Live Air: Global Air Quality Reviews

by N/A 1234

Apple please remove LiveAir as it doesn’t meet the basic App Store requirements.

It is also filled with bugs.

1. Doesn’t natively support the 500 million iPads that exist.

2. Doesn’t support landscape mode that most iPads are used in (due to keyboards and cases).

3. Doesn’t support iOS 13 features such as Dark Mode.

#Failure

by Hazeluser

I have a Laser Egg, and the graphs in LiveAir are often missing the latest few hours of data. If I force-kill LiveAir and start it again, the data appears.

by Ecmanaut

Sensor hardware: seems good. (Hard to tell.)

Charge cord: Micro USB?! 2007 called. Why does a $200 device shipping in 2020 pick a charging standard from two decades ago, so you are guaranteed to need legacy cables to power this specific device the coming USB C decade? Please ship next year’s devices with current plug-any-orientation-you-like USB C.

App and device display information design: a train wreck of confusion, iconography hiding instead of conveying meaning, mystery meat navigation style, presenting some data (just what temperature and humidity it reads) with clarity, and everything else without units or affordances telling what is what, nor hints to help interpret neither momentary values nor how they relate to historical data charts. The on-device egg screens share this problem.

To start off: LiveAir has no dark mode! It really needs one; the bright mode only uses contrast and clarity for what temperature & humidity it presents. All other figures are either Really Light Gray on White (near zero contrast), or the odd mystery number in the circle with a colored circle segment gauge. (My mystery number & colour in the circle are 70 yellow! Now 69 yellow! Bingo! 70!)

Next below, let’s talk about the Pollutants display. You get two labels, a coloured horizontal stripe, and a number for each. For my chemicals-aware device, the labels are PM25 and TVOC, respectively. The numbers are still readable, but in the context of other info in the history graph below, which DOES NOT MATCH CURRENT READOUTS, even if set to the time scale of one data point per minute, STILL INSCRUTABLE.

Take the current TVOC reading, 399 yellow. What does it mean? No info in LiveAir . And does its history graph show how that 399 is varying over time? No! It presents a scale in which values show as 0.399. So, kind of, but only once you account for a scale factor. The PM2.5 reading actually matches its graph(!).

Let’s talk about the Historical data chart. A+ for good idea. And hey, you can pick a time resolution of ”MINS”, ”HOURS”, or ”DAYS”. (Maybe other units once you have months of data, as they massacred ”MINUTES”, despite having space for the full word in the legend?) The active time scale almost is bold / black enough to present with clarity, but not if you squint, so any visual impediment, and you’ll be unable to tell what you are looking at. 🙁

The y axis marks are in a thin ultra light gray on white, so nobody can read those without a concerted effort. (And no, you can’t pinch to zoom.) The rightmost data reading or two will randomly be missing in the MINS chart (and often HOURS and DAYS will miss the rightmost value), and it turns out to actually be displayed under the graph why, again in thin ultralight gray on white: because those / that reading hasn’t been added yet; there is a text legend spelling out a ”Last Updated” time and date.

An immense amount of intuitiveness and clarity of presentation would have been won if it instead had back-filled the current value from the momentary values shown above, or sampled the moment you rendered the view, perhaps ghosted with an under text noting that the last ghosted values are momentary and subject to final update. Suddenly there is less confusion about how figures map. At least if the Y scale agrees with everywhere else such data is presented, in-app / in-egg.

The egg’s many displays also give no context for what is what, especially in terms of telling what are on-device readings, and stats from some server about your area, which LiveAir talks about but doesn’t present in any UI.

It feels like this thing is still in beta, though it sadly doesn’t seem to consider itself such. I hope it is still maintained and takes attempts at constructive (if exasperated) criticism into future design iterations, so it improves over time.

by Elixanchor45

This update breaks the historical data views for the Kaiterra Egg.

by David 740

For an app that is supposed to work with a connected device, this leaves a lot to be desired. The data logging feature is completely broken and non functional. You can see the readings of your device while you are on the same wifi network, but not when you are away. It barely does anything and a lot is broken or missing. Zero stars.

by Note-taker

After many restarts, might connect, but forgets everything after a few days.

by Аchille

This is very infuriating, I have a permanent notification on my HomeKit app and I can’t get rid of it keeps asking for firmware update but none is available. Kaiterra: Please fix this and ill make it a five star review.

by Pindapoo

LiveAir doesn’t tell you what ranges are good-moderate-bad. And it does not seem to agree with the device ever. I’ll never understand why so many companies have bad apps. Do they just not care?

by Jonodale

Still, after many updates, my My Air page (the home page) neither shows my devices nor the AQI for my city. Been broken a long time, along with other things...

