Discontinuation of MyQ Connect Community SmartApp

Announcements
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At SmartThings, we work relentlessly to provide the best experience for our users, developers, device makers, and partners. We’re proud of our continued commitment to an open platform and what the developer community has created.

Recently, Chamberlain has been experiencing an unprecedented load on their platform caused by the community-built MyQ Connect SmartApp. This SmartApp relied upon a private API that is not officially supported by Chamberlain. Chamberlain has informed SmartThings that they need to shut down the IP address used by this SmartApp due to the issues impacting their infrastructure.

Starting May 5, the “MyQ Connect” SmartApp will no longer be supported by Chamberlain. We apologize for the inconvenience.

We remain committed to fostering SmartThings’ open platform and its growing developer ecosystem.

FAQ

Why is this SmartApp no longer going to be supported?
The MyQ Connect SmartApp used a private endpoint that is not officially supported by Chamberlain. Due to recent impacts on their platform, Chamberlain has informed SmartThings that they can no longer allow access by this SmartApp, and has closed the IP address it uses.

What happens now?

Although the MyQ garage door openers will not be able to run on the SmartThings platform in the short term, SmartThings is working directly with Chamberlain to officially bring MyQ garage door openers and their functionality to our platform in the coming months.

What are my options?

If you need a solution before the official SmartApp comes out, the GoControl Garage Door Opener is currently certified and officially supported to work with SmartThings for controlling and automating your garage door.

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Do you have an approximate ETA?

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What’s the timeline here Jody? This is a big setback I’ll say. Many folks have invested in a MyQ. I have both Linear and MyQ and I’ll tell you MyQ is FAR more reliable and functional than the Linear solution. Infact Linear doesn’t work with MyQ so those devices are going to be rendered useless! (unless ofcourse SmartThings releases an official version).

Which bring me to, what will the official version do to reduce the workload which is the reason for this annoucement? (push instead of pull?)

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OOF. Just bought and installed a MyQ and their goofy required connect module to get my garage working with SmartThings. Guess I’ll need to spend more on GoControl, or just hook back up my jerry-rigged relay module.

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RBoy, what do you mean the GoControl/Linear does not work with MyQ? Isn’t this one of those controllers that just wires in and replicates a button press, and so shouldn’t it work with any opener including a Chamberlain MyQ?

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It will be allowed to access Chamberlain’s official API. We currently do not have access to that API. I don’t have a timeline for when the official integration will be ready but our partnership team is actively working on it.

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Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but when I replaced my existing standard relay driven garage door opener with the MyQ I tried using the existing relay switch button to wire it to the myQ opener and it refused to work. I needed a special binary coded switch which came with the myQ opener to work. This led me to believe the controller on the MyQ garage door opener doesn’t work with simple relay switches. Hence GoControl’s Linear GD004-Z won’t work as I operates on a principle of a simple relay switch connect activate the garage door opener.

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Yea this is kinda a pretty shitty situation. Polling once a minute was causing problems for MyQ?
This seems more like a political move where they are trying to get something out of ST.

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That is correct RBoy. The MyQ openers use a special system where even the manual button on the wall must be “paired” with the opener. Since the Linear just mimics a momentary switch without any kind of pairing ability, they are mutually exclusive with MyQ.

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This is a major, major disappointment. I can’t believe the solution was just to completely shut it off. Could you not work with them on finding other ways to throttle the traffic if it really was that bad? Even dropping the polling capability and forcing us to use a physical sensor would be better than totally killing the integration altogether.

I’ve long grown tired of hearing about this mythological official integration, but losing our workaround hurts. I’m not counting on it actually happening anytime soon. Guess I could set up my own proxy that ST can hit that then calls Chamberlain, but I don’t really want to. This sucks.

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Since y’all know I love to speculate about conspiracies… What could Chamberlain want?

Well: The official “works with SmartThings certification” is the only thing I can think of.

SmartThings can be quite slow to officially review, approve, and publish SmartApps and Device Type Handlers, unfortunately; that’s why we love being able to install our own.

Still, how many people could have been using the “Community” developed version? Does Chamberlain want “works with SmartThings” badly enough to alienate existing users?

Also noteworthy is that garage door control is just as sensitive to security concerns as locks, so that could be a factor too.

Just sayin’. :thinking:

(BTW: this is just crazy conjecture. Please don’t take it seriously folks!).

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Oh man, I was just about to jump on your throat, I am glad you added the BTW

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I don’t have a clue. I’m just thinking out loud. I am pretty confident that ST was not causing technical issues for them though.

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:disappointed: The myQ integration was perfect, I know many users upgraded to reduced polling, was it all the people who still polled every minute?

Seems like they could just take the existing app update endpoints and be rocking.

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yeah I know chamberlain is probably right about the load busting their server. Having worked with 2 other device manufacturers here on ST, atleast one of them had this concern. The only reason they’re continuing is because of demand from the customers and the promise of new customers (growth). If Chamberlain doesn’t see demand from it’s customer base (it’s all relative - think current smartphone base v/s incremental ST user base) for ST integration, the load that the current ST implementation is putting on their server (and support costs) isn’t worth it so they’re killing it. So really consumers need to blast Chamberlain to have ST integration and it’s gotto move the needle (lots of way to do that but that’s for a different thread) for them to do it. Until then I don’t think even ST’s official channels will make any progress (at the end of the day, the APi’s are the same but Chamberlains’ got to invest in the infrastructure and support to handle that extra load - and they look at RoI (like any company))

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I just read somewhere that someone monitored the ios myq app and it polled their api every 10-15 seconds. So how could that not cause an issue but our 1 minute polls do

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So are they blocking SmartThings IP’s or shutting down the API’s?

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I first bought a wink hub and returned it within 30 minutes of setting it up due to the fact that for “security” reasons, Wink and Chamberlain do not allow MyQ to work with Echo. They claim that someone could stand outside your house and yell “Alexa, open the garage door”… There is more of a risk of someone breaking the window of one of the vehicles I leave parked outside and using the garage door remote. So yes, this is a big disappointment. I’m guessing if there is ever an agreement for official ST/Chamberlain support it won’t include Echo capability…

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:)) I’ve love to see someone around house to house yelling “Alexa, open the garage door” :wink: (on a lighter note)

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Would this impact only Chamberlain openers? Or will this be blocked even for Liftmaster? Or it doesn’t matter? Can someone clarify this?

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