Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Smart home devices
Raised as a usability problem by 100 people on Hacker News over 16 years (2011–2026), in 94 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Smart lights on a dumb switch can only be controlled by voiceUnreviewed
20112026- Having to reboot and update smart bulbs is very annoying2023-08-07
- Smart lights take ages to set up and wait for updates to switch on2023-04-28
- Smart bulbs behind wall switches confuse household members, who then cut power and disable them2022-06-12
Controlling lights by phone app takes as long as walking to the switchUnreviewed
20112026- Controlling lights by phone app takes as long as walking to the switch2024-01-12
- Switch gives no clear off or on position, so turning the light off takes many tries2023-07-21
- Lights take about 20 seconds to respond, so people press the button again and cancel the change2021-08-06
Many separate apps needed just to get smart devices workingUnreviewed
20112026- Each smart device needs its own cloud app and login, making control fragmented and hard to manage2026-09-12
- Smart devices need many separate apps and endless fiddling just to get things working2025-02-13
- Every device needs its own app with a different poor UI, making them barely usable2016-01-19
Touchscreens are laggy and fail with greasy or gloved handsUnreviewed
20112026- Touchscreen UI on fridge is inappropriately or incompetently designed2025-12-06
- Touch screens lack tactile feedback and are harder to operate than knobs2023-01-24
- Touchscreens are laggy and need fumbling; they fail with greasy or gloved hands2020-09-26
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Dishwasher broke after an unrequested software update2026-10-11
- Each smart device needs its own cloud app and login, making control fragmented and hard to manage2026-09-12
- Motion and door triggers feel laggy compared to instant physical response2026-08-05
- Elevators skip floors and arrive full, so people can't board going down or up.2026-07-31
- Watch, car and phone unreliably respond, forcing repeated retries and interruptions2026-07-24
- Adds friction and inscrutable failure modes, complicated and frustrating to use2026-07-21
- Few buttons and a 7-segment display limit features and make controls hard to label2026-07-11
- Each manufacturer's own standard and app makes home automation hard to unify2026-05-27
- Programming needs a manual and touchscreen, and changes require starting over2026-02-23
- Devices work unpredictably depending on how held or which mode was touched by accident2026-02-22
- Smart devices stop working without internet, so basic switching fails2026-02-08
- Remote app control takes many steps and fails to connect, slower than using the device directly2025-12-13
- Touchscreen UI on fridge is inappropriately or incompetently designed2025-12-06
- Needed vendor app and account to set up, stopped working after phone upgrade, and won't reconnect2025-11-21
- Once enabled, the setting cannot be disabled, so the utility keeps control.2025-09-16
- Touching the handle cuts water right after turning it on, then locks out further touches2025-05-20
- Thermostat becomes unusable when the phone app cannot reach the server2025-04-21
- Remote smartphone control setup is horrible for normal users to use2025-03-25
- Buttons labelled only in Chinese, and app needed region change to pair2025-03-05
- Smart devices need many separate apps and endless fiddling just to get things working2025-02-13
- Screens take seconds to wake, and show wrong items or prices2025-01-16
- Controlling the thermostat requires an app or hard-to-use menu buttons2024-11-21
- Friends constantly troubleshooting smart home devices until giving up2024-09-26
- Appliances now need a separate app just to do basic tasks2024-08-26
- Manufacturers push users through dark-pattern setup steps before they can use the device2024-08-19
- Front panel UX is confusing and insists on smartphone integration2024-08-10
- IoT products have terrible interfaces that are hard to operate2024-02-18
- Hard to tell which network path failed when smart devices break2024-02-12
- Bulbs claimed Google Home compatibility but wouldn't work, with confusing separate apps and ecosystems2024-01-14
- Cycle progress is viewable only through the internet connection, not on the machine2024-01-14
- Can't find and identify the right buttons by feel in the dark2024-01-12
- Controlling lights by phone app takes as long as walking to the switch2024-01-12
- Thermostat starts heating early to reach setpoint on time, so user must guess offsets2024-01-11
- Thermostat reboots into a recovery mode that requires the phone app to reconfigure it2023-10-26
- Wife cannot operate the smart home devices in her own home2023-10-13
- Devices have always-on LED lights that stay lit when the room is dark2023-10-12
- Having to reboot and update smart bulbs is very annoying2023-08-07
- Switch gives no clear off or on position, so turning the light off takes many tries2023-07-21
- Hard to work out which swipe or tap turns the lights off2023-07-18
- Smart devices have no keyboards and force swiping on glass2023-06-15
- Setup requires cloud accounts, vendor apps, or browsing to a local IP2023-06-05
- Couldn't cancel an accidentally triggered alarm without an installer-only PIN2023-05-08
- Smart lights take ages to set up and wait for updates to switch on2023-04-28
- Todo list takes laggy, cumbersome steps to reach compared to Palm's instant button2023-04-10
- Automated lights come on when the user doesn't want them, so they give up and use manual control2023-02-02
- Users can't figure out the confusing UI for their smart appliances2023-01-24
- Smart features have worse UX and setup is annoying, so people don't connect them2023-01-24
- Touch screens lack tactile feedback and are harder to operate than knobs2023-01-24
- Complex automations need separate apps or code, and devices disappear from the network2022-10-04
- Learning mode doesn't predict schedule well, so users revert to manual scheduling2022-07-22