pro better!
So far, lots of good!
Good info. I am in the middle of this process as well. SmartThings used to be so good...
Sad, isn't it...
Can home y pro speak using my echoes natively and easily without goofy virtual switches ?
Yep! I've already done that
Thanks!@@AutomateYourLife I'm ready to move on from ST. Crazy ST only supported Sonos for speaking text (or at least last time I checked)
Hi Brian! Great news! I have the Homey Pro. Great product. I have a good question about advanced flow. Do you have a Discord Channel or something like that?
Hey Carlos, I don't have a Discord. I always worried about the time suck that would be. ;)
I agree with pretty much everything you listed. I also am seriously looking at moving to Home Assistant. I wish SmartThings would just do what they said. I know you've talked about them really pushing their global product in the SmartThings enviro. And I pretty much bought off on that (phone, tv, fridge and washer/dryer). But based my experience being similar to yours, I will likely branch out in those areas as well. Being honest, it will be awhile before replacing my fridge or washer/dryer since they will last quite a long time, but the tv is a different story and has issues asme as SmartThings. It is great in some areas (picture quality) but they cheaped out on other things (memory and processor). With a 1 gb connection from ISP all the way to the tv itself, there is zero reason for there to be regular buffering issues with youtubetv/netflix/etc. A quick check of the hardware and yup, memory is nearly full and processor is pegged. Just like with SmartThings it seems all their products strive for just "good enough" and leaves customers feeling let down. its ridiculous.
That's scary on the TV, but a great explanation for some folks that are likely experiencing a similar thing. Sorry Craig!
Hey Brian! What are your concerns on the direction of Home Assistant?
Oh that's a long video in itself. It probably needs to be said, but I'll need some time to articulate it the right way.
They're doing amazing things. It's an incredible platform.
I worry about the complexity being added in all at the same time. It's like a giant fire hose and that's unsustainable in a number of ways. Tough to find the right way to do things too.
It's also becoming expensive to run. Some people using old PCs are finding ways to recycle things.
I also worry about the longevity of the company and people trying to buy it. That's how SmartThings ended here, honestly.
Anyways, there's more and yeah...I probably need to clarify statements like that with full videos.
Aqara M2 and Home Assistant (I use Yellow) are where I'm sticking. Easy quick configs in Aqara and they have devices for most any kind of control situation although I use Lutron switches & plugs because they're just solid and I don't worry about burning my house down. HA is great for doing almost anything with almost any device but it is more complicated. It's never let me down once I got something connected and running. You can simplify it by doing almost everything on Aqara and only using HA for the devices that Aqara doesn't have/support but that's getting to be a very small set of things - their offerings keep growing every month.
Great Jim! Love this experience based response. Thank you!
Hi guys, anyone knows if it is possible to integrate Philips hue into aqara hub m2?
It is not. You'll need an aggregator app. Homekit, Alexa, Google
@@AutomateYourLife thanks for the reply. What would you recommend to use if I like to control hue lights and aqara products?
I too am looking at domping SmartThings because I have many light switches in my home that use SmartThings, however when I enabled the Alexa skill, my light s work for about a day and then get disabled. Not sure if this is a SmartThings issue or an Alexa issue. Converting all my switches to Kassa Wi-Fi switches seems like a good choice for me as I can do away with hubs
Let's hope we can find a good path for ya Fred!
I use Home Assistant and Hue and SmartThings right now - all automations are done in Home Assistant. I want to get rid of the Hue bridge, but I have no clear plans for my (few) z-wave devices, so the ST hub stays for a bit - it integrates with HA (cloud) so it's not ideal ;P
What IS the deal with Samsung products just disconnecting? My flagship TV disconnects regularly from ST - so weird!
I don't even know why that happens! So frustrating!
I think the question is which platform will be the first to let you 'do it all'? Control4? Home Assistant? Homey? Homekit? Alexa? Google? All close but not quite doing it like the USS Enterprise ship's computer. So we are stuck with a mishmash.
The ship's computer!
I quit SmartThings too, running Hubitat now and love it.
Glad you're happy!
I bought a Smartthings Station over Thanksgiving on sale and could not get a single Matter outlet to connect. I already have them paired and connected with my Echo Dot over Matter and used that setup code it generated, didn’t work. Factory reset the device multiple times, it forced me to connect to HomeKit, didn’t work. It finally connected over Matter after multiple factory resets, the Samsung app says it’s disconnected. I returned it and I think I’m going to get a HomePod mini instead.
Ooof, that's a rough one!
