Probobly because Android is not as programmable friendly as iOS … Android has not one manufactor but hundreds with different Android versions… = BIG problem for developers…
/Mattias
I’m not a developer, and I’ll accept your comments as true, @Matteburk.
Any idea when we can expect the fully functioned New Dashboard to be released for Android?
I guess I got the answer to my question this morning, with the update to the Android Vera app today, which adds key functions that had been missing.
Thank you - I haven’t tested it extensively yet, but it seems to work pretty well. I hope in time that it can be further enhanced, but it is an improvement to the Vera app.
Okay, this looks nice and much better than the old dashboard. Well done!
While testing it I noticed some lack on the update for the status of a device. I tested a lamp and switching on it doesn’t update the icon status in the dashboard. It actually looks a bit flaky going several times from on to off. After like 10 to fifteen seconds it shows the right status.
Just an idea which probably already is on your list. Imagine you could have multiple panes similar to the current new dasboard pane and be able to swipe from one to the other. Add a smaller font to the scenes and it would really be great.
You have a backlog of the options you will be working on for the coming period?
Android 6
Cannot add devices or scenes so looks empty.
whats the point of of the scroll of vera controller name when in compact header mode?
Are we going to get a dark theme. White light hurts my eyes at night.
Are we ever going to get any widgets for quick access?
edit/ background image i added last night no longer appears this morning.
Hi,
We have a new release on Beta: 7.33.332
Here are the release details:
Feel free to provide feedback.
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Still cannot add all devices, picked 20, only 6 add to devices screen
“Re: UI8 new interface, do you like it? please give us your feedback”
What are the plans for the new Vera Control mobile app? From what I’ve seen so far it looks like a rehash of the old app with a new dashboard page tacked on top?
Who is the person in charge of app development and GUI design at Ezlo? I’d like to have a conversation with them.
I’ve used Vera Controllers for over 10 years and in all that time I’ve never used the official Vera app as to be honest I just never liked it.
I used the 3rd party Authomation HD app and when development on that stopped I switched to the excellent Imperihome app which I still use today.
If your developers want to know how to make a great new app and gui for Vera, they should look at the powerful functionality of Imperihome and bring those ideas and functions into your own app.
I fear the official Vera app will never be as good as some 3rd party solutions.
Just one example, I couldn’t let my daughter use the Vera mobile app as I can’t hide devices and scenes or lock down the app and Vera controller settings and configuration options. And it’s very lacking in customisation and functionality when compared to Imperihome.
Here were my thoughts I wrote in that thread on the old forum and I made a YouTube video of my Imperihome app layout at that time.
The mobile app UI is much more important than the web UI as the mobile UI is the one we use daily on our Android phones and tablets to control Vera.
The Vera web UI does also need improving, but I only use it for setup and configuration, my family have never seen the web UI or your own Vera mobile app.
Your new mobile UI needs to be like the excellent Imperihome app and better !
Here is a Youtube video of Imperihome on my mobile phone, ignore the TV sound in the background !
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Custom dashboard pages and layouts where you can add devices, scenes and sensors, reorder them in to any position you want. Change the order of the dashboard pages (numbered) left to right scrolling etc we can decide which dashboard pages are in what order. Choosing the first dashboard page that is displayed anytime the app is launched is also an option.
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Custom icons we need to be able to use our own icons for devices, scenes and sensors. Also different icons for device states, on / off etc.
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Composite devices, in Imperihome you can add multiple security sensors in to one composite device to view all of them at a glance in a popup menu. Same with lights you can add multiple lights in to one single composite device to control all of them via that one device within the app, see the video URL above and my two lounge lamps and the two RGBW strips both controlled by one composite device in Imperihome. Another example would be a composite device that can control multiple Window Coverings, so one device in the app could open / close several curtains / blinds.
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Harmony Hub integration as you can see in the video, Imperihome natively supports adding Harmony Activities.
