Kevo app shutdown • Hacker News Board

Re: Kevo app shutdown

#41

Post by anonzzzies » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 4:10 AM UTC

burnt-resistor wrote: post #32

bhhaskin wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Connected stuff is fine, but who owns the connection matters.

Private equity will buy anything and everything even moderately profitable using LBOs, stick them with the loans, take out more loans to pay themselves, spin them off, and wind them down. Basically no one is going to run a business for the sake of customers or brand goodwill because, in the real world, there are no regulations or motivations to do so because "everything is a scam" is the normalized deviancy. Take eve…

Two of my largest clients are factories in Germany and Italy that make specialist screws. Been running profitable since the 50s by the families. That I like.

Re: Kevo app shutdown

#42

Post by Barbing » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 4:22 AM UTC

z3ugma wrote: post #27

Ugh, I'm so incensed. This is the 2nd IOT product in my home getting bricked within 2 months. This is one of the reasons I am working on an enclosure-compatible open-source version of the 2nd gen Nest thermostat over at https://sett.homes/ . It reuses the enclosure, encoder ring, display, and mounts of the Nest but replaces the "thinking" part with an open-source PCB that can interact with Home Assistant. Nest has be…

Thank you for keeping good stuff out of landfills!

Re: Kevo app shutdown

#43

Post by molticrystal » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 4:23 AM UTC

syntaxing wrote: post #7

I honestly think mandatory local support for HomeKit standard is one of the best designs. I lost internet despite having power due to a city wide outage. Having HomeKit still work for smart lights and outlet + home assistant was awesome. Pretty much anything HomeKit supported will last “perpetually” for its smart features.

Europe petitioned for a Don't Kill Games initiative, while I support it whole heartily, this seems like something that is a bit more important and would fit right in with that movement.

Re: Kevo app shutdown

#44

Post by Polizeiposaune » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 4:30 AM UTC

kikkia wrote: post #38

itake wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And let’s be honest, if you were buying fridges or washing machines based on WiFi features that’s on you. I don't understand what you mean by this? My clothes will smell really bad if I leave them in the washer wet. If the appliance has a leak, I need to be nearby to remediate. Thus its not safe for me to start the appliance before I leave for 8+ hours. If I can remotely start my washing machine, just prior to me a…

Don't most washers and dryers have timed start like dishwashers do? I always remember mine having pictures like that but maybe that's just not a common thing

Delayed start is common for washers but not for clothes dryers (as you really don't want wet laundry just sitting there in the appliance for hours..)

Re: Kevo app shutdown

#45

Post by cortesoft » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 4:32 AM UTC

ashayh wrote: post #29

Buy locally configurable stuff only. That means Zigbee and Zwave and use them with Home Assistant. There are many locks and devices which support either. There's a learning curve in the beginning, but once you set it up correctly not only you get privacy and control your own devices, you also get far more options for automations and useful or plain cool things in general.

This is fine for the HackerNews crowd, but most people aren’t going to have the skills and/or time to run a local setup, and it’s not unreasonable for them to want smart lock functionality.

Re: Kevo app shutdown

#46

Post by kalleboo » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 4:33 AM UTC

From a quick look, these are still being sold new on Amazon (by third-party sellers)

Re: Kevo app shutdown

#47

Post by com2kid » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 4:37 AM UTC

jakedata wrote: post #4

"ends support for smartphone enabled"... If anyone thought for one second that any device which requires external "cloud" support would continue work beyond what is convenient/profitable for the provider then I have a wifi-only dishwasher to sell you. No, really - please buy it from me.

My Lockly lock supports a complete offline setup, no phone required to register finger prints or setup PIN codes. I believe I can even turn off the BT completely if I so desire.

It is just exactly smart enough for my liking.

Re: Kevo app shutdown

#48

Post by flyinglizard » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 4:42 AM UTC

theamk wrote: post #10

jakedata wrote: post #4

"ends support for smartphone enabled"... If anyone thought for one second that any device which requires external "cloud" support would continue work beyond what is convenient/profitable for the provider then I have a wifi-only dishwasher to sell you. No, really - please buy it from me.

it's worse than that - those locks are bluetooth-based, so they don't care about the cloud. What happened is that they are disabling the app, so it is no longer usable.

Apps require constant maintenance. If you just leave an app in Play Store or App Store and don’t touch it for a while, in couple of years it will be gone. Compliance requirements, obsolete APIs, forceful upgrades by the Apple/Google all see to that.

That means you need to keep the app project updated and all dependencies in reasonable form. It’s not outlandish if you are a big company but as someone who oversaw the development of platforms where you had apps dedicated to hardware - it definitely takes effort. I can understand why companies want to cut loose ends here.

Re: Kevo app shutdown

#49

Post by rebuilder » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 4:42 AM UTC

numbsafari wrote: post #31

Negitivefrags wrote: post #19

This annoys me greatly. When I built my house I went full home automation. At the time I was telling my friends about how important it was not to have cloud dependancy, and how I was doing everything local. I use KNX as the main backbone and Home Assistant for control. And everything was local with the one exception of my Kevo door lock. At the time I built, there just wasn’t a perfect local only solution. I hadn’t p…

Don’t buy anything from Assa Abloy, local or not.

As someone living in a country where Abloy locks are used everywhere, I’m interested to hear what’s wrong with them

Re: Kevo app shutdown

#50

Post by komali2 » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 4:42 AM UTC

I never understood the smart lock. Some other connected appliances make sense - HVAC for example. But unlocking my door with a key is such a trivially easy, failure-proof thing to do, and every smart lock I've ever seen so riddled with failure modes, that it boggles my mind anyone would go through the cost and effort to install.