I’ve been noticing irregularities on smartthings but thought it just me originally as,up to that point my smartthings and Alexa combo seemed ok for what I currently have. I have been thinking about expanding my smart home and may try Hubitat as an alternative as I don’t have time for HA. Don’t get me wrong , I think the idea and autonomy of HA is great but unfortunately it’ll take more time than I can juggle. I’m not sure about HomeyPro, mainly the huge expense but I feel as they will, after a few good years and every penny you have, will tie you in somehow. Definitely not going to jump ship with the channel though as I always use yours as my main “go to” channel each week. Looking forward to seeing what your journey can highlight for us all mate.
We do need some kind of guarantee of that future when we switch these platforms. It's hard to think of a way we'll get that... Thanks Rich!
I mainly you smart things as a bridge to connect other devices to Homeseer, with all of my automations on Homeseer. speaking of which will you be or can you include more comparisons with Homeseer?
Homeseer we will look at as part of the comparisons, but I don't have anything from them. The few devices I've purchased have struggled outside of their hubs, so...I gotta look at that one deeper now.
Brian, smartthings (to my knowledge) is the only app based home automation that will auto open a meross garage door when you step inside the Geo fence you create.
I would love to leave smart things because govee does not integrate with them, but I'm stuck to use it because it's the only phone app based automation routine that will Auto open the garage door.
Do you have an auto open garage door feature in your home?
I believe you could do it with Homekit in a few ways
@@AutomateYourLife copy. Will try that now
Hi Brian, is it possible to operate both smartthings and habitat in the same house?
I've done it for years! Just watch zigbee radios I'd say
Do you mean the channels of the one of them? And how did you use it in the same house? Some of the devices where connected to ST and some to habitat?
Yep and yep! Most of my stuff was connected to ST, but I did have Hubitat always running with a few products side by side.@@niravniel561
Another great presentation with a bit of humor. Thank you so very much for allowing your home and time to be used as our "test dummy" of product reliability. As the economy gets hotter, most companies will do what they can to dominate the competition as you know. It's a shame that they all can't get along and work together. Thanks again and Merry Christmas.
Thank you! And Merry Christmas to you!
Disappointed to hear about the unreliable automations :( is it possible to use the Aeotec hub with another platform?
I don't know the answer to that for sure, but I'm fairly certain it's no.
Would be very interested in seeing your Homey Pro journey.
I ditched smart things about 4 years ago and have been using Home Assistant ever since. I don't have any issues like I had with the Smartthings platform. Well, the only issue I had with HA was to keep my HA certificates up to date so I can access it remotely. But now you can use Cloud Flare to manage this with no user interaction. That was a game changer. I didn't want a paid subscription for something that I could setup and manage myself. I rarely have to reboot or restart HA. Yes you have to update it but I think that can be done automatically. I have it running on a Proxmox VM (Full HA OS) and have a USB extender hub in the middle of my house for my zwave devices. Automations run as expected. I know my setup isn't for everyone but I feel that HA has came a long way over the past 4 years of using it. Looking forward to seeing what platform you decide to go with.
So glad you're happy Ed!
I'm leaning heavily towards the Aqara hub and devices to keep things simple, and they are easily available to me at competitive prices outside of US. I also have some FLIC buttons and twist that I hope to integrate with this together with a Amazon Echo Gen4 that I received as a gift, so any help in that is welcome. Thanks!
I really do like what Aqara has been doing for a long time. I do think they have little gaps here and there, but the inexpensive nature of the platform and products makes up for that a lot
@@AutomateYourLife Paul Hibbert's video this week centers on his going to an (almost) all-Aqara home in his new house. Aqara doesn't have everything, which is why it's almost.
Thanks for being honest. It is appreciated 💝
Always! Thank you!
I'm just starting my smart home with smarthings mostly based on your videos and guidance and im worries now but i know this is dor the best and you're right about smarthings, is a good and easy yo use system but is not good enought or reliable. I like the idea to migrate to Homey pro. Please provide full information weather if this Homey pro system is really worth it or not ? Thank you again Bryant can't wait to see this Homey Pro series
I will provide all the info I can. We'll be honest about the whole experience!
Just bought a Homey Pro and converting my Smartthings automations over. Would love to have you deep dive into Homey Pro! It’s amazing so far
I'm working on the beginner's guide, but yeah...we are gonna go deep!
Contemplating doing this change to Homey (from Samsung) while trying to circumvent some issues using IFTTT. Would love to hear your progress along the way. Thank you
You jist saved me ty! We were gonna do all things samsung but now jist gonna leave it to apploances cuz we already just bought them but nothing else ty
Good luck!
