Hive thermostat app broken again

By Dave Nason, 10 May, 2025

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

So I went to edit my heating schedule this morning in the Hive app. It’s summer so I only really need it to heat the water.
Lo and behold I find they’ve broken accessibility again. On the thermostat screen, the control, schedule and actions tabs are now wrapped in a single VoiceOver element. Selecting this appears to take you to the schedule at least, though it does not appear possible to get to the actions tab.
On the schedule tab, it now speaks the time slots, but not what temperature that time slot is set to.
Open a time slot, and this is the most crucial bug, you can no longer change the start time, end time or temperature. The pickers are not accessible.
Back on the main thermostat control screen, the Manual, Schedule and Off setting buttons at the bottom no longer tell you which one is selected.
In the past I was quite forgiving of them as mistakes happen, and they acknowledged and fixed the issues.
This time I’m more angry though. If you keep breaking accessibility you can’t keep claiming ignorance. Processes are broken. Very frustrating.
Dave

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Comments

By Lee on Saturday, May 10, 2025 - 09:30

Hi Dave,
What version is this. Mine is working fine. However, I have a combie boiler so not as used to be two options for heating and water. I'm on version 12.06.3 and as far as I know this is the same app as for non combie setups.

By Dave Nason on Saturday, May 10, 2025 - 09:54

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hi Lee. Apologies, it’s version 13.0.0, released three days ago.
Release notes:
“We're excited to introduce a brand new look and feel to the Hive App! Here's what's new: - Updated designs across all screens of the app - Optimisations to ensure a smoother and faster experience - Bug fixes to improve functionality”
Sadly I don’t share their excitement!

By Lee on Saturday, May 10, 2025 - 10:13

Not yet showing for me in the UK. Will not update when it does thanks.

By Lee on Saturday, May 10, 2025 - 10:23

Just a thought Dave have you tried it with SR turned on? It may split the tabs again.

By Dave Nason on Saturday, May 10, 2025 - 10:37

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Yep I tried screen recognition. It does get around that tabs issue, but it does not fix the serious issue of being unable to change scheduled time slots and temperatures.
Dave

By Lee on Saturday, May 10, 2025 - 10:41

Great, not! does beg the question how one update can mess things up so badly. Equally, I find it amazing that they don't have someone test changes out for accessibility in 2025. Mind I'm probably being naive. to old to thing such simple things may go on in these large companies.