Blink support discontinued!

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Re: [SmartThings Community] [Devices & Integrations] Blink support discontinued!

Blink | Dec 20, 2017 02:23PM UTC

Thank you for your email. We have received your message and will respond to you as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance for your patience and support.
This message was sent to smartthings+bd2be70bdbe018b7d09773a67f8d5a7b@discoursemail.com in reference to Case #84535.

[[a2f4c5299557b50bd2f1702a4ec43bf45db380ef-1105762274]]

Can you get Iftt to turn on a light for a specific duration of time say 1 minute and then shut off?
Can you integrate the blink camera in the smart things app at all anymore?

@RBoy. Can you throw us a bone here? We’re you compromised? Was blink compromised and are trying to cover thereself?

I got that same email this morning from blink. Very confused at this point.

Please don’t say silent, you have a large community of supports still on your side.

I don’t think that Ifttt would be able to do that easily. However, you could have Ifttt turn on a simulated switch when Blink detects motion then use that in Smartthings automations such as Webcore.

Has anybody heard from Rboy???

Very little.

I wonder if it has to do with Blink’s upcoming security system being in competition with ST…

http://get.blinkforhome.com/blink-home-security

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Hello Everyone,

I emailed Blink Support and this is their reply back today morning:

Ravi Bhatia
Subject: Re: Important SmartThings Update


DEC 20, 2017 | 10:16AM EST
Erljan replied:
Hi Ravi,
Thank you for contacting Blink With the release of our IFTTT integration we have decided to disable third party integrations including all available SmartThings integrations. Blink users that would like to integrate their SmartThings hub with Blink can now use IFTTT. To use the Blink IFTTT service login to your IFTTT account and search for Blink in the list of available services, or visit the following link. The Blink IFTTT integration currently supports arming and disarming your Blink system and also triggering other IFTTT devices/actions when motion is detected on any of your Blink cameras. We may add more services (such as arming or disarming individual or groups of cameras) in future.


When we announce/release new features and improvements, we’ll post about them to our Updates page linked below.
http://support.blinkforhome.com/customer/en/portal/topics/881964-updates/articles
Thanks,
Erljan
Blink Customer Service

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No intention of staying silent and we’ve been active the last 20 odd hours fielding questions, trying to get to the bottom of this and potential solutions. No security incident that we are aware of.

We aren’t pleased about the decision that Blink has taken without prior notice. Maddie or I will post back once we have updates. Meanwhile send in your feedback to Blink.

Glad to know that Blink is responding to this forum:

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This sounds to me like one of two things: The way Blink opened their API for RBoy’s integration may have cause a big security vulnerability in their system that they’re only just now finding that out (maybe they got compromised). The quickest way to plug the vulnerability is to just shut off the integration immediately.

Or: they’re about to make some changes to their backend system that makes it incompatible with ST integration and they’ve decided it’s easier/less time consuming to simply kill the integration instead of working with RBoy to find a solution.

If it was the latter, I’d say they would have given everyone more of a heads up. So I’m leaning towards the former. This had to be some sort of security issue as you generally don’t make knee-jerk reactions unless it’s really bad.

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Or: ST users comprise the smallest percentage of the Blink user base but use the largest percentage of their system resources, i.e. traffic, polling, etc

hmmmm, I love coming up new theories for you :slight_smile:

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Interesting reply to my email to Blink … I asked for a return program and looks like they have agreed.

Andrew,
Thank you for reaching out to us. We apologize about the inconvenience that this has caused. In light of this, we’d like to extend our return period for previously configured SmartThings users. We will honor returns of systems purchased within the last 12 months from date of announcement, as opposed to our usual 30 day return period. You will be responsible for return shipping costs and when we receive the system we will issue a credit. If you would like to return your Blink system, please fill out our return form linked below.

http://support.blinkforhome.com/customer/portal/emails/new?t=634966&interaction[email]=andy.newton@outlook.com&ticket[custom_originalcase]=122981&ticket[custom_src]=st

Thanks,

Just got this from Blink:
We apologize for the inconvenience that it caused you. With the release of our IFTTT integration we have decided to disable third party integrations including all available SmartThings integrations. Blink users that would like to integrate their SmartThings hub with Blink can now use IFTTT. To use the Blink IFTTT service login to your IFTTT account and search for Blink in the list of available services, or visit the following link. The Blink IFTTT integration currently supports arming and disarming your Blink system and also triggering other IFTTT devices/actions when motion is detected on any of your Blink cameras. We may add more services (such as arming or disarming individual or groups of cameras) in future.

