Yup! The whole deal. 
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Like many others have said here, it really does appear as though this new system is going to be a step backwards. That, or there doesnāt seem to be enough clarity about how the new system will work.
Iāve been a happy user of the Flex schedule for the past 9 months. It has worked beautifully, automatically skipping and adjusting durations based on my current weather conditions, all while abiding by my cityās restrictions to only water on certain days.
Like Iāve done before, what I want to do is tell you what I have in each zone (grass, soil, nozzles, etc.) and which days of the week Iām allowed to water, and then leave it to your computer algorithms to decide how long to water and when, based on my current, actual weather conditions (not necessarily the 30-year average). Is this going to be possible with the new system? If not, can you please explain how a user like me is actually benefitting from the new system?
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I can certainly see how itās disappointing for those that are already all programmed in and happy with flex. For whatever itās worth, Iām one of those guys that didnāt take the time to set up Flex, and have been really excited about this release. I happen to be an engineer and have set up my home for āsmartā automation throughout, including alarms, window shades, thermostats and my garage door. For whatever reason, when it came to the Flex schedules I felt a bit more intimidated by the process. Iād like to think that I would have tried it eventually, but given the amount of time I would have needed to invest it may have been one of those things that I never quite got around to. Another complicating issue is that I live in a desert, and experimenting with watering schedules can be a bit risky when itās brutally hot out.
Like I said I can definitely understand the disappointment of some, but figured Iād let the Rachio guys know that some are really looking forward to it too! Thanks for your efforts!
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Over engineered?! No such thing! (says the engineerā¦) 
Kudos on the new software. 
I am excited to try it out once my HOA turns on our outdoor systems!
I want to thank you guys for being so helpful, open, and engaged with the community. Its why I went with Rachio and why I still love it!
I think the user base could use more clarity/education in explaining that all of the same smarts in the āwater as neededā scheduling are in the other options. Maybe an intro screen to the 2.5 app if you guys havenāt done that already. App hasnāt hit my device yet.
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Just created a Flex schedule and disabled. Act now, supplies are limited! 
Fast forward six months and somebody may post on Ebay āRachio Gen 2 and account with saved Flex schedule - $500ā - sorry, just a little humor.
Seriously, very much appreciate the active participation by the Rachio team. It canāt be easy balancing the demands of a startup.
Weāll skip using a number of triggers (rain, ET & temperature), but youāll never go empty ā MAD (management allowed depletion) is running in the background to ensure you have the reserves to skip.
Iām probably misunderstanding, but what happens if I create a Water As Needed and set the water time as the time necessary to completely fill the bucket from empty and override schedule, setting for every day. Then let ET do its work and skip days until wilt threshold is met and water again filling the bucket from wilt to full. Isnāt that essentially flex?
ā Mark
Using restrictions, our fixed schedules should work as well as flex since the will include rain skips and climate skips (flex concept of skipping if zone is not depleted) and automated monthly seasonal shifts. Having a flex schedule with restrictions typically defeated the purpose, since it would look ahead and usually want to water since it knew it wouldnāt or couldnāt water until the next watering period.
Flex will be here till the end of the year if you want to continue using that, but Iād give the other schedule a try. For next year, we will be continuing on improving and blend the best of all schedule types together (restricted, etc.).
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the feedback, targeting this Monday
Iāll take two!
That seems right on paper.
Weād like users to try out the new schedule and see how it is. Automatic frequency and duration adjustments along with climate skips hopefully is going to strike a better balance. After looking at the data my thoughts are water savings will be roughly the same, with a much simpler concept. We will be continuing to evaluate real user data throughout the year and will definitely be fine tuning all scheduling for next year.
I loved flex. Worked perfectly for me on day one. Still, I can see where itās quite a bit different from what people are used to and could be tricky to dial in if you didnāt grok what was under the hood.
If we still have access to soil capacity, and if the schedule pushes back (or perhaps pulls in) the based on the weather, that sounds like itāll work for me. But skipping lacks granularity, especially on my fruit trees which drip every two weeks for two hours in the summer. Around here (San Jose CA) itās never going to rain in the summer, so all the savings will come from adjusting time between watering based on temperature.
Bill
Is your new scheduling release still EPA Water Sense labled?
Yes.
Not sure why 30yr historical average means anything. Donāt think there is any year in the last 10 that has been historically average. Just take a look at Denver last year, not sure why historical average is even necessary if you are still using live weather. Seams to me a more recent historical average would give you better results, say the last 5 years. Weather today is not as it was 30yrs ago, nor is an areas landscape.
How did it score?
Iāve be playing with the updated app. So far so good. I think the āClimate Skipā will work well (as well as possible) with my cityās water restrictions. Thanks for the update.
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I think Iām still a bit lost. It appears water as needed is replacing the flex concept. But if you agree with the premise that you are always just trying to get the root zone wet, and that the size of root zone doesnāt vary over a season, and dry is well dry, then why would there be any adjustment of duration? It doesnāt make any logical sense. It always needs the same amount of water to go from dry to fully wet.
In the second answer you say frequency cannot be changed. I donāt understand that is the one variable that should change as rates of evaporation change etc, and was the power in the flex concept, although I also struggled getting it to work properly.