Trying to Understand the Long-Term Direction of Remote 3

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Hi everyone,

I wanted to start an open discussion because I’m genuinely struggling to understand the long-term direction of the Remote 3 platform and where it fits in the market moving forward.

For context, I invested in both Remote 2 and now Remote 3 because I really believe in the overall philosophy behind Unfolded Circle:

  • local-first control

  • modern remote UX

  • Home Assistant integration

  • open ecosystem approach

  • not being tied to cloud services or locked dealer ecosystems

On paper, it honestly feels like one of the most exciting control concepts in years.

However, I’m finding it difficult after 5+ years to understand when this becomes a mature deployable product rather than an ongoing enthusiast/development platform.

I work within the smart home/integration industry, and from that perspective the biggest concerns are:

  • production readiness

  • long-term hardware availability

  • deployment consistency

  • support structure

  • stability for real-world installs

  • confidence recommending it to clients

At the moment it still feels very DIY/community-driven rather than something that can confidently sit alongside established control platforms in real projects.

What makes this harder is that the market itself has evolved during development:

  • Home Assistant dashboards have improved massively

  • tablets are more common

  • voice control is better

  • contextual automation is replacing some manual control

  • many homes no longer rely on a “single remote” experience

So I guess my honest question is:
What is the intended future direction for Remote 3?

Is the vision:

  • a premium enthusiast platform?

  • a true professional deployment product?

  • a Home Assistant-first ecosystem?

  • an open universal control platform?

  • or something else entirely?

I’m not trying to attack the project at all — I still think the core idea is brilliant — I’m just trying to understand where things are realistically heading now after such a long development cycle.

Would genuinely love to hear thoughts from both the team and the community.

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I‘m also asking myself some of these questions. The internal structure of this company is still unclear to me. They said they are planning to hire more developers but this was a long time ago and a lot of things take longer than expected (some due 3rd parties). Sometimes things are developing quite fast and then there a longer delays where it’s sometimes unclear why.
I guess they will stay on the DIY market for the near future similar do HA. It still would be great if you could buy UC products from other retailers or even installers but that might be a business decision as customers in these markets expect a better documentation and faster support which UC is still lacking.
IMO people that only need a tablet to control their home are not the user group for these remotes. Some people want physical buttons that no touchscreen interface can offer.

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Excellent post. This is really a DIY product for the enthusiast who used be invested in Pronto, URC, etc or would be if those products still existed.

The reality is that so much of the usability of the R2/R3 comes not from UC but from a small group of hobbyist devs (albaintor, JackPowell, M.a.S.e, the odiocean, kennymc.c). Without them, this product would be barely usable.

UC has benefitted from the free labour of these devs and avoided the costs that would have been incurred had they had to do this work themselves. Had they invested that saved time/cost in meeting roadmap objectives and/or decent customer service and/or product stability and end-user satisfaction I think that would have lead to a lot of satisfaction and the kind of YouTube/Reddit positivity your seeing about the Sofabaton X2 even though it is an inferior product.

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Really appreciate the responses as they reinforce a lot of what I’ve been feeling myself.

I think my biggest struggle has been viewing UC as something that would eventually mature into a deployable premium control platform, whereas it may actually be more positioned toward the enthusiast/DIY market long term.

I still think the concept is brilliant and there’s absolutely still a place for physical tactile remotes alongside dashboards/tablets, especially with Home Assistant integration.

I think what I’m mainly looking for now is clarity around the long-term direction of the platform, and I’d genuinely like to see a response from UC themselves regarding where they realistically see the platform heading moving forward.

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I absolutely agree with this and UC had/has a chance to become the “Pronto” of the current state of the sector but their window is closing rapidly (if not already closed).

The Sofabaton X2 is an inferior product, but so was VHS to Beta … they are making it far more accessible and are getting a lot of positive word of mouth because it basically works. Sure, IP is kludgy and requires an awkward workaround with MQTT but that’s not harming the platform.

For Home Assistant users, the Astrion is a very intriguing option and if you can use HA to do IP integrations pairing an RM4 to your Astrion/HA setup looks like a winner.

If the Haptique makes it into production and is a smoother experience than UC, what’s left for UC to offer?

I ordered to R2s on the Kickstarter. I now have an R3. I was all-in on this company making it and I think the product is so promising. And yet, I am just so disappointed in UC for their failure to deliver on the promise of the product and to their customers.

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The main problem is that UC seems to have a slower development process in comparison to their competitors. At least in some sections.
I don’t know why they don’t hire more developers and support personal to speed up things. It might be that they can’t afford them but as their remote is already priced in the upper ranger it could also be less demand for the product than expected.
One thing that stands out is their relatively open plattform. If the community keeps up with their work the product can survive even if the company itself fails. But without them IMO they would have already failed.

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You nailed it, without the community developers I would have shelved this a long time ago.

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I have both the R2 and the R3. My daily use is with the R2 and the R3 is in reserve in case the R2 dies.

Without this forum the R2 would have been gathering dust on a shelf and I never would have bought the R3. Yes, I fully understood that both are kick starter projects and were never intended for the general public. However, the lack of documentation leaves a LOT to be desired.

