I just realized this thread is part of the Android app and not the web dashboard. Hopefully this featured could be implemented on the web dash in the future as well.
Maybe i created this request in the wrong section. But I am referring to the web-site dashboard. I didn’t think there was a different dashboard? You load the dashboard via a browser of your choice if i’m not mistaken
I’ve recategorized the topic into the ‘SharpTools.io (web)’ category. It was originally posted in the ‘SharpTools for Android’ category.
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Hi, I have the very same issue with delays between keypress and indication of keypress and then action.
When doing the same commands in Action Tiles on the same device, the keypress event shows the button pressed as you touch it. The action requested is then executed almost instantly and the icon updated.
Sad to say, its now making me think I should switch back to action tiles for now, as the response times makes everyday usage more frustrating than it should be (and I have way more patience for tech than my wife 
).
I’m not giving up on SharpTools, I can see you’re responding to request and moving the product forward. Its also way more customisable than AT and way cooler. So I’ll keep dabbling and checking out new developments.
Thanks Mark
@mark_oswell Does actiontiles clicks register or at least show a response to the click straight away? This lag/delay is at the moment one of the most annoying things. It is kind of putting me off completely. I really like SharpTools but this is one of those things that effects the usability. I’m constantly having lights going on and off because someone has click too many times not knowing what’s happening in between.
Here is something I’ve noticed. It occurs on two different Android devices at my location. One, an Android 4.4.4 device, and another, an Android 8.0 device, so it appears to be a consistent behavior.
When I press a tile that is associated with a dimmer switch, I see a visual feedback. The tile shades darker as I press it. On a normal on/off tile, the shading does not occur. For me, if the shading of the tile was consistent across all tiles, that would really help with the feedback that a tile press was indeed registered.
@mark_oswell & @Ahmed, thanks for showing your love for SharpTools, and the feedback, which is very important to us. This is a priority item for us at this point, and we are working on it. As you guys already knew, UI/UX is a big thing for us, so we have discussed several approaches internally, and are evaluating them now.
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Hi Ahmed,
In my setup (Amazon Fire HD8), the keypress is registered instantly in AT. You’re never in any doubt that the button was pressed. And the command is executed faster. Thats not to say everyone elses experience will be the same.
AT dashboard creation is not visual like the SharpTools WYSIWYG setup. You create everything in a list format first, then preview to see if you got everything right, then there is a lot of back and forth until you get the dashboard looking how you want it.
SharpTools is more configurable and to me, it looks better because of it. Just that darn delay!
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@James i’m glad this is a priority item for you. It’s one of those things I didn’t realise can be such a nuisance until you’ve mounted everything and normal household people are using it, it becomes a right pain.
@mark_oswell i’m also using the Fire HD 8. instant keypress registration sounds really good.
@James @josh any ideas why execute time is faster on action tiles?
I believe I read somewhere that Actiontiles has some sort of direct integration with Smartthings through the API. This might be the reason it reacts a bit faster. I’m not entirely sure.
Thanks for the feedback guys. As James noted, we’ve made it a priority to improve the visual feedback that an action is being taken.
We’ve run several tests and the actual execution time is not faster - it’s just a perception thing.
–
ActionTiles changes the state of what is displayed in the UI before any action actually takes place. For example, I created a custom ‘Simulated Broken Switch’ device driver which won’t actually turn on or off.
When this device is controlled in ActionTiles, the tile in their UI will instantly reflect that the light is ‘on’ even though the command (1) hasn’t even left your browser yet and (2) the device has not changed state yet (and in this test case, the device can’t change state, so the wrong state is being displayed). Even with the network disabled, the displayed tile state will still update when it’s not actually possible.
While this isn’t perhaps the biggest concern for a light, imagine what would happen if you tapped a tile on your dashboard thinking you’ve locked the front door or closed the garage and the UI falsely showed the fake status update that everything was secure. Not a fun situation. 
–
When we compared control of real devices and the time it took the actual device to turn on/off, the performance was similar between ActionTiles and SharpTools. Similarly, the time it takes a tile to visually update when the device is physically controlled resulted in similar update times.
We’ve heard your feedback that you want a better indication that action is being taken, so we are looking at adding touch indication and a small spinning indicator so it’s apparent that an action is in progress.
(For what it’s worth, this is a real live working demo showing the actual time for a command to send and the actual time to get a real status update after that)
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Thanks @josh the real live working demo of yours is around the time it takes but sometimes mine is slower and its not my internet speed because i’m testing it from my work network where i have a 200MB dedicated fibre direct to ISP.
the spinning progress idea is nice, but lets say someone presses it twice, will the two commands still be sent even though one command has already been sent for that tile? I can still see it being a potential problem.
Hi Guys! The way I solved this one is to have the audio click turned on for the tablets we use. Works really well! When the click is heard you know you have pressed it correctly, and the action will take place, no more looking for that process icon to show up. There are two ways you can do this, either turn on clicks in Fully browser or through the tablets own system settings. At least this works until the visual is added.
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This worked great! Never realized this was a part of Fully until now. Just wish that IOS had a similar feature. Can’t find anything to mimic it on the Apple iPad side. 
You are welcome, glad it worked out for you! I actually had an instance yesterday were this did not work, I heard the sound and walked away from the tablet but my scene did not go through. Here’s an idea for @James and @josh: Maybe you could build a audio confirmation that’s played when a command is sent? It seems to me like a press of button with fully is not equal to a command being sent in Sharptools if you know what I mean? If you guys could build this then maybe the user could choose between audio/visual or both as a feedback. What do you think?
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The visual feedback will be enabled by default. I’m open to considering an audible indication that a tile has been tapped and will add it to the list, but to be transparent this is the first request we’ve had for this and the level of user demand is a key driver of prioritization for us. We’ve got a number of other requests on the list with strong user demand, so those things with higher demand get prioritized first.
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I think audible response will be something either some will like and some won’t.
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Not sure if you guys saw it, but we announced a new beta program and the immediate touch and progress indication is included in the first beta (along with some other cool features 
).
I’d like to join the beta testing program please 
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The latest SharpTools.io platform release includes a number of enhancements based on the requests in this thread (as well as a bunch of other awesome features like dashboard backgrounds and transparent tiles). 
Thanks again for the feedback!
- Immediate touch indication with a wave effect on the tile
- Small progress indicator showing that a command request is in progress
- More consistent fast device control (via background token refreshing)
You can find more details in the following release thread:
Also - special thanks to those of you who joined the beta and helped us refine things!