Hive

Category

Description of App

MAKE LIFE EASIER

At Hive, we don’t just think smart, we act smart. From lighting to heating, to charging up your electric vehicle, we create smart home devices and services for almost 2 million homes across the country. And as we focus our efforts on a more sustainable future, our Hive services can help with that, all while seamlessly connecting your home.

TAKE CONTROL
Manage your home with just the tap of our Hive app. With Hive Actions, you can connect all your devices. If you want to turn on the heating or boost your hot water with a quick press of the screen, you can do that. You can even set your lights to switch on when there’s motion detected after dark. However you want to set it up, it’s easy to do so.

By setting your devices to come on and off when you want, you can take greater control of the energy you’re using. So not only will you set up a super-smart home, but you’ll be able to do it without wasting energy too. We have a wide selection of Hive products to help with this.

HIVE THERMOSTAT
• Our award-winning thermostat is the UK’s favourite smart thermostat
• Control your heating on the device, from the app or even with your voice
• Set schedules and get alerts, wherever you are
• Built-in Frost Protection works in the background to prevent problems in the winter
• Boost your heating with just a tap of the Hive app if you want a bit of extra warmth on a cold evening
• Save up to £110 per year when you combine it with Hive Heating Plus

HIVE THERMOSTAT MINI
• Smaller, sleeker and filled with all the perks of its older Hive sibling (Hive Thermostat) – it’s even won awards too!
• Works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and the Hive app to give you greater control of your home and smart devices
• Simple design and reflective finishes will make it fit in with any home décor

HIVE EV CHARGING
• Syncs with your energy tariff via the Hive app so you’ll charge your EV when it’s at its cheapest
• Installed by trusted British Gas engineers
• View updates in real time via the Hive app

HIVE SENSORS & PLUGS
• Window and door sensors can monitor your home so you can relax when you’re out
• Notifications if a door or window is open will go straight to you via the Hive app
• If you want to set timers on lights or other home appliances, just set it in the Hive app when you use Hive plugs

HIVE LIGHTING
• Spotlights, dimmable lights and colour-changing bulbs add some spice to your home’s lighting
• Turn them on or off, or schedule a time, just by tapping the app

HIVE CONNECTIVITY
• Our Hive Hub helps you connect all your Hive devices so you can manage it via your smartphone
• Need that extra bit of reach in the loft or basement? Boost your signal with the Hive Signal Booster to make sure every bit of your home is connected

Discover more at hivehome.com

Version

11.03.0 (2)

Free or Paid

Free With In-App Purchase

Apple Watch Support

Yes

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

16.6.1

Accessibility Comments

This app is almost fully accessible, I currently only have the thermostat but all important controls are useable with a minor exception of the heating history screens graph info and a couple of inconsistencies in the Menu>Account screen (Some options in here are inconsistent in when will work with voiceover but do work if close and reopen the app each time) I would still recommend this app as since contacting the developer in August 2022 they have already made multiple subsequent updates fixing significant voiceover issues and continue to appear receptive to ongoing improvement feedback.

Currently I’d avoid the optional Hive Heating Plus subscription as some of the app’s screens specific to this have some voice over issues, they can be worked around but until resolved it is not recommended (Feedback has been given to Hive on this)

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

There are some minor accessibility issues with this app, but they are easy to deal with.

Other Comments

This is a great Home Control app with many useful functions. To get the most out of it you need to spend some time getting to know the various screens but it is reasonably easy to work out and use. The developers have recently fixed a number of accessibility issues.

Feedback email address is complaintsteam@hivehome.com

Developer's Twitter Username

@hivehome

Recommendations

2 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by DurDevil 1 year 2 months ago

Options

Comments

By Rob on Friday, June 23, 2017 - 17:32

Hi, I am happy to report that following a recent update to Hive referring to the introduction to their new logo, this app is now fully accessible and also better designed so you can easily get to the part of the app you require. There are now three tabs, control, schedule and action. We can now set the target temperature when setting up a heating schedule. The only problem I had was when trying to copy one day's schedule to the other six days. However, I closed the app with app switcher and tried again and all was well. It took some time but congratulations to the Hive team for fixing the accessibility bugs.

By John Gurd on Friday, June 23, 2017 - 17:32

In reply to by Rob

Yes, I'm glad to confirm the updated Hive has fixed the ability to schedule Heating and restored accessibility to the Dashboard which they broke in the last update. Options are visible to Voice Over in the Heating Schedule screen but not in the same screen for setting up schedules for Actions. This means, for instance, that although you can make a motion sensor turn on a light you cannot set up a schedule efficiently for it to happen in the hours of darkness when you would actually need it to occur. I'll review my submission about the app but until the last bug is fixed it is still not fully accessible - especially as the same screen works elsewhere in the app.

By DurDevil on Tuesday, August 23, 2022 - 17:32

Just recently got a Hive thermostat system installed, seems since this post originated there has been some regression on accessibility of the app as it is no longer fully accessible using Voice over; It remains that you can still adjust your thermostat temperature but there are some screens of the app which are not useable with Voice over – in the apps menu if you go into either the Account screen, App settings screen or the Help screen you cannot do anything as the entire page is seen as one element and nothing can be selected with the only option to return to other pages of the app is to force quit the app. Hive offered no developer feedback option (I phoned to check and Apple Accessibility even checked) so I was advised to pass feedback via their complaints email which I have.

Update to note these issues have been resolved, main app detail above updated to reflect latest info.

By snowyowl on Saturday, March 16, 2024 - 17:32

Hi. I am thinking of getting hive for my heating so I have more control than I currently have. There seem to be two versions The thermastat that works from Bluetooth and the one that uses a hub so you can use it when your out and about. Which is the best one to go for or does it matter? If I got the Bluetooth one is that the same accessibility as the hub one? I know I will have help from my heating guy setting it up but can a person who just uses voice over set either the hub or non hub up on their own?

I would welcome some advice on this. Cheers.

By DurDevil on Saturday, March 16, 2024 - 17:32

I’ve the hub version (Hive Active Thermostat) and love it, I’ve it connected to Apple home plus multiple Alexa devices for controlling via both Siri and Alexa. Definitely get the hub version so you can control it away from the home. I would suggest the installer does the main set up, you can prep by setting up a Hive account, installing the app and then the installer just links the hub to the account and app you have set up (That way saves time plus keeps your account info secure)
Love being able to turn the heating on or up when nearly home on a cold day, you don’t know how great this is until you have it!