Wow, this affects all but 4 Wemo products. Crazy! This is a great way to ensure that no one trusts the Belkin/Wemo brands anymore.
The most reliable Wemo devices I have are the older ones. The oldest, which I got off Craigslist, is rock solid. The newer outlet plugs are super flakey.
I was already unlikely to buy new Wemo products, given their trajectory. But now that they're abandoning their stable products, I'm definitely never buying Wemo again.
Anyone have suggestions for good wall plugs and light switches?
If they do in fact continue supporting HomeKit, this isn’t the worst way to EOL the product. I’d love to see them all updated to support matter before being put out to pasture, though I’m sure Belkin feels that’s difficult or impossible for some reason.
This is why I'm glad HomeKit is the basis for Matter. Apple knew this crap would happen, and required HomeKit-certified devices to function "cloud-less".
Anyone know if the older Wemo products (the switches) work any other way? My understanding was that they required cloud. I believe my home bridge Wemo plugin uses the cloud to talk to the devices, but maybe I’m wrong.
I've installed a lot of Wemo (old) devices in my house and they worked well. Tried to buy some new ones (simple socket switch) and they pretty much didn't work. Extremely frustrating. I spent a lot of time futzing with it and swore a lot about closed-systems.
Yesterday was getting tempted by Zigbee again and then this arrived at my email.
This is the last straw and decided to go full steam ahead [0]. btw the dongle is 25% off on amazon atm (prime day).
That's a standard lifecycle for "smart home" appliances as I've been observing for some time now. Tbh building a home that risks requiring full replacement of e.g. sockets every 3 years sounds at least unreasonable
14 years is not long for things built into a home...
Imho there should be some kind of electrical standard of how these things are controlled (specified in voltages, relays, ... and not changing over the years nor between companies), and then have something that can be interchangeable that can be upgraded "with the times" to control all this.
It's wild to see how for no reason other than marketing, we're seeing devices with a static feature set being bricked. I remember older Nest thermostats being similarly crippled or bricked.
By "static feature set" I mean to draw a contrast between these plugs and light switches, and say, a device that has to have a web browser or which needs to access an external API that may need to change to reflect changing external factors. Literally nothing needs 'updating' about a simple relay. It turns on and it turns off. Same now as in 2010.
Smart home tech really should be fully cost-free to keep working indefinitely. All these "cloud" and "mobile app" integrations that 100% of them have are what makes these EOLs happen, since the company needs to maintain servers speaking a certain API version, or push firmware updates out for every device ever made, and keep updating a mobile "app" just to keep it running.
The solution to this has been with us for over a decade: the Zigbee and Z-wave model. The devices speak a standard interface and talk to the owner's choice of standard hub forever. (If Sonoff goes out of business tomorrow my Sonoff devices will all still work perfectly fine.)
Belkin could have shipped Zigbee-compatible devices even when their first WeMo device came out, but they thought it was more profitable to make proprietary stuff.
> We understand this change may disrupt your routines, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
Empty apology, for an act that legislators, regulators, and the market shouldn't tolerate.
> If your Wemo product is still under warranty on or after January 31, 2026, you may be eligible for a partial refund. Refund requests will not be processed before that date.
Someone needs to lead a class-action suit, with a settlement that is many multiples of whatever the company thought they gained/saved. Get it publicized for well-deserved brand damage. Make it hurt enough that shareholders are angry at the CEO and board.
When a product like this just dies overnight, there should be a law stating that the source code needs to be made public. No ifs ands or buts. If you don't want to release the source code, then don't release the product or keep a modicum of support available. To brick products is unconscionable.
I think there needs to be a mechanism in place. When you release a product, you should be required to put the source code in escrow, so it can be released at EoL.
Good luck getting it fron the country that ruled national injuctions are onerous but the ftc can be blocked from requiring click to cancel. You're going to have your devices bricked and you're going to have to live with it.
Products with hard dependencies that CAN be bricked should be required to have a consumer warning label stating such, like the warning labels required on other products like cigarettes.
I will never buy another Belin product. If they screw us once they will screw us again! Teaching these companies a lesson by never buying their products again is the only option consumers have in this day and age.
I ended up getting several Tasmota based devices from https://www.athom.tech/. Run your own RabbitMQ like service to control them, and no internet needed. They're super cheap, open-source, and flashable with your own firmware if you want.
I stopped using Wemo app because it requires precise location to function, absurd. I have some cheap Belkin switches that had not seen a firmware update for years, should replace them with better products anyway.
20 comments
[ 250 ms ] story [ 598 ms ] threadThe most reliable Wemo devices I have are the older ones. The oldest, which I got off Craigslist, is rock solid. The newer outlet plugs are super flakey.
I was already unlikely to buy new Wemo products, given their trajectory. But now that they're abandoning their stable products, I'm definitely never buying Wemo again.
Anyone have suggestions for good wall plugs and light switches?
Yesterday was getting tempted by Zigbee again and then this arrived at my email. This is the last straw and decided to go full steam ahead [0]. btw the dongle is 25% off on amazon atm (prime day).
[0] It's this one, not tried it yet (fingers crossed it will work): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KXTCMSC
Imho there should be some kind of electrical standard of how these things are controlled (specified in voltages, relays, ... and not changing over the years nor between companies), and then have something that can be interchangeable that can be upgraded "with the times" to control all this.
By "static feature set" I mean to draw a contrast between these plugs and light switches, and say, a device that has to have a web browser or which needs to access an external API that may need to change to reflect changing external factors. Literally nothing needs 'updating' about a simple relay. It turns on and it turns off. Same now as in 2010.
Smart home tech really should be fully cost-free to keep working indefinitely. All these "cloud" and "mobile app" integrations that 100% of them have are what makes these EOLs happen, since the company needs to maintain servers speaking a certain API version, or push firmware updates out for every device ever made, and keep updating a mobile "app" just to keep it running.
The solution to this has been with us for over a decade: the Zigbee and Z-wave model. The devices speak a standard interface and talk to the owner's choice of standard hub forever. (If Sonoff goes out of business tomorrow my Sonoff devices will all still work perfectly fine.)
Belkin could have shipped Zigbee-compatible devices even when their first WeMo device came out, but they thought it was more profitable to make proprietary stuff.
Empty apology, for an act that legislators, regulators, and the market shouldn't tolerate.
> If your Wemo product is still under warranty on or after January 31, 2026, you may be eligible for a partial refund. Refund requests will not be processed before that date.
Someone needs to lead a class-action suit, with a settlement that is many multiples of whatever the company thought they gained/saved. Get it publicized for well-deserved brand damage. Make it hurt enough that shareholders are angry at the CEO and board.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44478083