Cloud services that support smart home devices offer convenience. For example, a cloud service can allow you to control a smart home device remotely when you’re away from home. However, history has shown that when companies stop offering cloud services, it can render your smart home devices completely useless.
Wemo Is Ending Support for Devices as New as Two Years Old
A lot of smart devices are about to get dumb.
Insteon’s overnight shutdown
Support was dropped without warning
This was one of the most shocking examples of a company bricking its devices, because it happened without any warning. One day, Insteon smart devices were working as usual, and the next, they lost key functionality or stopped working completely.
The shutdown was due to the company’s financial difficulties. Cloud support abruptly stopped, and to make matters worse, some affected users tried to factory reset their equipment, but were no longer able to reconnect them without the necessary cloud support.
The story has a happy ending, as a group of Insteon users banded together and bought the company. They restored the cloud services, and the company is back up and running again. However, it’s a prime example of the dangers of using smart home devices that rely on cloud services; your smart home may only work while the company is solvent.
- Dimensions (exterior)
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4.41″L x 4.41″W x 1.26″H
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12 Ounces
Home Assistant Green is a pre-built hub directly from the Home Assistant team. It’s a plug-and-play solution that comes with everything you need to set up Home Assistant in your home without needing to install the software yourself.
Google bought and killed Revolv
A $300 hub became an expensive paperweight
Unfortunately, there is a common story in the tech world. A small company creates a popular product or service, a major corporation buys that small company, and the popular product or service gets progressively worse. This is the case with Revolv.
Revolv was a small smart home company that produced smart home hubs to control your smart home. The devices came with a “lifetime subscription,” so users expected that they could use the hubs indefinitely without having to worry about paying any fees.
Then, in 2014, Nest (owned by Google) acquired Revolv. It took only two years before Nest decided to shut things down, and support for the Revolv hub was dropped. Users who had expected their devices to keep working for a “lifetime” were no longer able to control their smart homes. Unlike Insteon, users did get advance warning, but that doesn’t make it any less galling.
Wink added subscription fees to keep using products
Pay up or go home
This example is a little different. Wink didn’t completely brick its products, but it did something almost as bad: it made users pay to keep using them.
In May 2020, Wink announced a new monthly subscription, initially priced at $4.99, that was necessary to access features such as voice control, API access, and automations. If you didn’t pay, you lost access to features that were previously included for free.
This is another danger with cloud services; there’s nothing to stop companies from starting to charge for them, even if they’re free at the time of purchase. The functionality of your smart home devices is effectively held hostage.
Belkin turned off support for some Wemo products
Turning smart plugs into pointless devices
This is one of the more recent examples. Belkin announced that cloud services and app support for selected Wemo products would end in January 2026. Affected devices could no longer be controlled with the Wemo app or via Alexa or Google Home, and you could also no longer control them remotely.
While it’s still possible to control these devices locally in some cases, many of the key features were completely removed. Belkin did offer refunds for some devices that were still under warranty.
Logitech buttons go POP
Two weeks’ notice before your device stops working forever
In 2025, Logitech gave users of its POP buttons two weeks’ warning that the devices would “lose all functionality.” These devices were incredibly simple and only intended to do a single job. You could use the buttons to activate smart home scenes without having to use an app.
Even these simple devices were reliant on the cloud, however, and once Logitech dropped support, the so-called smart buttons were effectively useless. This is the trouble with many smart home products; there’s no reason why a smart button should be completely dependent on a cloud service to work.
Neato made smart vacuums dumb
All the best features stopped working
It’s one thing when a small smart button stops working properly, but it’s quite another when your expensive robot vacuum loses most of its key features. That’s exactly what happened with some Neato products.
Neato ceased operations in 2023, and the parent company subsequently shut down Neato’s cloud services in 2025. This meant that Neato robot vacuums lost all app-based and remote control, so that the only way to use them was to manually press a button on the device. The frustration for owners was that they had perfectly workable (and expensive) robot vacuums that lost almost all of their useful features.
Nest Secure devices became useless
The products didn’t fit the company’s direction
Yep, it’s Google again. Not satisfied with killing off Revolv, Google did the same with Nest Secure. In 2024, support for Nest Secure ended, so that Nest Secure products could no longer connect to cloud services, work with the Nest app, or connect to the internet.
Part of the reason was Google’s partnership with ADT, which meant that Google encouraged users to switch to ADT products when it ended support for Nest Secure. This goes to show that cloud-dependent smart home products are only supported when it fits the company’s business plans.
Your smart home doesn’t need to rely on the cloud
This list should be more than enough to convince you that purchasing smart home products that are dependent on cloud services to work is a risky choice at best. Thankfully, there are plenty of smart home devices that don’t need cloud services to function. A smart home system such as Home Assistant can offer local control, so that your devices will keep working even if the companies that make them collapse.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
