VIZ Designer for HomeKit

This is not an entry level app, and it's not perfect. But this is the closest thing to a customizable home console app for homekit I could find, and it's pretty amazing. I've had an iPad pro displaying a "home console" designed with Viz Designer on my entry wall for the past 6 months. Techy friends are impressed with it and I love showing them what it can do. While I had some trouble getting it up and running, it's been working near perfectly 24/7 for the past 6 months.

I put my iPad into guided access. Works well no issues until the last update. Over night, the app appears to crash. No reason why. Attempted to reinstall it and it’s still crashing in the middle of the night. Ruled out guided access as the culprit by testing another app.

Very buggy and the integration is very clunky! I would say they need to update the user interface and be able to use full home templates! And the documentation is very poorly written!

The idea and the design aspect is good but I am having issue controlling some of my Philips hue light bulbs. The strange thing is the execute command is able to toggle some of my hue light bulbs but not others of the exact same type. The app was able to discover all lights but it is not able to control all. Also, the app is able to display the status of my Lutron dimmers but again the toggle command doesn’t work.

unable to login the macOS app or the iPad app. Resetting the password for one prevents the other one from working.

Major lack of support and useless product

Ok, I have contacted the makers of this app several times on Facebook and have received responses although they have been slow to respond. Now I am having issues where I have remotes created for my iPhone and my iPad. The exact assignments for each and every device are programmed into the different remotes, yet I am having inconsistent results. Some devices work on the iPhone but do not work on the iPad and vice versa. This is crazy. I have changed names thinking that MAYBE it’s a cache issue. Who knows. I have asked the makers to allow the end user to clear the cache on their servers, but I haven’t received an answer to that question. If not for these issues, this would be a 5 star app. I even offered to help troubleshoot with logs, or whatever they need, but NO RESPONSE.

Can’t really explain enough, but everything is by far the best and somewhat easiest way to get a home dashboard exactly the way you want it. Small learning curve with the PC Application, however when you take the time to get to know how everything works this is some solid stuff. With that said there’s a reason why I can’t give it the full 5 stars just yet. Seems as if development has either slowed or seized completely as there hasn’t been any improvements or bug fixes don’t to the applications. After spending hours creating my perfect dashboard it troubles me to say I won’t be able to utilize it unless device status can update stably. I’ve reported the issue multiple times to the dev team hoping for some sort of good outcome since no one else comes close to their level of ease when creating your dashboard. More info on the issue if the development team sees this review. I have icons on my home page of the dashboard that will change color depending if a device is on or off. The icon will change and update to the appropriate color 100% of the time when the device is told to turn on or off through the dashboard itself. However, if the device is toggled physically through a light switch or other physical means the status doesn’t update constantly. With my luck it only updates and works for a short time if I close the application, open the home app on the iPad, and reopen the Viz Designer application. At that point it will update the status of the device even when the device is physically switched on or off with a light switch. But give it a few minutes of the dashboard just sitting there ‘idle’ or when the iPad itself locks, the issue will rise again.

It is a little expensive…but I really like the fact that I am able to make my wall mounted iPad look almost exactly how I want. I do wish that a few more themes were available to download and REALLY wish air quality was an option along with the temperature and humidity. It was a little hard to figure out in the beginning (I.E. true and false values rather than some kind of easier drop down), but anyone who wants to use their iPads as a HomeKit admin is sure to figure it out like I did - the YouTube videos are helpful. Only things I’d necessarily ask: Are their any ways to download more themes? Can you add air quality sensor compatibility? Any way to have outdoor weather added? I really like the app. It is very quick and looks nice!

I came across this app today; I was hesitant to purchase it based on the reviews, but after a couple of hours, I can’t say enough about how great it is. This is the customization for the HomeKit app I’ve been searching for. It appears there are a few problems, but it looks as though the developer is quickly fixing them.