Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsAugust - A super flawed product that is only good for iOS devices
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2017
What a seriously flawed product. I did a significant amount of research and found that Kevo and August were the only two really trying to innovate in this market. I decided to go with August because it had great reviews, was functional and had more features for the same price, while making it look very beautiful (like an Apple product). Sadly, although they advertise support for both Android and Apple, Apple is where the bread and butter are with this company.
From the moment I got this, I was disappointed. I have a supported phone, yet was unable to setup my lock because my phone couldn't find it. I tried another phone I had (not on the compatible list) and it could find it, but couldn't pair via the app. After spending some time on the line with support, I was told I should use a more supported phone, like an iPhone. I don't own an iPhone, but he asked me to find someone who owns one and borrow theirs for setup and that everything would work well after that. I recently moved to a city where I no nobody, so this was a very difficult task. I was finally able to locate someone with an iPhone and was able to get it setup (after calling into support because the lock had already been used by someone else and returned without factory resetting first), but within an hour I was good to go.
I have a Nexus 6P on Google's Project Fi. There are now "known issues" while setting up with this phone, but everything else works afterwards (at least that is what support tells you). The sad reality is the issues don't stop there. The device takes roughly 10-30 seconds to connect, then you have to push the button to lock/unlock, which usually occurs within 5 seconds when connected via Bluetooth, or if you purchase the WiFi bridge, within 45 seconds to 2 minutes - yes it really takes that long even if you are connected to your home WiFi with Excellent Bluetooth and WiFi signal on the unit, which can be tested via the app. This isn't a huge deal, and is still super convenient if you need to grant someone else access to your home, because you can just use AutoUnlock, right? Short answer, maybe.
My findings with AutoUnlock were that it is super buggy. In fact, so buggy it's unusable. I have collected logs, combed through the logs and outlined for their support team what is happening, and they simply don't care. I was told they would create a bug report for it. A couple of weeks later I was told "it's fixed - we've created several updates to resolve this issue" and its still far from fixed. The issue I experienced is that AutoUnlock simply doesn't AutoUnlock. I find this complaint over and over online, but I seem to be one of few that found where the issue is. The phone isn't accurately determining that I have left my house. If you go into Settings > Lock Settings > AutoUnlock > What is AutoUnlock Doing? you can see what the current status is. I find that when I leave the house, it never knows I left. If I go into this screen each time I leave (after I'm far enough away to trigger it), it is capable of AutoUnlocking when I get home at least 90% of the time (sometimes it still doesn't work). Once you hit back and then come back into this page, you can see that it has finally realized you are no longer on your home WiFi and that your location has changed. I have ran hundreds of tests and dumped tons of logs for August to see that the GPS keeps updating, but isn't actually pulling a valid location. They have not told me that it's an issue with my phone, in fact we know it is not, as Google is still able to tell me everywhere my phone is, and being in a new city, I'm using my GPS a lot, so I know it's not the issue.
Onto the other phone that isn't compatible. I purchased the August Connect WiFi Bridge in attempt to get my "unsupported phone" for my girlfriend working as I found on Reddit that it would most likely work. It did, but she had such horrible experiences with it, that ultimately it was considerably easier to use a key. The main issue was that AutoUnlock was not even an option because her phone could not connect to the unit via Bluetooth. To note, her phone isn't "old" and it has Bluetooth 4.1, which should certainly be compatible with this device. That wasn't a deal breaker, but what was is the fact that when she'd take her phone out, it would take roughly 45 seconds to 2 minutes to load, then sometimes it would time out, making her hit reconnect and wait longer. She found the only way she wouldn't have to wait when getting home was to start the process while she was still on her way home and hit unlock a couple miles away so it would be ready when she got home. We are not people who use our phones while driving, so this was a deal breaker. It takes 5 seconds to open with a traditional key, so we returned that product quickly.
While working with support, I've gotten very little "quality assistance." Generally I get, this is not supported, or we can't guarantee this will work for an answer. I have been told this is a bug and we'll work to get it resolved, but if you look back at reviews from others, Android has been nothing but a complaint since 2014. In a final attempt to resolve my issue before my chance to return the item was up (Day 29/30) I requested that I be given a timeframe of when I could expect resolution, and that I was a very unsatisfied customer who wasn't happy about spending $230 on a lock that is not as advertised and makes the process to get into my home longer than with a traditional key, and I got the following response:
FEB 21, 2017 | 08:25PM PST
[AGENTS NAME REMOVED] replied:
Thank you,
[AGENTS NAME REMOVED]
Team August Home
Yes, this is seriously all I got in return, a blank reply. So I called in and referenced my long running case, and they claim there is nothing more they can do or guarantee, but they might have a fix for me at some point in the future, but are focused primarily on the Apple Ecosystem at this time. I asked if there is any way I can e-mail/communicate with the Dev team to assist in resolving this issue, and of course the answer was absolutely not.
I've done some very limited testing with an iPhone and have found it too has issues, though far fewer than with Android.
My last complaint is that they support the iWatch, but not Android Wear. They have been claiming they will via their Twitter feed for over a year, but as usual with August, they've fallen short on their promises to Android users. It's very disappointing seeing Android users globally account for over 80% of all smartphone users and they are so tied to Apple that they leave the majority of the users in the dark.
For all of the above reasons, today I am boxing up and returning my August Smart Lock. Sometimes beauty isn't so beautiful.
Pros - Beautiful Product Design, can integrate with other smart home products, including IFTTT
Cons - Terrible Customer Support, significant Android limitations, must have compatible lock (they claim it fits most locks, which is far from accurate) Takes longer to unlock your door than a traditional key, Price, August promises higher expectations of the device than what they can actually deliver
