It seems to me that if there is going to be a hardware widget mounted on the wall for the sole purpose of humans fiddling with it, then it ought to be engineered and optimized from that perspective first (UX: user experience)...
this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2024
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I guess I just don’t trust thermostat makers to be able to develop a competent mobile app. If one did manage to develop a really good mobile app then I’d be excited to use that. I don’t see it happening.
Perhaps one of the biggest issues is that thermostats are typically made by HVAC type companies who don’t have an established culture of developing quality software. Their management may see software only as a necessary evil, not a product differentiator.
This may have been further exacerbated by the HVAC installation and repair industry which has a lot of issues of its own (licensing, conflict of interest, and bundling).
Totally get it. I'm often frustrated by this kind of "good hardware bad software" experience, and kinda hate the "install our crappy app" push. What I would like to see is companies doing what they do best (in this case, a thermostat builder making a good thermostat), and leaving the rest of it (like mobile/web/control apps) to those who do it better. What we see in practice though is that business don't want to create an 'interface' for interoperability (for fear that they may be replaced), but instead want to "control everything" end to end, which is why we see proprietary thermostat-to-air-handler protocols, and even encryption between garage door openers and the BUTTON on the wall to open your own garage door.
Yeah exactly. Open standards are what we want but they’re just so hard to get without regulation. Sometimes we see industries that are smart enough to form their own standards body when they realize it’s in all their best interests to standardize. Other industries seem to never realize that.