Also I used Vera ALTUI Custom pages to build remote control pages for my TV and Kodi. Would be nice if we could natively add IR device buttons from a Harmony hub in to the Vera mobile app to build up remote controls pages within your app. -
To be able to embed webpages in to the dashboard pages of the mobile app, for example so you can embed a web based Weather widget into a dashboard page. This is also how I got the Vera ALTUI custom remote control pages in to the Imperihome app.
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To be able to add widgets / buttons to the dashboard pages that do other things like send a http call command, I used these to add custom buttons for TV channel favourites or to control my AVR amps Audio modes and volume. In Imperihome you can add a button with a http command behind it, there are options for a local http command a remote http command Login and Password (optional) Method Get or Post etc. This feature is very useful to control any IP based device that supports it by sending a http / json command to it, good for when Vera doesn’t support a particular device of that type but allows your users to add buttons for it into your mobile app!
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Widgets on the Android desktop, to either launch the Vera mobile app directly to a certain page, or widgets to run scenes etc right from the Android desktop.
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Import / export of mobile app design and layout settings etc from one mobile device to another this is a must have.
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To be able to lock certain actions with a pin code, for example so you cannot simply turn Vera in to Home mode or run a Disarm scene without first entering a pin code.
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To be able to add a button on to a dashboard page that when pressed takes you to another dashboard page like a link or shortcut, this way we can create a default starting dashboard page and have icons that take you to other dashboard pages / areas of the app, for example a Lights icon takes me to a dashboard page with all my lights. A Security Sensors icon takes me to a dashboard page showing all my security sensors etc.
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To be able to add a button to launch another application on the mobile device, I use this to launch Spotify and Google Play music from within a dashboard page in Imperihome.
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Support in the Vera mobile app for 3rd party plugins, Imperihome does support some of the main 3rd party plugins for Vera, I don’t have a complete list but one example would be the Multi Switch plugin which is a virtual switch plugin for Vera, these are accessible in the Imperihome app but I believe that they are not in your own current Vera mobile app.
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Setting to lock down configuration actions so other family members cannot change the configuration of the app.
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API HTTP Server within the mobile app, in Imperihome you can turn on this and we can then send HTTP commands from the Vera controller to the mobile app to do things. This is very useful for wall mounted control tablets, for example when you press my doorbell the doorbell scene that runs in Vera also sends a HTTP command to Imperihome on my wall mounted tablet to bring up the outdoor camera image. Other things if can do are make the app navigate to a particular dashboard page. Or send a TTS (Text to speech) announcement from a scene run on Vera to the Imperihome tablet so it says something like “There is someone at the door” More details here: Crypto Roulette Australia | The Best New Casinos for 2023
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Also for wall mounted tablets, options to wake up the tablet device via the camera when it detects movement in front of it, then showing the Vera mobile app etc, also an option to automatically launch the Vera mobile app after the device has been rebooted.
In Imperihome app there is the main dashboard view which is what we use and there is also a flat list view as you will see in the video, no one in my family uses the flat list view as I have it locked down, but in the flat list view I can see and control all the Vera scenes and devices that are not present on the main dashboard pages etc.
Imperihome can do all that I have listed above and much more, may I highly recommend you have your development team take a very close look at the Imperihome app and its features and functions, if you bring out a new Vera mobile app that is even better than Imperihome you and your team will be Rock stars !
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Imperihome isn’t perfect there are things I dont like about it, but it’s the best app for Vera.
Widgets widgets and more widgets is what you need. And why only one dashboard page that scrolls down?
I want as many dashboard pages as I want to create and to be able to scroll through them left or right or to be able to jump to a certain dashboard page with a shortcut or menu drop down and to be able to place items anywhere I want on to the dashboard pages.
I’ve only had a quick look and play around with your new dashboard I’ll admit, but I can see issues with it already, which I can explain later.
Just being able to add Vera devices and scenes and a camera on to a single dashboard page I’m sorry to say just isn’t good enough it’s not going to cut it.
We need to be able to create our own multiple dashboard pages and be able to not only add Vera devices and scenes, but to have intelligent and well thought out widgets.
Just take a look at the widgets you can add to dashboard pages in the Imperihome app and look at their powerful functionality.
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Also another new app that is in Beta which looks promising is the Home Habit dashboard app. Supporting multiple HA platforms.
