Home Assistant Reviews

by Dragonsmoke6

I’m beyond ticked off with trying to edit automations from HomeAssistant. As soon as I edit any field that opens the keyboard, HomeAssistant and buttons are entirely mis-aligned with my touch input after the keyboard closes. It does the same thing in mobile firefox, even crashes HomeAssistant or the mobile firefox tab when trying to navigate away from an automation after saving changes to it. Something is seriously bugged out with the mobile UI on the latest stable version of home assistant. Going to bed now but will post the issue on github when I have time. It took me 15 attempts to change 3 delay values and 3 scene transition times, because of the UI glitching out so bad when the keyboard closes.

by GasDiver

A few weeks ago I edited the remote URL in HomeAssistant configuration and I believe I may have had an error in the URL. HomeAssistant has crashed immediately on startup ever since. Originally I was on iOS 14.6. I have since upgraded to the 14.7 beta, but the crashing persists. I tried every combination of deleting the HA app, reinstalling it and restart & hard reset of the device. I even tried wiping the phone completely and restoring it from a backup. Nothing has worked. Love HomeAssistant , so I'm giving it 5 stars despite the issue, but hope to bring this to the developers attention.

(temporarily changing my rating to 1 star in the hopes it will bring my rating to the developer's attention more quickly)

Thanks

by Papa4403

I have 3 different physical locations using HA. I love HA ...but ... I see no difference between using this iPhone app and using my iPhone browser to log into one of my HA instances and then merely saving the address to my iPhone home screen. Which is what I have already been doing.

As a matter of fact, saving the browser address to my iPhone home screen actually remembers the url address, unlike using HomeAssistant which requires me to re-enter the url address each time I use it.

Maybe HomeAssistant has an advantage with the notification and location services features of HA (which I don’t use).

With my 3 HA instances I just use my iPhone to log into each location and then save each location to my iPhone home screen. That way I have 3 icons on my home screen that each allow me to quickly go to whichever HA instance I want to go to.

FWIW, I use DuckDNS for each of my HA instances. Maybe my experience would be different or better with Nabu Casa. Not sure. I’m just super confused why I would use HomeAssistant vs merely saving the url to my iPhone home screen. 🤷🏻‍♂️

by Djmastrianni

Would you be happy with a companion who forgets your name constantly and then forces you to spell it out completely each time? That’s the way I feel about HomeAssistant that is incapable of storing the URL for any length of time, forcing you to retype it entirely each time it loses it. Ironically, there’s a default URL for the HA instance you’re running - so how hard can it be for HomeAssistant to default to it? In fact, you’re better off just bookmarking the URL in your browser and forgetting about HomeAssistant.

by Nimdae

Not sure what happened to the iOS app but the bugs with cards are making it hard to use. Gauges are especially broken. This has been a problem for a while. I’ve tried resetting HomeAssistant as well as reinstalling. There’s at least enough functionality to keep it useful, such as managing presence and notifications.

by The Worthless Protoplasm

Home Assistant the platform is wonderful. Extremely powerful and the learning curve is generally reasonable.

Home Assistant HomeAssistant is kinda junk. Basic functionality is there, but attempting to do any configuration or set up automations in HomeAssistant is an exercise in frustration. Marvel at how the screen jumps around as you try to type in text fields, or tapping on pick list results does nothing. Oh well.

by RJ_n_CA

I love the Home Assistant software. Being able to bring together different smart home products and create automations aroud them is great. That said, HomeAssistant UI on a phone is hot garbage. Trying to switch between different tabs on the dashboard is awful and sometimes buttons appear in areas of the screen that you can't actually reach. I wish it was as easy to navigate on a phone as it is on a desktop but it's just nowhere even close

by Jjmmss01

This works great, and gives a much nicer cleaner interface than bringing up HA on a web page in a browser.

I think there may be a bug in the iPad version as I am unable to get the location service working. When I select enable in preferences for location updates, HomeAssistant freezes. This happens on both my iPads (air and pro). I don't have an iPhone to test it on.

Text notifications work good though. Haven't tried the more complicated notifications yet.

I note that in system configuration under privacy/location services, that the home assistant app doesn't show up. This may indicate that there is something missing in the pilist file (think I remember name correctly) in the xtools iOS development environment.

by Only1Change

The only issue I have been having is crashing when trying to open the application using the url scheme ‘home assistant://‘. The application starts to open then crashes under all circumstances. Maybe I’m missing something but I couldn’t find a list of commands the url scheme has. Other than that HomeAssistant is a very good companion.

by SynthGP

For anyone who is considering getting into home automation or is already into automating their home, please consider using Home Automation. I made the switch about 2 weeks ago, and it is the best platform available. Not only is it open source, the user community is strong, and you are not beholden to Samsung, Google, HomeKit, though there are integrations to each if needed.

