App Progress vs Website Beta

It is a chicken or egg situation I realise (kind of!?) - but having spent some time today using the web beta portal and then looking at the Giv App - I found the app quite dated!!
I wonder what the plans are / logic is moving forward with updating the app at a similar time/rate that the website updates for example the Modes 1-4 in app compared to dropping those numbers to describe the modes in the beta site?

On a similar note - I would love to have a Giv scheduler available to plan multiple charge/discharge modes (similar but better than the OctopusR&DLabs)? Any thoughts @simon_swinburne ?

Griff
keeping me busy today....
The app is dated ( even though its only 6 months old ). It will be revisited and be like a pheonix. The purpose of the app is being reviewed as part of that, so maybe I use this as an opportunity to pose the questions

Modes will be dropped as they confuse people. Just have charge / discharge with targets etc is easy to understand

I appreciate that the beta site isnt fully reponsive yet, but it will be. All cards should work on any form factor device. When we achieve that the question is what is the need for a mobile app? Would a progressive web app be enough? all features avaialble on all platforms, with all capabilities delivered at the same time across them?

Thoughts?
Why do you need an app?
What do you need it to do?
Does the beta site do it on your mobile device?
Should we design some more specific mobile friendly cards?

So deliberatly a little provacative. Constructive answers only please. I would love comments like
"I would like to be able to <some requirement> in order to <do something> so that <an outcome>" so I can understand the rationale for the comment (yes thats Agile delivery speak, but thats what we are doing )

simon_swinburne "I would like to be able to" do the same as I have always done with the app, click it and see battery state of charge, quickly change % of charge from grid. So a 2 click process and a 4 click. Loading my browser than the site from my faves list etc is just more clicking. For me an app makes this quick and easy and I only need basic function. Battery state, change % of charge from grid or turn grid charge off.

simon_swinburne On mobile, the whole beta site is rendering with messy horizontal and vertical scroll, when really an app should be focused on quick controls and information.

browellm
ok, I take that on board.... The site needs work to get it to work better on smaller screens. Thats a big area of improvment offort for us. And accesibility etc etc

But if you had a mobile optimise webpage that just launched straight to the 'battery managment' would that meet the need. You can have a very focussed webpage

My own in home dashboard is a webpage. I use Android. I can 'install' a webpage which creates effectly an app in the app launcher. When that is selected it just fires up directly in the page I want ( no need for web bookmarks etc ). Thats really minimal. So 1 click to launch and monitor to see SOC, Power etc
You could have a menu to goto control ( more clicks ), or ( like I do ) I have another 'app' to control. With that
I can change mode in 2 clicks ( launch and select ),
I can change schedules by launch, configure ( <start>/<end>/<soc>), set

To work the device needs internet access anyway, so if a webpage is as easy to launch as that, and as simple to use as that, would that not work for you?

https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/working-with-mobile-technology
We dont stick to this rigously, but as I worked in this area for a long time and when the standards were being written, its not hard to see where my mind is and the direction I prefer

There are circumstances for an app. I know if at least 1 that might apply to our solutions ( so I am open to thoughts )

None IT happy users, my wife as an example. Website would be fine for a lot of people posting on here, but for non IT friendly users who just want to see SOC, maybe any error alerts? Apps are more simple and friendly front ended. I do get what you are saying but I think think a basic app is going to keep 80% happy while the other 20% tinker.

simon_swinburne I honestly think mapping your new "modes" on to the existing app framework would satisfy many people.

Can I ask a question? I am using (Samsung) Android on my phone and although play store says latest app is 2.7.5, even uninstalling and reinstalling still leaves me with 2.7.0.9. On this app the "smart charge" seems to keep going off, and so the battery % regularly now drops to 1%, even though theoretically on the web interface it is set to limit the discharge to 4%. Normally I have been using the app to see what is going on and only look at the web maybe once a week. Is this an issue with the app (overruling the settings previously on the web), or the hardware on the controller, or something else? Thanks

simon_swinburne

It's formatting on a mobile that's a pain - even with what most would describe as a large mobile screen (Pixel 6 Pro) I find its just too data dense to fit properly on a screen - I can't even get all the options for the energy chart page onto a screen for example.

I guess the other faff is getting into chrome, typing a webpage etc is just not as simple as podging an icon on your homepage etc.

App side what I don't really need is the deep data dive from web portal either - but I do want to have simple access to mode controls and a quick summary of what the system is currently doing/daily totals. So in terms of the existing app, the current load screen and the last page with mode settings, I never really use the battery tracker page nor the daily performance graph stuff.

I guess another card added to the existing portal that is geared for mobile access that loads via an app for the lazy amongst us (and your less IT enthusiast user base) that just gives control options coupled with a 'live/last update' system summary and daily totals would be ideal. You could even add an icon to take you to the web portal page for more data etc. I also like @THALL idea that any error messages also pop up in the app, as solar and battery technology becomes more mainstream I can't see those end users being as involved in their day to day data - it'll just need to work and be easy to operate.

Best example of that would be the intended direction of being on something like Octopus Agile charging a battery at cheap rate overnight whilst using the Solcast forecast for the following day to adjust that to keep incoming grid use to a minimum- just click an option on an app and off it goes! (Simply 🙂)

I've no idea how difficult the above would be to code but as the app is essentially a webpage redirect and another dashboard card (not necessarily available as an option either on the conventional webportal) I can't see it being a huge faff.

If further development of an app will continue, a feature I'd like to see would be alert notifications. for example, if my battery is approaching full, so I can turn on stuff to absorb the excess. Also a low battery alert, such as 20%. Even a high draw alarm would be handy. Though I think my family will definitely leave me if I go full on "dad" not just monitoring the thermostat and light switches; but having tech tell me when someone is taking the mick with a 30 min shower.

I've only had my system for three days now and like everyone else in this situation, I'm addicted to checking on the app or portal to see what the panels are doing! I'm enjoying looking at the portal and seeing how much has been generated by that point in the day. Its clearly represented on the dashboard, both what they are currently generating and how much in total for the day. Its a bit annoying that I can't seem to do the same on the app. Am I missing something, somewhere on the app? I know on the graphs you can go to 'energy' and generation to get a bar chart of the day. I just can't find where it tallies this up and shows me how much I have generated for the day.

Salibaba
c_squared

We will be adding in app / web notifications in the future while we're dealing with server improvements over the period of Christmas. Expect to see notifications available in the future!