Apple Watch support?

[dkucic]

So you have a new product with Apple Watch support.  Why no support for MobiLinc other than the general notifications?  Any Plans?

[InsteonNut]

Hi dkucic,

 

Yes! This is in progress, but I'm not yet ready to make any announcements on features yet. MobiLinc Remote was an experiment with a well defined use case for universal remote control on Apple Watch. Home automation from the wrist is tricky from the standpoint that it doesn't make sense to make a mini version of the iPhone app. Way too many functions for the tiny screen. If you spend more than 10 seconds trying to do something on the watch, you'll just grab the phone instead. Not to mention major speed issues with the v1 implementation of Apple Watch apps that we have to work around.

 

Now that we've had our Apple Watches for a week+ we're getting a sense as to what makes sense to add to the wrist and is meaningful and actually useful. If you or anyone else has specific feature requests, please list them here. If the community is vocal about certain features you want to see, that would be great to know.

 

Wes

[Xathros]

Hi Wes-

 

On the iPhone:

I think we should have the ability to select certain dashboard items to show on the watch from within the item details on the iPhone.

 

On the Watch:

Dashboard items on the watch should have the same Icon as selected on the iPhone dashboard for that item and be sized such that 2.5 entries are visible at a time. Status is displayed by text color and icon as on iPhone dashboard.A tap on one will be the same as tapping the Icon in the dashboard item.  A deep press on an item will bring up a menu: On, Off, Brighten, Dim, Run If/Then/Else - to match the item's customized dashboard settings.    Last runtime for program entries does not need to be displayed on the watch dashboard or could be shown on the deep press menu instead.  Crown should scroll through the list of dashboard items and through deep press menu.

 

A thin status bar at the top of the watch display could indicate sync status between Watch->ML and ML->ISY.  This bar would be always visible on the dashboard screen with items scrolling beneath the bar.  This could be as simple as a thin colored line in 2 segments. Left side: red - not ready to control, green - control available.  Right side: red - status pending, green - all up to date.

 

Use of the watch app should NOT require one to unlock Mobilinc on the iPhone if using passcode/TouchID for Mobilinc on the iPhone.

 

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head.

 

Hope that helps and isn't an impossible list.

 

I have a watch and stand ready for testing...

 

-Xathros

[InsteonNut]

Thanks Xathros,

 

Most of this is do-able with one exception. The Force Press action is screen wide, meaning that it's not specific to one item on the screen. I too was looking forward to a force press action on a device/scene/program, but that's not how it works. Each "screen" can have exactly one Force Press action with up to 4 buttons on the Force Press Menu.

 

Wes

[dkucic]

Awesome, great to hear!  I love the Mobilinc notifications on apple watch I used to miss on the phone in the pocket.   Yeah I would not want the whole iphone app on the watch.  Just the notifications I already have and would like to trigger a small set of events like open garage, turn off all lights, unlock door without having to pull the phone out of my pocket.  So second the option of an apple watch dashboard you can add items too.  Also the amazon app does voice search(really only thing it does). I purchased the voice command on the iphone but never use it due to the limits apple puts on you developers.  Would be great to have a way to send the voice commands over to the app.  I find I use Siri to enter everything now with the apple watch.  So If I can raise wrist, Hey Siri open Mobilinc, Maybe a single button press(awesome if none) and then talk the commands  I need no other buttons 

 

-Matt

[InsteonNut]

Hi Matt,

 

Voice/Siri on the watch is something I'm looking at to see if it's possible/useful to integrate into the Voice Plug-In as another input option into MobiLinc. There will be additional button presses to get Siri to pop up, so it unfortunately isn't as useful as I'd hope it would be, but I'm still looking into this.

 

Wes

[drewconner]

Simply putting the Today Extension onto the watch would be great for me.

[Xathros]

Thanks Xathros,

 

Most of this is do-able with one exception. The Force Press action is screen wide, meaning that it's not specific to one item on the screen. I too was looking forward to a force press action on a device/scene/program, but that's not how it works. Each "screen" can have exactly one Force Press action with up to 4 buttons on the Force Press Menu.

 

Wes

Hi Wes-

 

Thats excellent!

 

Bummer on the deep press but I've kinda got that impression after seeing deep press implemented in other watch apps.  So then, tap anywhere on a dashboard item for the default "Icon" action and swipe left on the item to open the details menu for that item.  Details menu screen would need a return path in the upper left to return to the dashboard without taking any action.

 

-Xathros