Dear Friends,
I am excited to kick off this monthly email that will help communicate our direction on future app and software products, such as our Director app, potential integrations to other systems, and longer-term plan discussions around things like Matter.
These updates from Richard do not “replace” updates from Ken. My updates will include tips, new enhancements to the Director app, future surveys to help us prioritize Director features, and information to enhance your Insteon network. Ken’s updates will focus primarily on general Insteon news, such as new hardware product releases, future webinars, and business updates.
The Director App rather than Insteon App
All our app development is focused on Director. When we acquired the company, we had to make decisions related to what the path forward would be for Insteon. Based on the older Insteon for Hub (IFH) app being very out of compliance and some of the source code missing, we decided to rebuild Director.
Devices Added to Director
There has been a lot of work done on Director since Fall of 2022. Although we have much more to do, we have added support for several existing products such as:
New i3 products
We are currently working on the legacy wired Insteon Thermostat and legacy wireless Insteon Thermostat. We are releasing a beta version this week to beta users. We hope to have the Thermostat done by the end of January or early February.
To learn more about Director or to download, please visit https://www.insteon.com/director-details.
Note: The Director app is only compatible with Hub 2 so if you are running Hub 1, please consider upgrading soon. To make it simple, we provide a migration service which provides you with a seamless upgrading experience https://shop.insteon.com/products/migration-service-from-hub-1-to-hub-2.
Scene and Room Enhancements Coming in January
We are working on an update to scenes tab in Director, where instead of seeing one long list of scenes, you will have them displayed in the rooms you assigned when you built the scene. This will align with the layout of the devices tab. This means you will be able to put scenes in rooms and put scenes into favorites in the scene tab. This allows for an easier navigation of your scenes.
Speaking of rooms, we have heard from many of you that the room names were difficult to read and that their touch areas were too small. We will be rolling out a new update that improves readability and navigation.
Support and Feedback Options in Director
To facilitate more feedback and to make it easier for you to submit support requests, we have added a new Support section under the Settings tab in Director. When tapping the Support & Feedback row, you’ll have the following options:
Of course, you can also click on the links above to provide feedback or ask questions.
Get More Out of Insteon
In talking with customers, it became apparent that there are many simple ideas that may help them get more out of their Insteon setup. To help more customers, we will be putting together a collection of these solutions. To kick things off, we have the following tips for you this month:
Tip – Rooms are not just “rooms”
We want to remind users that “Rooms” do not need to be a physical room. In devices (and soon in scenes), you can put a device into one or more rooms, and favorites. However, you can consider a room a category or theme rather than just a physical room. For instance, you might have a room called “Summer” for the devices you want to control on your patio during the summer. Or a room called “Holiday Decorations” for the devices that control your Holiday decorations. By organizing devices into themes, you can make navigation of devices easier.
Geeky Tip – Holiday Plug-in Modules
Some customers unplug their on/off or dimmer module when they put away their holiday lights. Some have asked if it is better to leave the plug-in in place or pack it up. I would recommend you leave it plugged in. Additional plugin modules improve the speed and reliability of your Insteon network. In addition, we are working on a remote support tool that allows more diagnostic capability with these plugins left in place.
We know we have a lot of work to do with the Director app. We appreciate your patience and support as we rebuild Insteon. We hope to make many improvements to Director and Insteon in 2024. Please keep giving us feedback and ideas!
Warm Regards,
Richard Sudek
Co-Founder & Chief Geek
Insteon user since 2005
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April updates from Co-Founder & Chief Geek, Richard Sudek