KB-33 - Do you have any recommendations for Vera Apps for smart-phones and tablets?

VeraMate

VeraMate is a great App for iOS based smart-phones and tablets.

This is a really great App for beginners as it doesn't require any setup at all - you simple enter your VERA details and it will automatically load all your devices, scenes and room information. It can also be customised extensively, allowing you to arrange, hide and bookmark your most commonly used items.

There's also a "TTS" (Text To Speech) feature that allows VeraMate to speak the commands it makes! Support for VERA plugins is also on the way, along with making the UI even neater and slicker. An iPad specific version is also available that makes great use of the larger screen size.

VeraMate is available in the Apple iOS App Store in a Free version that lets you try the App for free and a Premium version that costs a few pounds to unlock the full functionality.

There's also a dedicated forum where the App author is incredibly helpful with any problems or feature requests.

SQ Remote

SQ Remote is an awesome App for iOS based smart-phones and tablets.

This App works in a similar way to ImperiHome for Android in that you can design your own screen layouts and menu system. It's incredibly flexible and with the "swipe" navigation offers a really slick user interface experience. We really like the downloadable "themes" too as they let you give a unique look and feel to each screen. There's also partner software called "SQ Designer" that runs on Windows, OSX and Linux and this allows you to design your screens on your computer and then upload them to the SQ Remote App later. This is a really neat feature and means you can take your time in creating your screen layouts from the convenience of your home computer!

SQ Remote is available in the Apple iOS App Store in a Lite version that lets you try the App for free and a Pro version that costs a few pounds to unlock the full functionality.

There's also a dedicated forum. Unfortunately this App seems to currently be largely abandoned as it hasn't been updated for quite some time.

HomeWave

HomeWave is another great App for iOS based smart-phones and tablets.

Of all the Apps we've looked at so far, HomeWave is by far the most configurable. Essentially you start with an entirely blank canvas and then design your screens, and your devices and select how you want them to look and in many cases how you want to interact with them. Literally everything can be customised, tweaked and changed.

There's support for most devices that VERA recognises out of the box as well as some VERA plugin devices too (such as Philips Hue and MiLight / Easybulb lamps). It really is an incredibly powerful App and can run on both iPhone and iPad, taking advantage of the larger screen sizes when available.

HomeWave is available in the Apple iOS App Store and costs a few pounds to buy - it's worth every penny in our opinion!

There's also a dedicated forum where the App author is incredibly helpful with any problems or feature requests.

ImperiHome

ImperiHome is an awesome App for Android based smart-phones and tablets.

It supports multiple Home Automation system controllers including VERA, Zipabox and Eedomus along with Weather Stations and IP based CCTV Cameras. It has two modes of operation, a "List View" and a "Dashboard View". The List View lists your devices on a room by room basis based on the data it receives from your Home Automation controller but it's the Dashboard View that is the most flexible and customisable.

The screenshot above shows a screen from Dashboard mode that integrates a CCTV IP Camera along with lighting, socket and motion sensor devices. One of the things we really like about this App is the way you can customise nearly all aspects of the devices that are shown - you can rename them, change the icon used and change the background colour. In some cases you can also group together several devices into one position, saving screen space.

ImperiHome is available on the Google Play App Store in a Lite version that lets you try the App for free and a Pro version that costs a few pounds to unlock the full functionality.

There's also a dedicated forum where the App author is incredibly helpful with any problems or feature requests.

AutHomationHD

AutHomationHD is a great App for Android based smart-phones and tablets.

Built specifically for the VERA controller, it has the most comprehensive support of devices from VERA of all the Apps available. The App author works really hard on adding support for not only Z-Wave devices, but devices from the multitude of plugins that VERA supports. These include alarm panels and their sensors, Logitech Squeezeboxes, Sonos Music Players and many, many more!

In some cases you can even control the plugin devices right there in the App which is a real bonus as it gives you a central point of operation, as opposed to having to switch over to a different App to control your music players for example.

AutHomationHD is available in the Google Play App Store and is absolutely FREE!

There's also a dedicated forum where the App author is incredibly helpful with any problems or feature requests.

Home Buddy

Home Buddy is another great App for Android based smart-phones and tablets.

This App has been a Vesternet favourite for some time now. After entering your VERA / MiOS login credentials in the App settings it will automatically locate your VERA and can operate in local and remote modes. It has good support for the devices in VERA, but isn't quite as all encompassing as AutHomationHD.

A neat feature with Home Buddy is that you can create "Desktop Shortcuts" for Scenes that can be used on your Android Home Screens, meaning that you can activate Scenes directly from your Home Screen without opening the App itself!

Home Buddy is available in the Google Play App Store and is absolutely FREE!

There's also a dedicated forum where the App author is incredibly helpful with any problems or feature requests.