There's a discrepancy between older and newer version of iOS. On latest iOS, the bar appears when you navigate to other pages or panels. The workaround is to create shortcuts that take you directly to the desired panels.
If we make it work properly for the latest iOS, the older devices won't be able to use ActionTiles at all. We decided to keep it compatible with most devices, even though the user experience is sub optimal on the latest iOS.
Is this a dead issue or is there a possible solution in the horizon? I've used the Hubitat Dashboard where links to other Dashboards remain full screen (in iOS), so it is possible. (The Hubitat Dashboard is lacking in other areas though).
The only way to fix this is to drop support for earlier versions of iOS, which will certainly make some people upset. However I will take a look at the Hubitat dashboard, in case I missed something,
Dropping support for obsolete hardware is inevitable, in order to advance the application. When ActionTiles advances to the next major version, minimum system requirements will be updated.
I had tested the Hubitat Dashboard a while ago on a different (older) iPhone. I just loaded a newly created Dashboard on my current phone and it too does not open Dashboard links full screen. So my prior message had outdated information.
FWIW, the Hubitat Dashboard has other issues in iOS where it does not always update. This is especially true when a variable updates (which I use for setting a PIN). The Dashboard also does not allow renaming of Devices. ActionTiles is far superior in functionality and appearance.
Thank you Alex for this update. My thinking was around the audience you're targeting. Here we're talking about fairly sophisticated users, i.e. anyone who uses AT and builds custom Dashboards with multi-page navigation, that's got to be a small subset of the entire AT userbase. On top of that, the current behavior from what you say is here to prevent that population from not being able to use their dashboard on iOS devices they haven't updated for ~18 months now. How many users is that? You might have telemetry on your end that can help answer the question, but you get my point. Could this possibly be passed as a flag in the dashboard settings? ("Support new iOS behavior" or something like that?) When is the next major version planned to be released? Thank you!
Thank you for this explanation Alex. I'd like to respectfully push back on your current assessment. I've been using ActionTiles for a couple years now and have licenses for 3 separate locations, and I use 4 complex panels on a regular basis. The issue that OP is referencing has been bugging me (and I'm sure many other AT users) for quite a while now. I can't remember exactly what version of iOS broke this behavior but it's been over a year for sure. The fact that navigating between panels literally breaks the experience by adding the top and bottom navigation UI elements is in my opinion a huge issue, not a small nag. I thought this was not fixable due to some weird iOS behavior, but from your response it seems you have a fix, but are holding on for backward compat reason. I would request that you rethink this decision, Apple is pretty aggressive in pushing new versions of iOS for security/privacy reasons, so the population of people holding on older iOS releases (or devices) must be a very small subset. Yet, the majority of your paying users on recent devices and iOS levels are dealing with this horrendous experience with multiple panels. I honestly have been thinking of exploring SharpTools just for this issue alone, just to give you a sense of how impactful I believe it is. I'm sure my concerns are widely echoed within the AT community. Thank you for your consideration!
Hello, pinging this thread to inquire about the status on this issue. Is there progress on this front and are there plans to fix this so that the multi-panel dashboards render more nicely on recent versions of iOS? Thank you!
So - happened to check in on the forum. Running an iPad Air Pro (11 inch) a couple of years old - running 14.7.1. I was surprised that I didn’t have this issue. I found that if I add actiontiles.com to my homepage, I do have it. But that’s not the way I’ve done it. My homepage link goes to a “Main Panel” in Action Tiles - this has my favorite set of tiles plus links to other panels. I only see the “Done” and navigation bar if I go to edit the panels. Hope that is helpful. Summary -on homepage don’t link to actiontiles.com - link instead to an Action Tiles panel.
(Actually for each of my devices (iPhone, old iPad, new iPad, etc.) - the home page link goes to a page that has been customized for that device - with a link to other panels - this seems to work).
Are you using a single panel or multi-panel dashboard? The issue only manifests itself when navigating to another panel. In my case I divided my house into 3 panels, one for each level. The main panel (first floor) is what I linked to the homepage, it shows up fine. However when I navigate to any other panel from there, the “Done” button and header bar show up at the top. It’s maddening and really decreases the value and experience of AT in my opinion.
Thanks for the answer. So - now I see what you mean. I have a principal panel on each of my devices. On my old iPad 4 if I go to another panel I have to click on a tile to get back to my main screen- which is what I always return to.
On my iPad Air I just have to click on the ‘Done’. To be honest, given that I always want to go back to the main screen for each device - I don’t consider that a problem. In fact, given the way I use sub-screens, I consider it a plus. I see why it would be irritating to you, though.
Sorry, I would be very disappointed if my iPad 4 (which looks *great* on the kitchen wall as a dedicated ActionTiles device) couldn’t run Action Tiles, particularly because of what I would consider a very minor issue (obviously, it bugs you a lot more than it bugs me, given that I consider it a plus - it certainly does not break my experience)
There's a discrepancy between older and newer version of iOS. On latest iOS, the bar appears when you navigate to other pages or panels. The workaround is to create shortcuts that take you directly to the desired panels.