Samsung Smartthings users have Action Tiles for creating dashboard pages.
And we Vera users have what?
The offical Vera Mobile app?
If it wasn’t for Imperihome app and the 3rd party PLEG logic engine, I would of ditched Vera a long time ago. So 3rd party developers saved Vera for me not Micasa Verde / Vera Control Ltd.
Your Ezlo app developers really need to impress us with any new mobile app offerings from your company.
Please read my posts above and can you give us some more details about the future direction of development of the mobile app interface / GUI will be taking? Because so far its not looking so good from what I’ve seen.
I’ve worked for years testing software and apps professionally. I’d be willing to pay extra money on top of my purchase price for my new top of the line Ezlo Pro controller unit, for a Pro version of a Vera / Ezlo mobile app, if it was decent and allowed me to create proper customisable dashboard pages and widgets.
You could have a Free Basic app for entry level Vera users for use with their controller and a Pro version of the app for power users like myself.
However you do it? The mobile app and GUI needs to be much better.
Personally though I would never use a mobile app for setting up and configuring my controller hub. I will always use the web GUI of the controller on my PC for that. I can’t code LUA and create complex PLEG logic on mobile device interface.
I can understand as a company however why you need to have the mobile app to be able to create scenes and change the settings of the controller and such, but my family members never need to see or have access to those areas of the mobile app, it needs to be locked down so they only have access to the dashboard pages I create for our control interface for the house.
Also can you comment on your plans for a new scene logic engine for creation of complex automations. We have PLEG and Reactor and ALTUI work flows 3rd party engines but what are the Ezlo native logic engine plans?
Thanks.
Hi cw-kid,
Wow - your input is amazing , I’m so grateful you shared all these ideas with us.
I’m one of the Product Managers at Ezlo and I’m more than happy to discuss all of the above items in detail. Let’s start this conversation in PM.
Ioana
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as Ioana said,
please provide us as much details, mockup, drawing as you can please.
we want to give you the most powerful, most customizable dashboard!
Isn’t that what @cw-kid did in his posts? Or you guys can get a copy of imperihome and try it yourselves, it’s impressive.
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I really hope so!
One of the main things I do not like about Imperihome is that you cannot just place widgets and buttons any where on to the dashboard pages.
You have to select from a predefined list of page layouts as you can see in these screen shots.
Is Home Habit Beta not availible in IOS?
When designing your UI to be “Responsive” ( Material Design Responsive web design - Wikipedia) designers use these “Grid” system.
Of course we want to make our responsive grid system as flexible as possible. So the two grid pictures above is the options we are thinking about.
then the question is which button or widget goes where…background etc.
Ability to place widget/butttons into grids .
Apart from where to place widgets/buttons, what else do you want to be able to modify/configure?
thank you for your feedback
As for GUI design and layout of your Vera / Ezlo mobile app, what are your plans ?
I was kinda expecting a brand new app built from the ground up, however it looks like we will be getting the original Vera mobile app with dashboard functions added on top ?
Imperihome have a gallery page here with some images of some of their customers dashboards.
ActionTiles for SmartThings have a thread here with user images of their panels.
Google images of Fibaro control app here
Or take a look at what the big boys are doing with their control apps like, Crestron, AMX, Control4, Savant, RTI etc
Some random images I like for the styling, must have a dark theme mode in your app.
Crestron
Fibaro
TIS Control
DemoPad
RTI
Obviously most of these systems are very expensive professionally installed systems and their tablet control apps have design studio software so you can design your own dashboard GUI’s.
I’m never expecting Vera to be to this standard, but if you can give us a half decent app like Imperihome, where we can create our own basic dashboard pages then I’d be happy enough.
What are your expectations for your mobile control app ???
I’ve OK with a grid layout system as long as we have plenty of options for the different page layouts we can choose from.
Imperihome also uses this type of grid page system as I already mentioned, but the number of different grid page layouts you can choose from is not enough and I often find for the number of buttons / widgets I want on a particular dashboard page I am creating, there isn’t a matching grid layout I can choose.