HomeScan for HomeKit 4+

Very useful BUT!

It’s a useful app for those HomeKit tech tweakers, but it would be nice to have the established devices go to another page or stand still and have the other ones use average of max and min so they would keep jumping around. If you have a bunch of devices like I do you’ll see what I’m saying. It’s a challenge for sure.

Can’t really tell which are mine

This app reports several dozen (currently 49) devices (I’m in a condo complex with many neighbors) and it’s really tough to figure out which are the ones that are A) Mine, and B) Of interest. Every device that uses Bluetooth seems to be reported: There’s probably at least several for each person who lives in my building (phones, headphones, laptops, tablets,smart locks window sensors. )

The list doesn’t seem to be sorted by signal strength so the device you are standing right next to likely won’t be at the top of the list. The signal strength numbers fluctuate so rapidly that it’s tough to get a sense of what is going on.

The devices often don’t have any names that describe them. Out of 49 devices, 37 of them say “No Name”. The ones that do show names are my iPad, and HomePods, and Apple TV’s. Sometimes they show an unrecognizable alphanumeric which is probably the serial number of some neighbor’s laptop.

This might be more useful in a location where there are not many extraneous signals. But for me it’s just a waste of time.

Developer Response ,

Hi,

Sadly I am limited by what Apple offers to developers.

Sorting by Strength is doable and something I have tested out but given they change so quickly it is impossible to actually reliably use the app when they sort up and down in real time thus making it unable to tap an item.

No name devices are simply due to the Bluetooth device itself not presenting a name to iOS when it is requested. Again, I cannot show something I don’t have.

Feel free to reach out to me via in app support and I’m happy to discuss any ideas you have to solve the sort by strength issues I’ve mentioned.

- Aaron

Suggestion/feedback

It would be useful if I could set the output to be sorted by signal strength. That would let me get right next to a device so it appears at the top of the list, and then select it so I can monitor the signal as I move around the house.

Also, instead of ‘Unknown’ it would be good to see a device’s MAC address (if it’s available) so I can tell one device from the next.

The “Support” link off the App Store doesn’t take me to an actual support page.

Developer Response ,

Hi, thanks for the feedback! I'll look into the possibility of adding the sort feature.

I sadly cannot show MAC address as Apple's Bluetooth system doesn't allow developers access to this information.

Thanks for the note about the support link from the App Store, I will look into this for the future. I suggest using the provided in-app support instead.