Belkin announced and just released their update for WeMo devices that will require a WeMo account. From their website, it appears that all WeMo devices will now have to be controlled by accessing the WeMo cloud. No more direct local connections.
Belkin notes that once you convert to a WeMo account, you’ll need to “re-connect” third party integrations like Alexa and Google Assistant.
What about Roomie Remote. Will it continue to work or will action be needed?
Thanks,
Jeff
P.S. Belkin WeMo Account info: https://www.belkin.com/us/support-article?articleNum=316877
For several years the best way to control WeMo has been HomeKit. That will likely continue to be the case. If they remove their old API, we will eventually remove it as well. Not clear there is a need for an alternate/old-style control mechanism anymore. I suppose there may be very old models out there that don’t work with HomeKit but do with with whatever alternate API they introduce?
I agree on HomeKit. But it hasn’t really been several years for Belkin. They only started releasing HomeKit compatible devices about a year ago and never upgraded their older devices. But you can add their bridge to make them compatible.
In any case, does Roomie depend on the iOS WeMo app for its API? If it does, I suspect it may continue to work untouched. The updated app they released today, supports both the old style and new WeMo account interface. But once you choose to go with the new account, all of the devices on the app are “converted”.
Jeff
Wemo has had HomeKit for many years. The bridge just covered one of the gaps in their support for really old devices, it was not the first foray. I have a WeMo from the middle ages that needed the bridge, and another WeMo from a couple years ago that had it from manufacturing time.
An app cannot provide an “API” in any real way. We use WeMo’s actual network API. If they changed it (totally unclear from their marketing fluff), it presumably won’t work anymore in which case you use HomeKit. Or just don’t update your firmware. The stuff that doesn’t have HomeKit is so old that it’s probably better to stop updating their firmware anyway (or replace them).
Belkin claims that Alexa/Google Assistant/IFTTT will still work after the conversion but will just need to be reconnected, I’m hoping Roomie will also work. I suspect I may need to remove and re-add the devices.
But to be safe (and to make things smoother for me anyway), I’ve ordered the WeMo bridge so the few older WeMo devices I have can talk HomeKit.
I’ll post here after I update.
Jeff
So Belkin really messed up the migration to their new account structure. It took them a week to get my account and devices straightened out (and others are still having issues).
But when it was all done, all of my devices and rules are still fully functional. Somewhat surprisingly, after the migration direct integration with Roomie still works for my existing devices.
But I decided to go with Homekit integration. I got the WeMo bridge for my “legacy” WeMo devices. So I now have all of my WeMo devices through HomeKit and I’ve removed the direct devices from Roomie.
Thanks for your suggestion.
Jeff