If we make it work properly for the latest iOS, the older devices won't be able to use ActionTiles at all. We decided to keep it compatible with most devices, even though the user experience is sub optimal on the latest iOS.
Is this a dead issue or is there a possible solution in the horizon? I've used the Hubitat Dashboard where links to other Dashboards remain full screen (in iOS), so it is possible. (The Hubitat Dashboard is lacking in other areas though).
Looks dead, never got a response from my comment, which is disappointing, and the dashboard buggy behavior remains.
The only way to fix this is to drop support for earlier versions of iOS, which will certainly make some people upset. However I will take a look at the Hubitat dashboard, in case I missed something,
Dropping support for obsolete hardware is inevitable, in order to advance the application. When ActionTiles advances to the next major version, minimum system requirements will be updated.
I had tested the Hubitat Dashboard a while ago on a different (older) iPhone. I just loaded a newly created Dashboard on my current phone and it too does not open Dashboard links full screen. So my prior message had outdated information.
FWIW, the Hubitat Dashboard has other issues in iOS where it does not always update. This is especially true when a variable updates (which I use for setting a PIN). The Dashboard also does not allow renaming of Devices. ActionTiles is far superior in functionality and appearance.
Thank you Alex for this update. My thinking was around the audience you're targeting. Here we're talking about fairly sophisticated users, i.e. anyone who uses AT and builds custom Dashboards with multi-page navigation, that's got to be a small subset of the entire AT userbase. On top of that, the current behavior from what you say is here to prevent that population from not being able to use their dashboard on iOS devices they haven't updated for ~18 months now. How many users is that? You might have telemetry on your end that can help answer the question, but you get my point. Could this possibly be passed as a flag in the dashboard settings? ("Support new iOS behavior" or something like that?) When is the next major version planned to be released? Thank you!
Thank you for this explanation Alex. I'd like to respectfully push back on your current assessment. I've been using ActionTiles for a couple years now and have licenses for 3 separate locations, and I use 4 complex panels on a regular basis. The issue that OP is referencing has been bugging me (and I'm sure many other AT users) for quite a while now. I can't remember exactly what version of iOS broke this behavior but it's been over a year for sure. The fact that navigating between panels literally breaks the experience by adding the top and bottom navigation UI elements is in my opinion a huge issue, not a small nag. I thought this was not fixable due to some weird iOS behavior, but from your response it seems you have a fix, but are holding on for backward compat reason. I would request that you rethink this decision, Apple is pretty aggressive in pushing new versions of iOS for security/privacy reasons, so the population of people holding on older iOS releases (or devices) must be a very small subset. Yet, the majority of your paying users on recent devices and iOS levels are dealing with this horrendous experience with multiple panels. I honestly have been thinking of exploring SharpTools just for this issue alone, just to give you a sense of how impactful I believe it is. I'm sure my concerns are widely echoed within the AT community. Thank you for your consideration!
Hello, pinging this thread to inquire about the status on this issue. Is there progress on this front and are there plans to fix this so that the multi-panel dashboards render more nicely on recent versions of iOS? Thank you!
So - happened to check in on the forum. Running an iPad Air Pro (11 inch) a couple of years old - running 14.7.1. I was surprised that I didn’t have this issue. I found that if I add actiontiles.com to my homepage, I do have it. But that’s not the way I’ve done it. My homepage link goes to a “Main Panel” in Action Tiles - this has my favorite set of tiles plus links to other panels. I only see the “Done” and navigation bar if I go to edit the panels. Hope that is helpful. Summary -on homepage don’t link to actiontiles.com - link instead to an Action Tiles panel.
(Actually for each of my devices (iPhone, old iPad, new iPad, etc.) - the home page link goes to a page that has been customized for that device - with a link to other panels - this seems to work).
Are you using a single panel or multi-panel dashboard? The issue only manifests itself when navigating to another panel. In my case I divided my house into 3 panels, one for each level. The main panel (first floor) is what I linked to the homepage, it shows up fine. However when I navigate to any other panel from there, the “Done” button and header bar show up at the top. It’s maddening and really decreases the value and experience of AT in my opinion.
Hello Unreal,
Thanks for the answer. So - now I see what you mean. I have a principal panel on each of my devices. On my old iPad 4 if I go to another panel I have to click on a tile to get back to my main screen- which is what I always return to.
On my iPad Air I just have to click on the ‘Done’. To be honest, given that I always want to go back to the main screen for each device - I don’t consider that a problem. In fact, given the way I use sub-screens, I consider it a plus. I see why it would be irritating to you, though.
Sorry, I would be very disappointed if my iPad 4 (which looks *great* on the kitchen wall as a dedicated ActionTiles device) couldn’t run Action Tiles, particularly because of what I would consider a very minor issue (obviously, it bugs you a lot more than it bugs me, given that I consider it a plus - it certainly does not break my experience)
Best,
Alec