Smart Things seems more about pushing automation features on the consumer than letting the consumer control their devices. Before in your notifications shade you would have a Device Control button that would instantly bring up a tile list of all your smart things. Lights had little power buttons in the top right to quickly toggle them on and off. To adjust the brightness you could simply slide your finger across the tile horizontally. You could even have two devices show up in a "room" to control them all with the same tap.
Now you swipe down from the right side of the screen or swipe down twice from anywhere else to see the "smart things" button. Instead of small tiles you now have brick menus for each device. You can't view as many devices in one area anymore. The little power buttons are still there but brightness now has its own bar above different automated modes. You can't set them into rooms anymore to control devices at the same time. You have to control them individually. What once took me a swipe and a tap now is 3 to 4 actions to complete. It doesn't always work anymore either.
I'll turn on my two lights: in the same room, and the same light fixture. One turns on nice and bright. The other I have to look at the fixture to tell if it's even on. I'll tap one of the modes for the light and the brightness doesn't change. I have to tap a different setting and then tap the one I want again. Or I have to adjust up or down the brightness and set it back where I want it. The routine for turning lights on or off based on my location is inconsistent too. If just the right update comes through or randomly I'll be out and about, check my devices spontaneously and see they are still on. Then I have to reprogram my automation before it works again.
If automations were perfect and would solve all my issues I could understand pushing them. Sadly they are just about as much of a mess. If I want to set my lights to dim slowly before I go to bed I have to predict what brightness I'm going to have my lights at. Instead of having the app simply dim them from whatever value they are at to 0 I have to choose what value I want them to dim from. So an hour before I go to bed my lights will either brighten or dim and then slowly dim for the next hour.
Then the widgets. Instead of having a basic on off functionality they only support automations and modes. Modes which cannot be used while the phone is in power saving mode. What if I have a light setting I typically like to leave my lights at? Why can't I just have a power button to turn them on at that preset brightness? All of this just adds more that I have to do to simply turn on my lights. Isn't the point of this to make my life easier?
