this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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Home Automation
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Discussion about general home automation ideas and projects, home automation protocols like Z-wave, Zigbee, Matter, etc, and home automation software and hubs like HomeSeer, Home Assistant, OpenHAB, Homey.
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For anyone still wanting to use them you can restrict their access to the internet and use them on your local network still. I have one dehumidifier hooked up to a wemo outlet in my bathroom and it still works.
I have a bunch of belkin wemo, tp-link kasa and some other off brand smart switches that I use with home assistant locally. The problem I see here, is that as far as I know you still need the manufacturers app to link the smart switch to your network for the initial set up. The second they abandon the apps and stop updating them, people are gonna have problems. If you ever need to reset the switch, or change your WiFi SSID/password, or you move and have to set up the devices anew, you still need the manufacturers apps to do that initial set up.
I'm really hoping someone builds an app or service that can handle the initial handshake to get the device on your network from the initial WiFi hotspot they set up for their phone app to do its thing.
We’ll have to see if that’s still the case after February. I’m hoping these devices will still be controllable via third parties like HomeBridge, but I’m not holding my breath.
I also hope Belkin gets sued.
Edit: The HomeBridge plugin docs seem to say it works “locally” with no need to communicate with Belkin. 🤞
Check logitech. They fucked all thier universal remotes that were deliberately designed ( by logitech) to use their web interface for programming last year. Zero consequences so far.
As someone with a perfectly fine and functional harmony 525 i am still deeply, deeply pissed.
I have a Harmony hub and it’s still working. I just went into the config section of the app and it let me log in and that seemed to be functional too.
Ones with standalone apps work fine. But they very much fucked several products
Sorry for the reddit link but it was first to hand, i'n having a hard morning and i am not fucking spending four hours digging at their shitty site to prove something they issued massive notices about
If you don't let it update (by removing its access to the open internet), then after February you should still be able to do this. You'll lose the ability to control it from outside the home via the internet/mobile, but it won't be e-waste.