Blink support discontinued!

Oh no…this is a killer for me. Can anyone else confirm Arlo’s lag?

I sent them a nasty-gram. That should bring the company to their knees,
Ha, not. Click - Delete.

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Well my thoughts aren’t specific to Blink, I am concerned because there must be a reason Blink reacted so dramatically. Blink was a relatively cheap solution, I have 8 cameras though so that wasn’t “cheap”. Slight lag, sure but not much worse than any other outdoor motion sensor I have. So if we now invest $1000’s more in another camera product who’s to say the ST integration, direct or third party, won’t be dropped? Hopefully we get an explanation soon.

And I also sent Blink an email stating my disgust at their handling of this. We all should.

I see what you’re saying, and it’s a valid concern. I’m assuming Blink thinks their product can stand on its own, especially if their goal is (yet another) propriety platform where every device is a blink device. Like the market needs yet another platform like this. Sigh…

I think my next best option is Arlo. Since Arlo has always advertised “smarthings compatible”, I would think it’s a safer bet…but you never know.

Yes, that’s what I am suspicious of exactly. They may try to spin it as some sort of security issue but I suspect its all business. And I have no issue with Blink doing whatever they want! But have some consideration for your customer base, give us a year to adjust or offer an alternative. They lost me from purchasing anything they produce going forward.

The thing that worries me is that they’ve done this before and there was outrage - so they managed to put a solution in place to keep people happy.

Now they’ve gone and done it again - this says to me that they mean business this time. No coming back from this.

So for those of us clinging to a glimmer of hope - don’t.

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What the hell happened? … With just a days notice? I don’t understand what is going on.

Exaclty…fool me twice, shame on me.

Honestly, the only reason I gave Blink a shot was because the cameras were just so damn cheap.

But with all my complaining here, I only used ST integration to arm the cameras when I left home. Now, if Blink adds geo-aware arming I would be much less mad.

Last time they did this I was very vocal and emailed their CEO , luckily RBoys worked his magic and explained to what seems to be very uneducated team at Blink how to handle a small issue with out reacting as they did and appear to have done again now. I would ask yourself these questions

  1. What sort of professional company discontinues support without warning or offering an alternative
  2. Professional companies would have worded their email in a more detailed manner and explained why . seems they have a lot to hide.

My guess is they are not making or they are losing money as the business model they adopted did not have any subscription revenue… I reckon they are chopping off these and will come back with a form of subscribe for version, either that or they are about to fold.

Which ever way I wish all the team at Blink a miserable Christmas and a very unhappy new year… Mine are going on ebay as soon as I can find a real work alternative which does integrate correctly. What a bunch of T*******

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This is my biggest fear right now, which would leave the cameras useless bricks

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Fortunately, I’ve had my cameras for less than 30 days, so they will be returned.

Always a good idea to alienate the enthusiast community when trying to create a market presence in growing space like home automation.

Yesterday I was an evangelist despite a poor experience receiving my cameras in a timely fashion. Today, I’m quite the opposite.

Here’s a link to the form if anyone needs it:
http://support.blinkforhome.com/customer/portal/emails/new?t=634966&ticket[custom_src]=ra

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Well this is interesting news from October

This week Swedish lock company Assa Abloy said it would buy August, the maker connected locks. I also found out that Immedia, the company that makes the Blink cameras and alarm system is also on the market. Blink didn’t respond to my inquiry about it being for sale.

As I suspected they have run out of money so cutting back … I have just emailed them to ask for a full explanation. Not holding my breath for an answer thou. In the meantime alternative indoor camera that integrate with ST welcome please? Going to put mine on Ebay just after Xmas … look out boxing day probably be quite a few on there …

I really love how i get an email this morning from Blin, order today for everyone on your list… and 2 hours later… ST integration is cancelled, you guys are screwed. :slight_smile:

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Yes, I can confirm Arlo’s have terrible lag. And the Arlo Pro’s use proprietary batteries.They also conveniently don’t include a battery charger in your starter kit so you either have to buy a charger + extra battery/batteries (batteries are, IIRC, $40 each) and swap them when yours run low. Or you have to take your cameras down to charge them via the included USB.

Arlo’s first gen system was terrible and many people (myself included) had the hub die outside of the 1 year warranty. After being told I was SOL they refused to sell me a new hub by itself and told me I would have to buy an entirely new system to get a new hub.

That interaction with Netgear was what made me sell my Arlo’s and get blink cameras. If Blink is going to switch to a subscription model (as I, like others here, suspect they’re about to do) I might as well go out and buy some Ring spotlight cameras and just pay $10/month for unlimited cameras. The biggest selling point for Blink was the free cloud storage.

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I will NEVER recommend or buy another Blink product. I know for a fact that I have sold over 50 of these cameras for them.

Technically, what they’re saying is true. You can integrate ST with Blink via IFTTT. Everything just runs through IFTTT and there’s no direct integration. Yeah, what they’re doing is crappy, but they’re not misleading people by saying you can connect ST to Blink via IFTTT.

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It is not the same because Blink cameras are valuable because they are battery powered, no wires, I have used the Blue Iris solution w/ my wired cameras but Blink solves something different.

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I’m probably going to sell them to. I think I prefer my previous PoE setup because it could record all the time and not miss things.

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Not that simple for some of us though. My main priorities are that the cameras be wireless, and they also be waterproof.

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