IKEA Home smart 1 Reviews

Strengths:
IKEA ’s app and the SECURITY model it uses (to SECUREly communicate with the Tradfri hub with COAP TLS) while RESPECTing your data privacy (by NOT spying on you and NOT reporting your time-stamped usage data to its servers) deserves a LOT of praise and it’s very well engineered ‘under-the-hood’.

This is all in complete contrast to how the Hue app and bridge setup works, and how it’s security model is STILL “trivial” to defeat with a MITM attack, since it still uses a self-signed security certificate for https. It also sends a ton of data back to its
home servers on a regular basis, and this is bad.

The biggest weakness for IKEA’s app and Tradfri setup is that there’s still no ability to configure the Tradfri lights to NOT automatically get turned back on in the middle of the night after a power outage (which Hue app does allow user to configure to prevent)

PLEASE implement this feature in your app and Tradfri lights’ firmware!

It is ridiculous homeSmart does not have Cloud Integration for remote access after several years on market or a means to provide port forwarding to be able to control Trådfri hub from app. Sonos integration is not polished and crashes a lot hence my only view is to use the Sonos app but the effort to create a Sonos integration is nice overall as it helps bring down the inflated price of Sonos. Would love a Connect device for existing stereo that did not cost $350 a pop. Lights since they are on Zigbee Light Standard are better to integrate with SmartThings/HomeAssistant or if lucky integrate with Hue app. HomeSmart needs a lot work from Ikeas software development team in my opinion to compete competitively with Hue.

Also random issues with not able to connect to Hub from app although directly connected on same network. Many areas for improvement.

With all of my smart home devices, I prevent them from communicating with the outside world for security reasons. When I want to control them while not at home, I connect to my home VPN network to form a secure tunnel into my network. Every smart device works with this setup except for this IKEA app. The reason is that it requires that your device be connected to a WiFi network. Doesn’t have to be your home network (if connected to your home VPN). Just has to be connected to A WiFi network. This is dumb and unnecessary. If I connect to a WiFi network outside of my home and then connect to my home VPN, it works fine. So what I’ve had to do to get around to this artificial and unnecessary limitation is to find a public WiFi network somewhere, connect to it, connect to my VPN and then open IKEAHomesmart1 and control the IKEA device.

Please fix this.

I'm having trouble setting up the Trådfri Gateway kit and IKEAHomesmart1 is currently unusable for me.

Everything worked for a couple days after my initial purchase and setup. However, sometime in the past few days the system became unresponsive and subsequent attempts to factory reset the gateway and reconfigure the network have not been successful.

Specifically, when following the instructions to pair a remote with the gateway IKEAHomesmart1 never displays the dialog that the new device has been found nor does the network LED on the gateway flash 4 times as described.

The remotes and bulbs function as expected standalone, without using the gateway and app.

Customer support and troubleshooting have been nearly non-existent. In-app (and App Store) support directs me to the general Ikea customer support page. The Trådfri support page FAQ does not describe this scenario and offers no resolution. Phone support did not have knowledge about this product and directed me to the retail store. The co-workers at the retail store were understanding but mentioned that the product is new and they don't have much experience with it and were unable to solve the issue and offered an exchange.

I'm submitting this review in the hopes that *someone* with a technical background associated with the product and/or app can contact me to help troubleshoot.

It’s disrespectful to your users. You clearly have issues with your app, and you’re not addressing any of them here, or anywhere. Please respond as human beings. It keeps loosing contact with HomeKit. The only way to reconnect is to reset the whole system and re-pair every unit one by one, twice. Once for TRÅDFRI and once for HomeKit. With 20 units it’s not fun the twentieth time around. If power fails, get ready to reset and start reconnecting, naming lamps and making groups. As a stand-alone app, it’s just not usable as a system with more than one room. Is there any plans on making anything close to HomeKit features natively? Like an on/off switch for leaving the house? Or scenes for all rooms at once? There is new hardware coming out, but no innovation with IKEAHomesmart1 since it was released. What the heck is going on over there? Has IKEA left the software to bare minimum maintenance? Are there any plans at all?

These lights are clearly marketed as a more affordable alternative to Phillips Hue. I’ve tried both and Hue has shortcomings of its own, not least of which is the lack of cooler tones and fewer lumens. I’m also ambivalent about both apps. I think Hue has some advantages but the widget and room schemes seem awkward. TRÅDFRI has this as well, but it feels incrementally better.

The obvious areas for improvement for TRÅDFRI are HomeKit compatibility and more choices when selecting color temperatures. Once those features are added in, this will be a formidable product. I assume that since ikea is not a tech company first, they are not developing their tech products as quickly. It would be refreshing if their team was more receptive and proactive about putting these changes into action.

In response to the one I recieved-

What exactly is the issue? Like I stated, every time there is an update, something looses connection; bulbs, remotes, sensors, stops communicating with HomeKit... Sometimes a restart fixes it, sometimes I need to re-pair the device. Maybe take more time with the updates to be sure they won't break whats already working.