So thanks to the help from everyone, because if that didn’t exist, Unfolded Circle would have been long gone!

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@Quinterly

I’m sorry, but all this talk about it being a Kickstarter project and never intended for the masses – it doesn’t help. UC has failed across the board, with the R2 and now with the R3 too. I feel cheated, lied to and let down by UC! I’ve been putting up with this rubbish for years and have now drawn a line under it. My new X2, which I’ve had for two weeks, has already replaced my Pronto – it just works perfectly. I don’t see it as an inferior product compared to the UC – quite the opposite, in fact.

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Interesting post…
I do agree on many points.
I will start with the bad and move to the good:
The bad: I wish there was better research for external vender choice and “loss of control” over some factors such as the WiFi chip vendor. If it was me (and to be super clear to anyone reading this, there is SO MUCH that go into starting a legitimite business, its not as simple as one would think), but again if it was me, i would not go with a vendor that lock me out. The WiFi chip is my biggest issue with the remote.
Second decision i would hope will change: the brain… The brain should live on the dock, not the remote, that is where Logitech won on longevity.
Now for the good:

  1. Good people, company individuals are humble and are believers of “for the people.” While many will not see it, it is there. For me, that’s a winner.
  2. Open source aspects of the remote. I agree, without community developers the remote would struggle. But again, Logitech never allowed community developers and had many unsupported devices despite being a giant platform.
  3. The featureset - i love the UC features, from a feature specific mindset, its up to par imho with the latest
  4. Potential: Yes, there is lots of potential here and i dont think UC are done.

Things to consider:

  1. Many don’t take into consideration the amount of time it takes to lead a business. All the negatives that go behind it: Chargebacks, Fraud, Logistics, unepxected issues, vendor controls, family, life events and the list goes on and on and on and on and on.
  2. This is a Kickstarter project, not a brick and morter store product. Anyone who signed up knows what they signed up for.

To be clear, I don’t work for UC, I don’t know them, and I get nothing from them. In fact i gave so much (oh man, so much) time out of my life for this remote and got almost nothing in return (some folks i can count on 2 hands which supported community dev with the “buy me coffee link” , yes the amount of time spent is almost as if i was working for UC part time job.

THAT BEING SAID:

  1. it is fun (at points, when people are respectful)
  2. i learn A LOT in the process
  3. i made some seriously good friends here on this community and especially discord
  4. It challenged me a lot , which i really do enjoy challenges

UC are a small tiny team compared to… They are not a group of confontetial poeple (i have talked to some of them) thus naturaly they are not as active on Discord or here but here is the thing , its not their job to be.

Can they do better at communicating? absoloutely, 100%. Can they? no one can know OR judge - nor shouldnt… Again, this is a kickstarter not an amazon.com product.

The “Vision”? They are a tiny group of (i assume) friends with a massive dream that “went for it” and did something others only dream of. Can they do better? Sure… Do I believe they are doing their best? Absolutely yes.

My hope?
they come up with UC4 with (but not limited to)

  1. Brain on the HUB
  2. OLED screen
  3. Better vendor choices
  4. Hire a support staff that focuses only on support and communication - that alone will solve LOTS of issues.

i honestly believe, bugs or no bugs - if the WiFi vendor issue is resolved and WiFi is stable (and stays connected at all times) - this remote would be a killer.

For me, in my setup - it did replace the Harmony completely, and it performs very, very well.

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@Dani you misunderstood me … I wasn’t giving them any slack for being a Kickstarter. I mentioned Kickstarter only to point out I have been back this product from the beginning. It was to emphasize how disappointing UC have been, not the other way around.

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@M.a.S.e

I will agree with a lot of what you’ve said but you also haven’t experienced some of what the rest of us have. You say they’re good people? My experience with that has been very mixed. Markus and Lutz? Sure … seen nothing but positive engagement and contribution from them. Others that I have interacted with directly? Not so much. Not honest, not humble, not genuine, and not “for the people”.

On the “fun” part … to a point I agree. I have been in the programming remotes for personal use for a long time (going back to a Marantz RC2000). There is definite utility and satisfaction in figuring things out and making them work the way you want. But that’s you and me … and you go further because you’re having all this “fun” writing custom integrations.

But this was not marketed as a DIY product that was going to be “fun” to program and noodle around with. This was marketed as something else with a price point to match.

Nothing speaks louder about the disconnect and disengagement from UC to its customers than this community. While they promote Discord and Github as primary support channels, this is a forum that they operate on their website. You would think a thread like this would at least get some response from UC expressing disappointment in how their customers are feeling and that they at least care. The radio silence speaks volumes about who these people really are.

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@Quinterly don’t get me wrong:
I acknowledge and understand and agree on the “issues”. I have many folks here who i talk to in DM pretty much daily, and they seriously suffer while i dont… I have 2 remotes, both functioning pretty well. Do they suffer from WiFi issues: Yes… Docks pretty much always show “disconnected” and the only thing to bring them back is rebooting my entire network stack (router + remotes + switches)

Do i get the “failed to execute” command when remote wakes up - yes.

