Old UI and Inconsistent Device Connection
Title pretty much sums up the state of this app and the roost devices that Encompass provided for free. I submitted some feedback to the company several months ago asking for updates to their Roost device activity feed (no updates were ever made) and felt compelled to write a review. The app is “ok” for general monitoring purposes though the design is pretty outdated for an iPhone app. There are top level sections devoted to filing claims and contacting specialized technicians, etc. But most features either open other websites, trigger a phone number to call, or redirect to 3rd party integrations. Overall nothing to write home about. The “devices” section is the primary issue area. Yes it’s powered by Roost’s development team, but overall it’s an outdated UI with little workable customizations. Under general settings you can edit device names, set device thresholds for desired humidity and temperature levels, set your alert notification method, and configure 12 vs 24 hour time notations. Nothing special overall. Then per device you can view “reporting activity” (frequency of device reporting is another matter) and technical info. There are other lesser important options as well there, but those are the main ones. Here’s the thing though, the devices themselves will indicate an active WiFi connection, but they only report in once a day (IF you’re lucky) with the temperature/humidity of their assigned locations. This skews activity tracking accuracy. Activity tracking itself is confusing enough within the app and could use filters, headers, and general cleanup to make it effective for data analysis. Back to device connectivity though - The devices do not report real time data for some reason and are not always-on in terms of internet connectivity (I’m looking at my IP table now and they are listed as “last connected [x] days ago”). This really reduces the effectiveness of this home monitoring solution since most users would expect to see the current conditions reported by the device in real-time. They’ve also failed to detect water thus far and (honestly) look like they’d short circuit if exposed to it. Had some minor water intrusion less than 1 inch from the device and it didn’t alert me to the issue. Luckily I saw the water issue and remediated it - but no thanks to Roost. If you’re looking for a humidity/temp sensor, then that’s all the device mailed out by Encompass is really good for. And without an option to view location conditions in real-time (or send a push request to wake them up for a current status update), then this really is a pointless system for monitoring your home temperature and humidity conditions. So outdated UI, an alert for a disassociated device profile (basement alert has stopped working - yeah I renamed the thing last year!), and subpar devices: kind of a sad deal from Encompass as a whole in my opinion.
Show more