"Hej! We are sorry to read this. Updates should give you the feeling of improvement, but we understand that e.g. necessary gateway restarts after an update, things can happen. With the recent update we have introduced a hot fix for ongoing connectivity problems between app and gateway. While this has brought some relief to users, we understand that there is still some way to go. Would you like to share what exactly is not working anymore? /IKEA Home smart"

I didn’t know there could actually be software written this bad but this is horrible. First I haven’t been able to connect to my gateway for months. Tried resetting it without any luck. Next the interface is crap. The timer settings are stupid. You set one and it interferes with another. How about a simple linear timeline for each day and I can take blocks to select what I want the lights doing at each time. It’s dumb to set a wake up time but if I want the light to go back off as he sun comes up, oops that is an interference. Stupid.

I’ve had this now since at least last August/ September and would happily return it all if I could. I was hoping they would be about 50 to 75% of the Philips but they are barely 1%. Absolutely worst automated lighting solution on the market. Cheap Chinese crap software is actually written far better than this.

IKEAHomesmart1 interface is outdated. If you have 10 devices that you want to control with IKEAHomesmart1 you will need to scroll. Only devices fit per screen. Please this is just bad interface design.

Creating a schedule is not that smart. There is no way in an easy way to set multiple daily schedules for each device. For example I have a fan and I want it to turn on 10 times per day. You will need to create 10 independent schedules, and if you have other devices that you want to schedule well that becomes a nightmare. It’s much easier to do it on a manual timer, so there is nothing smart about it.

If you have small flat with few devices you will be fine, but if you want to do more complex automations the look for other solutions.

Worked great for a couple months with little issues. At some point, none of the bulbs were recognized on my phone (they still turn on manually but I can’t control them). Tried to reset my WiFi, no change. Decided to just disconnect and reconnect everything (gateway, remote, bulbs). Now nothing will connect/pair. Pressing the button for pairing on the remote does absolutely nothing. The gateway can’t be found by IKEAHomesmart1 , despite everything being connected properly. I’ve already tried every hard reset option. I have no idea what to do at this point. Troubleshoot on the Ikea website is nonexistent. Every question concerning a problem is answered with setup instructions (e.g. Bulb not connecting? Connect using the remote!) I have never in my life been this frustrated with any piece of technology. It just does. not. work.

Yes, setting up IKEAHomesmart1 for your smart devices is a bit of a pain. IKEAHomesmart1 is fairly simple, almost too simple, to use. It’s a little misleading to have my remote controls for my blinds, as well as the repeater, to show up in devices. Since they are listed, it would be nice if their firmware would eventually support Thread. I would rate IKEAHomesmart1 higher if it was cross platform friendly. I set up everything up on my iPhone. I went to use IKEAHomesmart1 on my iPad, only to find that I have to set up my iPad independently. Why can’t I just log in to my account, like every other smart home product I have. Thankfully the blinds show up in my HomeKit app.

Stuck in a mode where I get asked what I want to add even though I’ve already added 2 blinds. Can’t get past it to actually control the blinds. Deleted IKEAHomesmart1 and reinstalled and it’s still doing the same thing. Kind of ridiculous.

UPDATE

Finally IKEAHomesmart1 was able to remember that we had set up blinds with it but sadly, we had already reset the blinds and got them working on my wife’s phone. Now we’re trying to pair new blinds and the remote will not pair to IKEAHomesmart1 . We looked on the Ikea website and found NO SUPPORT PAGE FOR THE BLINDS. This is ridiculous. We see a page for the Gateway, the light bulbs, the lamp/speakers, the speakers and THAT’S IT. What is wrong with you guys? The software is buggy and you guys don’t even have a support/troubleshooting page?!?

It’s almost mind boggling the issues that both IKEAHomesmart1 /software and hardware seems to have for IKEA based devices. I can’t even express the odd navigation behavior when killing IKEAHomesmart1 and restarting it and immediately receiving a new device onboarding flow for setting up the blinds. Not being notified of updates while things are being linked and setup only to have things stall. This was a poor experience and poorly designed UX. IKEAHomesmart1 is buggy and seems to have many state issues, and the hardware seems week in quality/signal/communication. Software should have been able to solve common IKEA issues, but it would seem their instructions made it into their app UX.

I have to give one star because IKEAHomesmart1 keeps crashing, takes forever for IKEAHomesmart1 to start up, crashes, and forgets my gateway often.

IKEAHomesmart1 has a nice layout, but I suggest that a dimming/brightness slider with the three “mood” circle buttons right next to it for that specific bulb. From the current layout, I see how you want to separate the different groups of lights, but with 3 groups, you then have to scroll around to find a certain light. Use tabs, or the horizontal page switching things that are common in iOS apps, for easy switching between rooms or groups. Also, please add a widget for iOS so that I can turn off/on a light from the notification screen with a button.

