Cosmetic changes needed in the remote after the first hands-on experience

Astrion Astrion – Official Announcements
1

Hi,

I have a few comments after my first experience with Remote Control.

  1. Weather Card
    It would be great if this card could be expanded to show more details after clicking on it, similar to how it works in Home Assistant.

  2. Cover Card
    This card should also be expandable to show more details. It would also be useful to have the option to set a background image, like in the Scene & Script Card.
    Also, as I mentioned in another thread, it would be great to have support for controlling slats in external venetian blinds and regular venetian blinds.
    Additionally, it would be useful to have different icons depending on the cover type.

  3. Light Control Card
    This card should also support custom backgrounds and the ability to use custom icons, for example bulbs, lamps, ceiling lights, etc.

  4. Media Player Card / Music Assistant Card
    It would be great to have a player card, or a separate card dedicated to Music Assistant, as I mentioned in another thread.

  5. TV Card
    In the future, it would be useful to display the title of the content currently being played. It would also be nice to have the option to change the tile background.

  6. Hardware Button Priorities
    It would be useful to plan priority handling for the physical volume buttons and track buttons: next and previous.
    By default, these could control a specific music player in each room, until the user enters another section, for example Lighting or the TV Card.
    Additionally, the “OK” button could support play/pause for the currently playing music track.

This would make it possible to control background music in any situation.

Thanks and best regards,
Robert

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2

Hi Robert,

Thank you so much for this detailed and professional feedback! As the PM of the Astrion project, I can tell you that your suggestions perfectly align with our roadmap

Stay tuned for the next OTA! Your input is helping us build the ultimate HA controller.

3

Hi Robert,

Thank you again for taking the time to share such structured and practical feedback — this is exactly the kind of real-world usage insight that helps us refine Astrion in the right direction.

Many of the topics you mentioned fall into a broader evolution we are currently working toward: moving from individual control tiles into a more contextual and expandable interface.

Cards & UI Expansion
We agree that cards such as Weather, Cover, and Light Control should not stop at quick actions. Expanding into a detailed view (similar to Home Assistant’s interaction model) is an important direction, along with support for custom backgrounds, icons, and richer visual personalization.

Cover Control
Support for additional cover types — including venetian blinds and slat angle control — is already recognized as a key requirement, especially for European smart home installations. Improving icon differentiation by device type is also part of ongoing UI refinement.

Media & Music Experience
A dedicated media / music experience (including Music Assistant integration) is actively being explored. Our goal is to make media control feel persistent and accessible rather than tied to a single screen.

TV & Playback Information
Displaying currently playing content and allowing customizable backgrounds are both aligned with our long-term media card vision.

Hardware Button Priorities
Your suggestion around contextual hardware button behavior is particularly valuable. We are moving toward a model where physical buttons understand context — for example, controlling room music by default while dynamically adapting when entering TV or lighting interfaces. Treating buttons as situational controls rather than fixed mappings is a core design direction for Astrion.

Overall, your feedback reflects exactly how advanced Home Assistant users expect a dedicated control device to behave, and discussions like this directly influence our prioritization.

Thank you for helping shape Astrion’s evolution.

— Astrion Team

4

What if we assigned the function keys to launch lightweight internal Android APK applications? We could gain greater functionality by launching third-party apps.

As for the issues, refreshing album art in the player is not reliable when switching to the next track.

It is also good to show the visible status of switches and sensors on the script card to ensure that running the script is successful.

5

What would the third party Apps be? There would be some serious hardware limitations in running third party apps on the Astrion.

6

Just opening the built-in browser (in kiosk mode) allows you to control other IoT devices that are not supported in HA. There would need to be a browser card where you can enter the device’s network address.

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