Am i ok with it? to a degree, i tweaked my remote and got used to the workarounds i had to put in place to get it to a “working state”.

Do others “suffer more” , yes - i have friends here like i said who to this day struggle insanely by the WiFi behavior of this remote. Which is why i harp so much on the vendor decision.

I also agree with you on the support, support can and should be better.
As a consumer, i get your point and back it up as well. You paid X money, you expect Y behavior and it is not too much to ask for a stable remote that stay connected.

That being said, what i stand behind the words i said:

  1. Yes, this is a kickstarter, and therefore my expectations are lower as if i would purchase it from bestbuy for an example (in the US) and after 10 days return it for a full refund.
  2. I have petience and i hope they read all these comments and like i said: UC4 wil have hub as brain, DIFFERENT wifi chip vendor, control over firmwares etc.

Time will tell.
As a consumer, you do have the power to sell the remote and buy something else.
I purchased multiple remotes in the last couple of years, threw some to the garbage (literally like the x1) and sold others, until i landed on this one.

When i got it i was shocked it didnt support ANY of my devices, and for me its a deal breaker as ALL my devices are in a dedicated room OUTSIDE of my media room, so IR wasn’t even an option. Which is why i started playing with developing my own solution, that’s where this remote shined above else.

To conclude: i agree with you to some degree, communication should and need to be better. The only thing i disagree on is the level of expectations from the remote (not support).

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@M.a.S.e here’s the thing … my experience with UC means that I am unlikely to be buying any remotes directly from them again. If I stay with the platform, any R4 that I buy will be from a disenfranchised backer from their next kickstarter. I will not be financially supporting UC based on my experience with the company. Less about the bugs, I’m like you … I can work around them.

Getting more intrigued by using the Astrion with HA as my hub and something like a Smart IR Mate to control the one device in each setup that needs IR. That’s the fundamental problem UC faces … other products entering the space that they were the first into attracting customers that are done with the attitude and lacklustre support from UC.

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the astrion looks really interesting… and i get your points.

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Really appreciate all the responses and perspectives here as it’s actually helped clarify a lot of my own thoughts around the platform.

For context, I’m from the industry and currently a dealer/integrator for Control4, RTI, Savant etc, which is probably why I’ve been viewing UC through the lens of a future deployable/marketable control product rather than purely an enthusiast platform.

That’s also why I originally backed both the R2 and R3, because I genuinely believed there was (and still is) a real place in the market for a modern local-first physical remote with strong Home Assistant integration.

I completely agree that tactile remotes still matter and there’s still nothing else that quite approaches the same philosophy UC is aiming for.

At the same time though, after following the project for years and invested in R2 & R3, I think I’m now trying to understand whether the long-term direction is truly toward a polished commercial product or whether it’s intentionally remaining more community/enthusiast focused.

Interestingly I too have started looking at Astrion recently as it currently feels a little closer to becoming an actual deployable product, even if I still personally prefer a lot of UC’s overall philosophy and ideas.

I’d still genuinely love to hear a response from UC themselves around the long-term direction and positioning of the platform moving forward, as the lack of response so far honestly isn’t very reassuring given the nature of the discussion.

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I’d go one step further in that I think there is a real place in the market for a local-first physical remote that is user-configurable. I know as a CI, you have a livelihood dependence on the products you sell not being open to the end-user to configure and deploy, but I think that market exists. Harmony never served it, Philips shut down Pronto, URC closed off end-user access because of CI pushback, and others have never been in the space in the first place.

I think UC had an opportunity to own that market. Sofabaton is well positioned to be the logical successor to Harmony and between Astrion and maybe Haptique (if they deliver), what market is left for UC?

As much as I am an unsatisfied customer of the company, I am more disappointed in the unfulfilled promise of the product because I am the ideal target consumer from a technology comfort and financial means perspective.

Agreed.

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Totally agree. The challenge is without additional developers and making this more ‘productised’ then their market will never expand to the broader consumer base and without that its catch 22 as I doubt they will sell enough to afford more staff …

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My biggest concern with the company is that they just don’t seem to care about their public perception. If I am in the market for a new remote and I go to their site, the “New things in the works” section has not been updated in over 2 years. If I google the remote, I find this forum and reddit which are both full of negative comments from actual owners of the remote. Why in the world would I even consider purchasing it? And even if I did decide I want to purchase it - Months after the Kickstarter ended it is still only available as preorder. What?

As others have said, the best functionality of the remote doesn’t even come from UC. It comes from a handful of awesome community developers who have dedicated hours and hours of their personal time to creating integrations.

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About the negative things you read on discord/forums: You won’t hear much from people that don’t have problems with their product. I’m not going to visit a forum to express how great my remote works (it does btw)

About the best functionality: the best functionality IMO is that developers CAN build awesome integrations. I think some of the integrations should’ve been built and managed by the UC team TBH, but the fact that everyone can fill in the ‘gaps’ left by UC is just awesome in its own right.

3rd party software development is probably the best way to make a good OS great

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