Knock Knock. Who’s There? V4!

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post by laura.bauman on Jan 27, 2020

Hey hey hey Rachio fam!
It’s been a little while. I hope you didn’t think we were ghosting you! We’ve been hard at work on some super exciting projects. The launch of Rachio App V4 is one of them!

Read below for what’s new - we’ve added and changed some fun things based on your feedback. Plus, there’s more to come this season (it’s only January after all.)

If you haven’t automatically received the app update, head to your App/Play Store to manually update. As always, keep on sharing your feedback and get ready for an amazing season, more exciting features, and some reveals on some recent [super secret] projects.

TL;DR

• The home screen has been updated to make way for some new features.
• Our new Lawn Smarts section of the home screen shows you how to maintain a healthy landscape.
• The calendar, weather widget, and upcoming watering sections of the app now include past waterings. They were also redesigned to better show when your schedules are running.
• The inbox has been retired. Important messages will now live on the home screen.
• The release includes bug fixes and performance enhancements.

FAQ

• Why did you move stuff around?
  • Our Product and Development teams are always working to improve the user experience and add new features. We learned that many customers felt the previous app was a little cluttered. We listened to their feedback and made some updates.
• What is so great about this update?
  • Yard tab was renamed to Zones in a move to make it easier for users to understand how to get to their zone settings.
  • The Calendar tab, Weather Details, and Upcoming Watering sections of the app now include past waterings. These sections were also redesigned to better show when your schedules are running.
  • The Calendar tab has been improved. You can see future and past waterings in the improved Calendar View. You can also easily set a Watering Delay and access Schedule settings.
  • Water Usage is now located in the More tab so it no longer clutters the home screen. The view has been improved to show total usage and individual zone usage.
  • Lawn Smarts is now featured on the Home Screen, giving you tips on how to maintain a great looking and healthy landscape.
  • The inbox has been retired. Important messages will now be right on the home screen.
• What was moved? Where can I find it?
  • Flow Notifications are now in the More tab
  • Usage is now in the More tab
  • Schedules can now be accessed from the Calendar tab and the More tab
  • Standby mode is now controlled in the More tab
  • Water Delay feature is now controlled in the Calendar tab
  • Weather Intelligence and Weather Intelligence Plus settings are now located in More tab under Controller Settings.

post by franz on Jan 27, 2020

Co-Founder/CTO @ Rachio

post by scorp508 on Jan 27, 2020

Welcome V4.

Will this do things like pop-up notifications “Hey, this is a common time of year to seed/fertilize/aerate/dethatch/lime/etc. in your area based on normal weather conditions.” It’d be slick if we could turn on/off items we like to do yearly and have this keep a log of when they were done and do reminders.

Nice! I can see waterings back in last season. How far back will you maintain/show history? I’d love to be able to enter other events like “Winterized” or “Opened for season.”

post by laura.bauman on Jan 27, 2020

No pop-up notifications on the specific Lawn Smarts articles, but stay tuned for more! Love the idea of adding those other events! Will share with Product! And history will show 1 years worth!

post by bgman on Jan 28, 2020

@laura.bauman @franz - Just an FYI, the Accessories tab in More has been moved under Controller Settings. I check this pretty regularly to see how my connection is to my WFM. An extra step isn’t the end of the world but it is less convenient.

post by laura.bauman on Jan 28, 2020

Thanks a ton for the feedback and suggestions! This is just the beginning of V4 - our work in the usage area of the app is not done! But your feedback here helps us with how we move forward through the season.

post by harcosk on Jan 30, 2020

Hi All - I am missing the start times for the upcoming scheduled watering. I see the durations for each of the zones in a few places. And I see the last watering time on the home screen. Would like to see the start times somewhere so I can check schedules to make sure I don’t have any unwanted schedules. I have a 14 zone yard with lots of trees (lots of long watering cycles).

post by laura.bauman on Jan 30, 2020

Hey @harcosk and @Kaufmanrider! Currently, upcoming start times don’t exist, but they should be coming to the Day View in a future update.

Until then: In the Day View, you can see a list of anticipated schedules for the day, broken down by zone run time and total soak & run time. That, paired with that schedule’s run settings, you can make some assumptions.

For example, my “Back + Front Yard Flex Daily” schedule will soak for 19 minutes and run for 3 hours and 22 minutes. My preferred run time for that schedule is End Before Sunrise so I can assume that it’ll run around 3 or 4 a.m. You’ll be able to skip those schedules from that view if needed.

Keep an eye out for updates in the future with additions to Day View!

post by dmcr on Jan 30, 2020

This is great! Very helpful to have both the past and future waterings listed along the calendar line. No need to dive down into the history log for most purposes.

And with it being very obvious which zones were watered for any given schedule in the Day View, it now becomes more practical to have all my Flex Daily zones run by a single schedule (instead of having one Flex Daily schedule per zone).

However, one drawback to this is that the number under the schedule icon reflects the number of schedules run that day, not the number of zones. So if I combine my zones under one Flex Daily schedule, there will be no indication on the home page of the number of zones watered on any given day and I will need to go to the Day View. My preference would be to have that number reflect the number of zones watered, as being more important than the number of schedules run.

And I too miss the start times.

But overall, great job! And excellent design!