I bought my 3 Blink cameras back in August from Amazon. I contacted them this morning through chat and they are refunding me for the cameras. Really nice of Amazon. I have been a customer since 1999 and a Prime member of the program since it started which might be why they made the exception. For those of you who purchased through Amazon, even if the refund period has passed, should at least try a refund through their support channel.

Now I’ve got to find replacement cameras. Looking at Foscam. The downside is they require wired power but with tilt and pan, I could have fewer cameras.

Not happy! I have sent the below as a support ticket:

Hi,

I just wanted to express my disappointment that you didn’t provide any notice when you removed SmartThings integration yesterday. It was only after my Blink system failed to disarm and all my cameras falsely triggered when I returned home that I discovered your email notification that you sent to me at 6pm.

I understand from reading the SmartThings community forums that Blink have responded to some people’s complaints with the following additional information:

“As you may have read on the SmartThings Forum we have decided to temporarily discontinue support for the latest version of the “RBoy” 3rd party integration while we investigate sustainable & secure alternatives for the SmartThings community using Blink. We intend to have an update within the next few weeks.”

Does this mean our security has been breached which is why you discontinued the service without notice? If this is true, whilst it is great that you have responded to this threat so swiftly to protect your customers, it is nevertheless unforgivable that you have left us all guessing why this action has been taken.

Due to this uncertainty some of your customers are looking to return their cameras for refunds, and this side of Christmas people have wrapped up gifts of Blink cameras and SmartThings hubs that they are now thinking about returning. So really the only acceptable reason for providing zero notice for a change like this is if it was an emergency to protect our security.

Whether this action is the result of a security breach or other reason, the way you have gone about it hasn’t done your company reputation any favours. For example you could have softened the blow by reminding customers about the existing IFTTT integration along with tips detailing how they can use this to replicate some of the lost functionality, rather than leaving them guessing and searching the internet for options.

You may therefore wish to consider sending a fresh update to reassure customers including myself the reasons for this abrupt action and if the additional information I mention above about you looking at “sustainable & secure alternatives for the SmartThings community using Blink” is something you’re sending to some people perhaps you could also include this in your updated email.

Many thanks,
Richard

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I purchased a 5 camera blink system after having tested and been disappointed with alro and foscam.

I can only say good things about @RBoy for his development/Code with blink, I feel he has helped them gain a great deal of business! Very disappointed with the email from blink this morning.

Giving this a day or two to see if blink can smooth this over else I would agree with the general consensus to start the return process and start the search again.

Really hoping a breach did not occur. Would suck for video data to be leaked out of people’s trusted cloud storage that blink hosts.

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Really? What did he do to deserve your ire? Nothing at all!
Not only that, the Blink integration is not the only thing that your fee covered. RBoy has many other fine apps and DTH’s that are included in the price you paid.

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Since I count on Blink to detect outdoor motion (8 outdoor cameras) I created a temporary solution with IFTTT. For those asking questions regarding IFTTT, the only thing you can do from a trigger standpoint is detect motion, and you have to create an app for each camera. To even get close to what I had, I’d need 8 apps and 8 virtual switches.I opted to cover front, back and sides with virtual switches to cut it down. Since I don’t know when motion goes inactive, I had to cludge that too. As far as responsiveness, it takes twice as long from motion detected at a camera to my webcore piston firing. My bad experience with IFTTT is that this is a GOOD result, I’ve seen IFTTT be horribly behind (minutes) to not work at all, all too often. Glad that Blink will take these things back, now to search for a new solution that won’t break the bank.

I only glanced at it, and sorry if it has already been covered, but you should still be able to use your WebCore pistons with IFTTT and motion. Create a motion trigger and call the ‘Webhooks’ action. Webhooks will make a call to any URL you choose. Grab the URL from your piston and insert that into Webhooks. Doesn’t cover the limitations and mediocre service of IFTTT but does offer something…

I suspect I would need to rewrite some of my pistons, possibly have Webhooks call and set a motion variable globally that plugs into other pistons, but think it’s doable.

That being said, I have no desire to keep the cameras but it may be an options for some of you landing here. I’m disgusted with the company at this point and the communication.

So I just got an email from Blink with different wording: " we have decided to temporarily continue support for the latest version of the “RBoy” 3rd party integration while we investigate sustainable"

However, my iOS ST app gets this error: “camera cannot be found. We are trying to connect”