by Dtoyd

Dear developers, a good start but... 1⃣ the Egg device makes no noise, no audible alarms, ever? Really?? 2⃣LiveAir does allow ONE alarm/notification per sensor but why just one?? I'd like to be told when any of several thresholds are crossed. That's not hard to implement. 3⃣Why the miniscule fonts? 4⃣Auto-brightness/dimming on the Egg display PLEASE 🙏 5⃣This is a data-driven app where timeliness of the data is a huge factor. So, for the love of god, show the last updated time PROMINENTLY right next to where a measurement is shown! The first question to answer for users: "Is this data FRESH?" Thank you.

by OneMoreReviewer

Next to a professional calibrated CO2 meter your Egg CO2 is on average +70ppm regardless of the actual measurement. I suggest you look at the conversion equation you are using to bring this closer to actual or w/in +/- 50ppm.

by Bluejade35

If app is turned off, when you turn app back on it forgets name of device connected to, forcing one to go to settings to refresh this info.

by Crizoo

“Live air” has to be the most ridiculous name for an app ever. Keep Kaiterra in LiveAir name

by Ppeirce

Data for your device should automatically update — I have to switch views and switch back for it to show the latest data.

A widget would be killer.

by Wayland Chin

LiveAir is ok, needs an iPad version.

by Fraaaaaaaaaaaaaank

When will you support iOS widget? I would like to view the air quality directly from my home screen or zero page

by 庞博庞博

This works exactly as intended. I always check my homes air quality throughout the day and use it as a reminder to open my windows or turn on my air purifier.

by Jtang_

Really enjoying the new firmware update! I definitely recommend connecting your Laser Egg to LiveAir for added functionality. The home screen shows a direct comparison of my indoor and outdoor air quality, so I know if my air purifier is working.

Integrates well with Apple HomeKit. Can get readings for air quality, temperature, and humidity.

Overall, easy to use and helpful for quick AQI readings!

by Denis2denis

Downloaded LiveAir prior to traveling to China in order to keep an eye on pollution levels. App was able to geolocate the nearest air quality station and give me the latest hourly readings.

Super convenient and love the design! Now considering getting their Laser Egg to measure the air quality in my home.

by LiquideFeline

Update: alerts working again. Thanks!

Looks like after I went to reset all iPhone settings (not Erase, just Reset All Settings), LiveAir forgot to ask to send notifications again so I don’t have notifications unless I delete and reinstall LiveAir .

by Greghazel

I have a Laser Egg, and the graphs in LiveAir are often missing the latest few hours of data. If I force-kill LiveAir and start it again, the data appears.

by BwanaQieZi

TL;DR: critical bugs remain even in this updated app. Still can't add a 'Home'. iPhone SE 64GB

I wrote the review below for the previous version but it still holds true now. Enjoy.

I used LiveAir before it became Kaiterra, back when it was Origins China. Let's start with the improvements:

The interface looks slick. There are now a few hours of history for aqi data.

Now the regressions:
I can't add my original laser egg. This is because in order to do that, I need to create a 'Home' first. Ok fine. Except when I give my new Home a name, it doesn't get created. There's no indication there was an error, just no new Home. I can't create a 'room' either. So basically LiveAir is only good for displaying the AQI from city data. In that regard, it's far inferior to other apps available.

by Markwkoester

To be honest, I'm not impressed by this update and the fact that so much of the usefulness is lost: can't add old eggs, exports, and just noticed that LiveAir doesn't display pm 2.5 and only AQI. This is a pretty poor "upgrade." It looks nicer but frankly does less of what I need. I would have much preferred having the old app while you released a new one for new folks, developed it and reached minimal feature parity.

Overall, lousy update. I've gone from being a fan of the Laser Egg to looking at other options and no longer recommending to others.

by Dalianguy

It's worthless. It usually displays nothing unless I redo the whole setup each time (It strangely does show something sometimes if I tap around a lot, but I've yet to predictably reproduce it), and it gives me long-outdated notifications when my iPod is completely offline. I've kept it on my device just waiting for an update after being told by the company that they were working on fixing it. I think there's been one update since then, but it's still broken. The Laser Egg cost enough that I would expect better.

(What follows is my original review from June 2016): It works nicely until you leave LiveAir . Then you get nothing upon return--blank information for the city and device and often "Load failed" for the articles in the left swipe screen.
Going through setup again gets it working again ... until you leave LiveAir again. Then it's start-over time once more.
Seems like it will be a nice app once the bugs are ironed out, but for now it's not of much use.

by Béboi

In use, LiveAir in conjunction with one laser egg was quick to configure and has since been logging and helping to visualize data. Proactivity and knowledge are powerful allies in modern China vis a vis our suffocating sky.

Notifications and icon badges are malfunctioning in this version on an iphone 6+.