Keeping all of your data locally resolve privacy concerns, and significantly speeds up response time.

I’ve made the switch and have no plans on looking back!

by Caetano_Family

Starting out with the whole solution has been overwhelming but boy as I’m starting to wrap my head around this and seeing everything it offers holy cow this is the best thing since sliced bread. Even this mobile app is top notch. If you can donate please do!! Thank you for all the work the community has been putting into this, it’s wonderful.

by GoBlue23

Very well made, allowing for both easy and advanced configuration for notifications, location tracking, and control. You will have to get your hands dirty setting up a Home Assistant controller in your home, but I highly recommend it. There are a lot of great things you can customize and automate if willing to learn.

by Ihatethatineedanicknameforthis

Home Assistant is awesome, the best smart home software I’ve used for sure. It’s not the easiest to use sometimes, it does take some homework, but it is the most powerful. I love that it’s all self-hosted, I don’t have to worry about any information or communication in the cloud. There are so many integrations available that it surprises me sometimes. HomeAssistant is great, it functions like you would expect HomeAssistant to, as an extension of any other interface for the software. I can’t recommend HomeAssistant enough, and Home Assistant in general if you dedicate the time to it.

by Jays EF

But I will for this!

So far my experience with HA has been delightful - one particularly enjoyable experience was going to the integration screen, clicking on August (door locks), and within seconds being able to control my locks from HA. It even pulled in the open/closed door sensor!

I’ve only scratched the surface of HA but I can’t wait to do more.

by Trippen190

A friend of mine got me interested, I delayed cause I was using Smarthings and wanted to get more out of my investment. But after moving to Home assistant everything in my home is automated it works flawlessly HomeAssistant is great excellent service.

One caveat you have to have a lot of computer skills a lot of programming understanding and quite a bit of technological competence to set it up, but if you meet that criteria there’s nothing better than a Home Assistant.

by Socono

Once you outgrow your smartthings and wink cloud dependent automations and eco system, you will move to host your own. Home-assistant is the most versatile platform to do this. Countless integrations with other technologies and community supported as well. It can stitch together many dislike automation technologies . As of this review still pre 1.0 so you must bring some technical chops along to work with it or the desire to learn as you adopt a new technology.

by Rach998

Thanks for keeping HomeAssistant updated! This is hands down the best way to keep many home automation devices managed at the same time, even if the interface has a little bit of a learning curve. Rather than 12 different apps, I only need 1.
Plus the capability of HomeAssistant to work on local wifi without storing data in the cloud or being dependent on internet connectivity is a huge benefit.

by LoneWolf345

I’ve been using and loved Home Assistant for many years. The major feature lacking for me is support for multiple instances. I have an instance of HA running at two homes and my office. Waiting for the day when I can use HomeAssistant as a device tracker for all three locations. I won’t take a star off for it because it’s a feature request that may only benefit a minority of the user base. HomeAssistant has been functioning great.

by Nick3578554323

A great app for Home Assistant. Design your interface on the computer with either the included buttons or get free addons to customize your experience further. Keeps it easy for beginners or advanced features for more tech-savvy types.

My biggest gripe with other smart home hubs like SmartThings are that I can’t change change the UI and unable to see all my sensors on one page. With the Home Assistant app, I was able to create custom buttons and display everything on the same page for an instant status of my house.

by CruiseCacher

I love HomeAssistant. For anyone looking into home control and home automation, Home Assistant is an open source (free) platform for control and automation of all your devices. This iOS app is the mobile companion that gives you access to all the same views and features as you'd have while at home. With frequent updates and ample support, you can't go wrong. A huge thanks to the developers that put their time into this!! Great app!!

by Trickynickyyy

Pretty good system however why in the world is it so hard to arrange the cards the way you want? It’s super restrictive and frustrating I’m hopefully waiting for an update that allows me to get all my cameras and integrations nicely arranged in the space given instead of having them look like a 5 year old placed them

by Woothok

Love HomeAssistant. We're an Apple family, but our smart home system all runs through Home Assistant, and for us this is *much* better front-end solution than HomeKit integration. Have tried several different approaches to presence detection, and HomeAssistant does far and away the best with virtually no batter degradation. Love it.