App Profile: LinkTap

Paininass-2

Rating: 3/5

Wow, great customer service, perhaps the best I’ve ever dealt with. With that said, the hardware seems well made. Where this equipment falls short is with the software. My entire career was in electronic hardware and software and trust me when I say, it’s hard to find good software folks these days. I think Elon Musk must have all of them. The software is where this product falls short. The app needs to be re-done with the emphasis on use ability in mind. Provide easy way to skip a cycle without disturbing the programmed cycle. In general, key ease of use in mind every second during the design stage of programming, make a list of everything the user would want. Sync the app with the web based setup so when I set a preference in the app, the web interface is able to sync with it, a cloud is being used, it should be easy. It’s a tough frustrating learning curve to get a grip on this stuff, we’re old and don’t have much time left to learn this thing, we really like the hardware, and it’s not cheap hardware by any stretch. I’ve got well over $300 invested, had to give up food for this. You fix this software and you’ll have the best there is and I’ll give it 6 stars. Gene L

J DeBello

Rating: 3/5

App is a little rough. Needs to be polished and simplified. Alexa skill must us a long verbal command- Alexa, ask Linktap to water for 10 min. Having to address the product name is a major turn off for me. It limits the person to know exactly what everything is called. My wife will never be able to turn this on, not because she speaks only three words.. No and Shut Up. Usually in that order. I’m using this Linktap to control misters in my backyard. I had hoped to be able to say Alexa! Main it Rain! No dice.

MacGenius

Rating: 4/5

I have never had a single instance where LinkTap didn’t do what I asked it to which is a lot more than I can say for the other automatic waters I have had. That being said the UI often causes me to ask it to do the wrong thing even though I’ve used it enough that I should be able to avoid the pitfalls. The best example is instant watering mode. There is a slider for on/off and then a button to enable instant mode. If you click enable it will default to enabling instant mode to the off setting! On the other hand if you set it to on then enabling it does what you would expect and even helpfully asks if you want to reenable the prior scheduled mode afterwards. There are many other features of the app that are similarly confusing to use but they really do sit atop an amazing piece of hardware combined with a lot of powerful features. You just have to be willing to stumble your way through an incredibly modal and confusing interface.