Smart Shades Reviews

I purchased 7 smart shades and was excited to use them with HomeKit. The setup with SmartShades was a nightmare. Only 5 out of 7 of the blinds the next button wouldn’t appear during calibration. I tried with 3 devices (iOS air 2, iPhone 7 and iPhone Xs) all on iOS 12.1 and had the same problem. Next issue is SmartShades does not allow you to recalibrate devices without deleting the device and re adding it. This is frustrating because one of my smart shades refuses to keep the calibration that I set and it unrolls the shades much further than I need which is causing them to bend. My third issue is only and issue if you intend to use their app and not homekit, if you add two devices to the same group there is no obvious way to control each independently. This wouldn’t be a big deal if we could move devices to their own groups without deleting them and re adding. I’ve never reviewed an app before but this experience was beyond frustrating especially after sinking so much money into the product. This has been out for over a year and still has so many glaring flaws. I will be using my smart shades solely with HomeKit and pray that I don’t run into any issues that require me to use the smart shades app.

First off the Sona Connect image for Raspberry pi doesn't expand the filesystem on first boot.

Second I have to lay on my side because SmartShades is portrait orientation only on the iPad.

Third, "sudo passwd pi" doesn't change the password as expected. I'm still stuck with the default password

Fourth, sudo apt update tells me the software repository is unsigned and that's a huge red flag

Fifth, SmartShades is also unable to find my Sona Connect, just a sideways message saying "Move Closer To Device", I've been trying for about 10 minutes now.

In conclusion, it seems that SmartShades and the Sona Connect are nothing more than a beta tester device at best, and at worst it's a botnet waiting to happen

Has lots of potential. Seems to experiencing a lot of connectivity issues with their soma connect and HomeKit. Works when I reset everything but isn’t reliable therefore afterwards.

Hoping they can resolve this and make the connect and device more stable. Will update to 5 stars once resolved.

Setup and maintenance has been a terrible experience for these terribly overpriced smart shades. With the new app update they’ve removed critical functionality - the ability to schedule triggers for groups of lights, you can now only schedule them individually.

The crappy homekit bridge which is just a expensive raspberry pi never stays connected so you have to delete and add them all over and over.

The screenshots are not real- there is no sunrise / sunset schedule its just time of day.

Don’t waste your money

I was able to set up the shades via Bluetooth. Worked great and got them on a schedule and didn’t have to think about them. Then I set up the connect and got to use them with Alexa, even better! After a while the Bluetooth stopped working. I contacted customer support and they couldn’t fix the issue. I thought fine I can Alexa to adjust the shade. Now they aren’t responding to Alexa and I have no way of controlling them. They are on the same schedule but the sun isn’t. So now I have to wait to turn my lights on at night so my neighbors can’t see in. Seriously?? No point in having the system now!

SmartShades is ok and lets you open and close blinds. However, it really needs a simple recalibration function to set upper and lower limits.

It also needs to have a function to set which way is up or down for when calibration fails.

If SmartShades cannot determine which way is up or down the blinds will not function.

If you have a continuous cord loop, you’re a blind beta tester. They claim they don’t even have non-beaded loops in their offices so how they intend to support it is beyond me. Kept saying they’ll update it in “two weeks” for a few months and I finally gave up. Thankfully they gave a full refund so that earned an extra star for at least not being a total scam. Just a tremendous waste of time.

Using the SOMA app gives you the option to tilt/close the blinds Up or Down. Unfortunately that’s not the case when using Apple’s HomeKit. You can only tilt/close them Down and back to Open no tilt/close Up. Also sometimes soma’s hub doesn’t recognize its own motors. Please fix it

Works well enough for me I suppose, but this latest update to SmartShades made changing triggers very tedious. If I have a group of shades, I should be able to update the triggers once for all of them. Not have to go into each shade individually and update each one.

It works, sure, but it's pretty lacking in basic functionality. At the bare minimum please add the option to recalibrate the blinds so I don't need to delete and re-add them every time. Ideally just a manual adjustment offset (like a slide to adjust +/- percent off the open/close position)

SmartShades worked well until March 2021 when the sunset closing function stopped working randomly.

I have the version of Smart Shades that only works with Bluetooth. SmartShades does what it needs to do without much extra. This is generally fine in the I can set my shades to open and close at the appropriate times. I have two devices on a single group called “Living Room”, so it’s easy to change the settings for both devices. SmartShades lacks additional sophistication such as enabling alerts when the battery needs charging (I don’t use the provided solar panels - too obtrusive) or any links to the company web site or support. SmartShades is also really difficult to find in SmartShades Store. I can only access it through the company web site.

My subject says it all.
Edit: like they suggested, I contacted customer service. After some back and forth I seem to have stumped them and haven’t heard any more suggestions.
SmartShades gets the job done but isn’t fantastic. I do wish the sunset trigger worked for me.

Like other reviewers, I also am stuck with the same issue of being unable to finish setup and calibration due to the missing “Next” button. I only bought 1 instead of the 4 motors that I need to complete the job. I may have to return the one and find another solution. Really wanted this in HomeKit but can’t finish setup to get to that part.

(Update - after speaking to support, it was discovered that if the motor can’t determine if it is lowering or raising the shade due to the shade being too light, it is necessary to fool the motor by holding the chain and providing some resistance during the “configuration” step while it is raising the shade. When I did this, SmartShades correctly identified up and down and allowed the whole setup to complete. Yes, SmartShades still needs to be able to guide us through the setup better so I’m adding only 2 more stars)

The Bluetooth for shades works fine, but the soma connect shows WiFi numbers and not the names which is annoying, and after putting the password in, it says connection failed. I’ve tried it on three different devices and it continually fails. PLEASE FIX!

Works well for individual shades but doesn’t allow triggers for groups. Once you group, you can’t even access the triggers to open or close the shades at a specific time and you have to ungroup to change anything. If the triggers were allowed on groups SmartShades would be great.

Didn’t have any issues with connecting or installation. I don’t plan on using SmartShades except to change the schedule because that’s the point of automation.

Two years ago I ordered 12 devices “Soma Smart Shades” and I motorized all binds in my home. I was able to move the blinds individually up and down via smartphone or using voice commands via Siri. I created in “Homekit” automated patterns and different schedules for every room to make our life even more convenient. Everything worked perfectly as advertised until 2 weeks ago when 1 device was unresponsive. So I contacted the company and they went above and beyond in their efforts to help repair and replace it. They were fast responsive and quick to provide solutions. If I find a need for additional shades, I will always go to “Wazombi”. I got the devices, I install them and everything is working perfectly. Thanks again! I wrote a good review as a sign of my appreciation.

New units work great with Homekit. Automations and scenes work great! I see a lot of bad reviews 2 and 3 years ago, I guess all that was improved! Would recommend!!

SmartShades is perfectly sufficient. Configure the top / bottom, tweak as needed, and then it’s all HomeKit for me from there. I appreciate the morning mode update!