IKEAHomesmart1 is very good at walking the user through the setup with the lights/remotes. The user defined moods are excellent ways to make your room look great! They are easy to set up and quick to use. However there is still work to be done with the timer features and improving grouping functionality. Widgets are not present which are quite important for a smart home app. Connecting to the hub when opening IKEAHomesmart1 takes a few seconds, I expect it to be snappier. I also feel constricted by just 3 color temperatures, 5 would be very welcome. These are all things that I imagine IKEA is aware of, I am looking forward to the future versions of IKEAHomesmart1 !!

Latest update adds more products but now IKEAHomesmart1 asks you what you want to install every couple of times you open it and there is no exit option. Only thing you can do is shut down IKEAHomesmart1 . Seems like sloppy but testing. It’s really come a long way in the last year too bad they still need to do some work.

Overall it works well once you get it working. It may take a few times to get the lamps to connect. Once connected they are rock stable. The various remote connect without any issues like one expects. The white driver modules that have two light settings works well with its dumb light switch puck. Now the big issue is the smart gray driver modules. I have three of them and can not get a single one to connect. I see that other people also have the same issues with the smart driver. I hope that get it resolved soon. Online support does not mention troubleshooting any driver issues.

Great IKEA smartblinds, but awful software! It took several days to get the hub to communicate with my router and my 3 ikea blinds linked to the hub. Followed the confusing directions to the T many times over and still success was hit and miss with SmartHome. After weeks of trying, I am still unangezogne get voice commands working on Google Nest and Alexa device. With Siri, commands to open and close blinds are occasionally ignored or performed erratically. IKEA must do better with their software and customers should hold off buying the blinds until the many bugs have been ironed out, else you my find yourself tearing your hair out. The only positive comment Ican offer is that the price of the blinds was reasonable.

I bought 2 blinds and it only seems to be BARELY successful at syncing 1. The second one refuses to get recognized by IKEAHomesmart1 sometimes the repeater doesn’t get recognized, the blinds always pair perfectly to the physical remote that never is an issue. I’ve tried resetting the gateway, resetting the remotes, resetting the repeaters. Resetting literally every single piece and running through the setup over and over again NEVER actually seeing it pair completely a single time. I spent 500 dollars on this cus it’s the cheapest way to make blinds work with Siri HomeKit but this ikea app is garbage please fix it i don’t want to have to return these blinds. Really disappointed with this whine experience.

As a blind person it would be very useful to be able to control my blinds and know when they are up or down or set them to automatically close at night. I know I can do all this but the IKEA app which is required for set up is not accessible. Buttons are in labeled there are just icons but they don’t explain what the icons are. It’s very frustrating because Apple house you an interface guidelines that developers are supposed to follow and it’s always all very clear how to do it. Please have your developers make some simple changes to make IKEAHomesmart1 fully accessible

The TRÅDFRI system seems to work as advertised. I had some issues pairing the remote to the gateway, but once I found that *I* was the problem it went smoothly from there. IKEAHomesmart1 doesn’t seem to handle switching from the background well as it frequently asks to reconnect to the gateway by scanning the barcode, but a quick closure of IKEAHomesmart1 (by removing it from IKEAHomesmart1 switcher) fixes that. It would be nice to have full color control instead of being locked into the presets, and adding some functionality such as syncing timers and moods with sunrise and sunset would be neat, but neither are deal breakers. I’m looking forward to HomeKit integration, which is supposedly coming soon, but all in all, I’m happy with the lights (and IKEAHomesmart1 ).

I’m not sure why the average rating for IKEAHomesmart1 is so high. My experience, so far, has been sub par. I bought the IKEA smart blinds and used IKEAHomesmart1 to connect with the gateway. I’ve had to completely remove the blinds twice now because they can’t be found or only one blind will be controlled through timers. Speaking of timers, the interface makes no sense for blinds. Why do I have to choose a time range for opening or closing instead of just a time? Also, I can’t connect the blinds to HomeKit. Maybe the functionality doesn’t yet exist? Pairing could also be a lot simpler if you ask me. So IKEAHomesmart1 (for blinds at least) has potential but it’s not there yet.

Have had the system for little less than a year, and I have to say does anyone internal actually work on improving g the software? I would say roughly 90% of the time I’ve owned it the gateway loses connection to the light sources and I have to do a manual reset on the back of the gateway.
Very recently, IKEAHomesmart1 has been updated such that it forces you to connect to a remote control. However, my remote control battery died and upon replacing IKEAHomesmart1 STILL CANNOT find the remote somehow. Performing a reset of the remote control as instructed by IKEAHomesmart1 yielded absolutely nothing.
Guys, just pay some one to fix the software. The product is totally useless until you fix these mounting issues.

After resetting the Tradfri to factory settings and starting over after calls with IKEA I finally got IKEAHomesmart1 to work and connect with HomeKit. I had to reset tradfri twice and revert it to factory settings and reconnect 4 bulbs and remote both times. Frustrating experience and calls to ikea customer service were just telling me the same thing or to bring it back to ikea.
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Latest update quit working with HomeKit. Tried resetting and won’t connect.

After most recent update lights won’t even connect to Tradfri Ikea app at all. Do not buy and I do not recommend. Waste of money.