I only had ST to monitor door and motion sensors. The battery life of the sensors was really odd, with new batteries showing at 1% charge within days, then working for months more. When a firmware update killed my hub they replaced it, and I disabled firmware updates.
I've seen that 1% thing too. Weird stuff that
I’ve invested in Aqara so will be watching you closely as I’ve not quite mastered what to actually do with it. Am in the process of installing the boys and bobs around.
Awesome! I think that platform is really good. I just need to make sure the automations actually run locally and that it can handle a lot
I am just getting into home automation. I automate every day at my job using Power Automate and was overwhelmed with home automation. I am going with the Homey Pro as the advanced flows are the best apples to apples for my brain. I realize they don't have all the devices for North America yet, but hoping to be a 'semi late to the party early adopter'. Glad I'm starting now and don't have years of legacy equipment! Would definitely appreciate more Homey content!
I felt this way myself with home automation vs industrial/commercial. It's apples to apples, or close enough
Thank you for the video. I am looking forward to the new videos for your updated home assissant. I am tired of all these company and having to buy new hubs avery few years. I would like one good HA.
You and me both!
I have been thinking of ditching smartthings as well. The unreliable automations are a real annoyance.. I have home/away routines that quit working reliably. Sometimes the system switches to armed/away sometimes it doesn't and I can't get the home routine to run properly at all. Logitech integration is also gone, which was very disappointing.
Logitech let us all down in many ways... :(
What are your concerns about the direction of home assistant?
I've shared a few over time on the channel and a few in the comments below. We'll see how it plays out and I'll share a full set when I'm ready. Most things are good of course :)
@@AutomateYourLife since you replied to every comment, which is a good thing, I'm having a hard time finding a single comment you made addressing my question. I'm genuinely interested in your opinion, but I am also not going to spend an hour scrolling through comments or watch all your old videos just to find an answer for my question. I'm sure you can relate ♥
I'm glad to see you are doing this. I use smartthings and have enjoyed it, but it seems like it should be offering more options, and it just doesn't. I'm not a coder and I don't want to spend ridiculous amounts of time fumbling around with an overly complex system, and I think that's who you are too, so I'll definitely be following your journey and maybe follow in your footsteps!
Sounds great! Thanks!
Ever since I bought the Samsung SmartThings hub, I knew something was wrong. So I did not even use it at all. First of all, the integration was tedious. So I resort to using various hubs that control my vast devices around my house. I know it's kinda silly not to integrate all the devices into a single hub but I think there's a silver lining in that. For one thing, if there's a failure in a device I can isolate where it lies and I can rectify it directly.
For example, I have Ikea Tradfri hub to control all of the Ikea smart devices, Vera Edge hub to control my Z-wave devices and Broadlink to control my RF and IR devices. So if one device were to fail, I could troubleshoot that particular area.
But all of them will still be controlled via Alexa. So the bottom line is, SmartThings is not so smart after all. And that's the irony of it. My conclusion here is that Samsung may be a great company for many devices like TVs, watches and phones. But when it comes to home automation I'm afraid it's not their strongest point.
I noticed that smartthings has dumped yeelight bedsides lamps support as well. Still supporting the yeelight ledstrips tho
They did? I didn't even notice that one. I used less and less Yeelight gear over the last few years.
What about Tuya? I use it in the garage and my garden house. It works perfectly, and there are many different products available. I use SmartThings in the rest of the house, but I’m thinking of switching everything to Tuya.
A couple folks saying that!
Another excellent video which I agree with on the whole with one missing thing. Philips Hue are doing all the same things as Samsung. They both said we will improve compatibility with Matter, but both have reduced their compatibility of Zigbee devices and provided virtually no Matter products to even try. So Brian if you can pathe the way to a more inclusive smart home I will be watching every video you make. I have also been looking at alternatives, so I very much look forward to your upcoming videoes. Keep up the good work.
I have my work cut out for me... At least that's the sense I'm getting
FYI Brian. I have 2 identical wake up routines, one set up as a Google Home automation and the other as an Alexa rouiine. They are scheduled to run mintues apart. The Alexa routine wins on reliability. The Google automation runs some days and not at all on other. Today it worked after doing so for a day or 2 but not all the actions were performed. I have no hubs, except Hue, other than the alexa hub in my echo device and the one in the Nest Hub gen 2. Both are running Matter and are up to date. So Google clearly has sime reliabiliy issues with their automation.
Google has more reliability issues than Samsung, for sure.