DOOR: Smart Access & Control

This App has several issues that introduce a lot of friction in entire system. 1) App is super slow. I believe it tries to authenticate user’s account with the server each time you open the app making it very very slow. I have to wait for 15 secs before it’s ready to unlock the doors this is after I have already signed in before. Apple Watch is no different. It’s faster to unlock the door with a physical key. Product team: make it faster to unlock. Atleast match the speed of using a physical key. Right now I’m yelling curses every single time I have to unlock. 2) I have enabled notifications assuming I get notified anytime the door is opened by authorized user. I do not get any notification. Product team: please send me a notification “[user name] has unlocked the door at [date/time]” immediately (and not 2 mins later) 3) app asked me to reset the password like 4 days after setting up the account. Product team: Add support for 1Password authentication and passkeys. 4) we have been surprised by door being unlocked by kids. Product team: allow option to play a tiny chime after unlocking 5) add support for Apple Key allowing me to unlock similar to the experience of unlocking my Tesla. 6) improve the user experience design currently it looks very unappealing. 7) App logs out repeatedly for no reason. I hope product team will respond to this.

So far, this app seems about the same as Latch. It seems as if the required distance from the door you are trying to unlock has had decreased (you need to be closer than with latch). Reordering is glitchy and making a widget can be a problem when trying to select the door at the bottom of the list. Widgets will still disappear from time to time. While you are able to make a DOOR app Widget for Apple CarPlay, it is not functional. This would primarily be helpful for those who use the app to enter parking garages. I hope that increasing the comparability of the DOOR app with Apple CarPlay is a plan for the future as doing so would make use of the app much easier, faster, and safer. 

My apartments originally had the latch app as our main usage for locking and unlocking all doors and gate systems. I had no issues whatsoever. Ever since we transitioned over to the DOOR app it is about a 50-50 as to whether or not you will be able to unlock doors and gates via cell phone or having to manually type in the codes. The DOOR app always tells me that my phone is not connected to Bluetooth even when I can confirm that it is. The DOOR app also is unable to connect to your Siri for verbal cues in the event that you were unable to reach your phone. One of my biggest complaints with both apps is that there is no feature to unlock gates at a distance, you have to be within at least 2 feet which makes it incredibly difficult if you have guests coming over that you are not able to remotely open the gate for them. You either have to drive to the gate or have them download the app entirely and give them special permissions….. which I have come to experience that it is sometimes very difficult and they don’t always receive the email in order to download it as an extension of your app. All in all…. this app can be very frustrating.