Simple Control Home Remote Reviews

Vera plus

Captanbipto

This app recognizes and allows you to control Vera,s and HomeKit devices but it has a poor interface and is to complex for average users out of 4 family members all of them including myself would rather just use separate app’s.

1 star is too generous

Curt.P

Can’t even get past the subscribe button. Free trial doesn’t work, no options when logging into website and can’t even pay to use it.

New app is a scam

Best way to automate anything

The old roomie remote worked great for years. Ever since SimpleControl it’s just turned into a giant scam. I’ve been double or triple billed. The app continually changes, all of a sudden they will start charging for something like guides then I get to spend a week trying to get ahold of someone to explain I bought a lifetime subscription that was supposed to include that service. As of now I just want to be done with them.

Or free requires paid subscription to do anything other than download

fool of me

Put that in your description

Extortionate pricing! No option to permanently upgrade devices, can cost $100 per year!!

Patrickl27

This app could be great, but the greed of the developers with their subscription model makes it unusable. Even their $300 product doesn't work forever, but requires continuous payment after 3 years! If they had an option to permanently purchase additional devices, as they used to back when they were Roomie Remote, this could be great. But I refuse to pay recurring fees forever for a remote app I probably won't ever use.

Convoluted Control

70watts

Paid for simple service since 2015. Was ok with spending hours on the GUI programming, and custom building codes, because it worked. Now I have 3 weird versions of the same app that all half work. I cannot even backup the configuration I spent so long programming. Its become easier to stand up, go to the device, and manually control it. I genuinely want to like this App. It was good when it worked.

It was great

Mkb20191978

Had the original version of the app and it was great. Was forced to the new app and it is very confusing and couldn’t get any help setting things up. Got a Harmony remote and it’s not as cool as the old app but it works plain and simple.

A must have Smart Home Solution

HandyAl86

I have been a user of this service/app and while it does involve a learning curve, the investment of your time to configure the platform is well worth it. They have a comprehensive setup guide and compatibility chart which was very helpful. Most of the configuration is intuitive through a visual interface. As far as competitors - I think Simple Control is the perfect balance between customizable and ease of configuration. Other solutions I have research are far lacking the range of devices supported and in a world of new tech constantly entering the market, I can count on Simple Control to integrate into the platform. Other solutions I have seen require some coding or large investment with little flexibility to make quick changes. There are many bad reviews around the time of a re-vamp. I agree the solution was garbage when the transition to version 5 occurred. They have since released many improvements which makes the app way more stable and powerful than the original. 4 stars because there is still some room for improving panel design customization and adding more overall color to the look.

Miss the old Roomie Remote!

rwfastrax

I would have reviewed the old Roomie Remote at 5 stars, but I don’t like what they’ve done at all. I’ve found myself using my individual remotes a lot more and “Simple” Control less and less. Looking for alternatives.

Just upgraded from v4.5

UserInWisconsin

As of Jan 2019 my old Roomie Service subscription ended (was $17 annually) without the ability to renew or upgrade so I’m forced to move to version 5 now ($49) to maintain the ability to add new devices and use triggers. I plan to maintain v4.5 on several older iPad devices which have been dedicated remotes and use a script to keep triggers in sync between the 2 environments. (2 MAC OS hubs, 1 for each version) My advice for new users; the Simple Control functionality of controlling devices is great but you’ll need to deal with the limitations of the v5 UI. I’ve looked at alternatives to Simple Control that are reasonably priced but I haven’t come across anything I like (yet). Support when I needed help in the past was typically good and responded quickly (sometimes within minutes). Documentation is ok but I haven’t been able to find answers to some of my concerns. One of the main reasons I had over 200 custom remotes in v4 was to have unique volume controls for each room (especially needed when having multiple TVs in a room) which I had to repeat for each activity. Ideally in v5 I would sense the best place for this is with a single custom module that could be added to each activity or have the volume controls for each device in the room appear on the home bar. It’s only been a few days so maybe the functionality already exists but I would hope I could do the same with lights specific to each room. Pros -Upgrading from previous version was painless. -Great device control -Large inventory of devices Cons -V5 Home bar seems to be useless or not intuitive. -Colorless UI with limited icons, adding custom images is possible but not too easy -On an iPad; v5 does not use the full resolution of the device, I prefer seeing more and scrolling less. It reminds me of standard VGA mode on Windows. Other -I would have preferred to pay double to maintain functionality and the UI of v4.5 Update (after about a week) -I’m getting used to the new UI and find it easier to move around in now. -Things are better once I figured out how to expand the commands within the activities. I didn’t see it documented and it wasn’t intuitive. Click the icon to the left of the device... -I find myself going from activity to the room frequently to run inline activities such as light and volume controls specific to the room. In v4 the activity list was visible while the remote was open. -I had to adjust a few toggle activities that were not working correctly. -I like the new Simple Home view for a summary of active processes. -The backup process is quick and easy. I used restore without any issues. -Remote access works great. -I look forward to new updates that improve user interaction and ease of making global changes.

Simple Control Home Remote Reviews – Page 3