Smart Shades 2.0

We purchased Shades from Smith & Nobel for our Master Bedroom (5 Windows), Kitchen (2 Windows) and Family Room (3 High windows with Solar charging). We have extensive lighting automation in our home. When we remodeled our first floor, automated shades seemed like a good addition to our home automation plan. This was especially the case in our Family Room with windows 14 feet high. Some blinds have different features that can be enabled in the iPhone app, like ability to open fully or a specific percentage. Take the time to explore features blind types as your order. We had some issues initially getting the shades to work properly. Once the hub was upgraded to newest version issues using the hand held remotes, (separate remotes for each room) were resolved by an onsite tech. However, issues persisted with the iPhone app that needed additional work by the development team, who made several software upgrades over a short period of time. The iPhone app is very flexible but there’s a bit of a learning curve to be able leverage all the features to get to the desired result. It’s been a journey to get the blinds working to our desired end state but we are pleased with the result. Many thanks to Della and her team for working on fixes and patience with me as a new user of the app.

If you have the opportunity to work with Robyn Heine (designer), Mario Saldana (installer), Della McCay (motorization expert support) and/or Andre Comitre (tech support), consider yourself blessed. Robyn was a phenomenal designer and got me exactly what I needed. Mario fit everything beautifully in my home. I had issues with the app connecting with my eero system and Della and Andre were relentless in their pursuit for a resolution. A company can be made on its tech, user experience, or affordability, but few things are a proxy for how a customer feels than the way the company treats its customers. On that point, my experience has been second to none. Cannot say enough about these folks and how they treated me. Five star people all the way.

I have the new hub, that started shipping in September. It only had Alexa functionality. I traded messages with Smith&Noble and they told me that Google assistant support would be available in late October. However it is still not available. I was then thrilled to see that they started supporting Siri shortcuts for scenes. However the app seems to allow only one shortcut. So if I create a shortcut for a scene to open a blind and then I try to create another shortcut for a scene to close the blind, The second shortcut will not be added. Instead the app brings up the first shortcut and thinks it’s what I want and only allows me to edit it rather than add a new one. This system has potential but needs a lot more development work.