So for someone new to ST and is considering buying Blink, what currently works? Can you still Arm / Disarm Blink via ST with Geofencing? Monitor via ST or do you have to use the Blink app? Blinks pricepoint is attractive, now Im thinking something like Arlo would be better if its ST compatible. Thx.
I purchased a Blink 3 set when it was $200. Amazing price! And they work very well with RBoyâs handler and app. The only thing that doesnât work is recording within ST because ST doesnât support 3rd-party cameras.
So, when Best Buy heavily discounted Arlo cameras around Thanksgiving, I jumped on those. I did it in part because I wanted exterior cameras, which Blink has now released.
Overall, Blink with RBoyâs integration is great. Now that they have exterior cameras, itâs even better. I recommend it. I also recommend Arlo, too. If youâre using the camera-makerâs app, Arloâs is much better. The other nice thing about the Arlo cams, is that all of them have IR for low-light compared to the blinding LED Blink uses for illumination on the standard camera (XT cam uses IR). But, Arlo is more expensive.
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I would hold off on Blink until we know for sure whether or not the other integration is considered official by Blink because if itâs not, it could stop working at any time.
If the Arlo integration wasnât done by SmartThings then that could technically stop working at any time tooâŠ
By no way itâs Official if itâs not from the Blink and not even mentioned by Blink, itâs just self declared Official 
The official - read Officially declare integration is with Alexa only
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Sorry @RightHand, I was wrong and it is time to panic.
I just received a follow up email from Blink about @RBoyâs integration.
it is not official and we are working on getting it shut down.
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Looks like IFTTT currently only works in North America. Got an email confirming this from blink support today. Iâve asked them to please not shut down rboys integration as that is the only way I automate my cameras for now.
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I received this response from Blink today:
We have communicated this directly to RBoy. I personally have not been the one communicating this to him, but rather an engineer from our server team. We communicated to RBoy that we will be disabling all 3rd party integrations, including his. I apologize if you feel that we are not telling the truth. I looked through your ticket history from our other email account, and they did provide you misleading information saying that RBoyâs app will be continuing. Iâve informed that team that we are disabling all 3rd party integrations to hopefully avoid this miscommunication in the future.
Thanks,
Adam
Blink Customer Service
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Detailed discussion of the other DTH in that thread:
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This would explain why blink are disabling all 3rd party integration:
http://get.blinkforhome.com/blink-home-security/
Specifically, âManual & Scheduled
Arm & Disarm, Geofencingâ for $9.99 per month subscription fee.
They obviously are trying to make more money out of the product and 3rd party integration doesnât help their cause.
For a company with a pretty good product, they sure have horrid business practice. Just check their kickstarter comments and the number of backers still waiting on their pledge. To publish the fact that smartthings integration work via rboys to sell more camera and to later change this so that they can make more money is just bad customer experience.
Might have to sell my blink system soon and get something elseâŠ
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Here is what I emailed Blink - hopefully I captured everyones thoughts on this sorry if I didnât!
I and the rest of the smarthings community are quite disappointed with Blinkâs removal for 3rd party API support. Blink was a promising device for smart home users now its starting to look like a paper weight without much appeal and creating an opportunity for someone else to take advantage of the loss of functionality. Blink has and will lose mass appeal by your main customer base - home automation users. These various smart home communities that support and recommend Blink will seize to do so going forward. These communities have no interest in using additional integrations such as IFTTT or purchasing subscriptions you may offer. We want to utilize a single platform for complete control and management for home automation and integrate various devices together to have a smart home not a disconnected system with random devices that do not work together. Fix your issues and reopen 3rd party API support. Or even better yet work with Smarthings to actually build a Smartapp that works so someone else doesnât have to do the work that you should already be doing. This is quite disappointing and I will not recommend blink until a satisfying resolution is found.
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I am disappointed that there isnât a permanent solution, but this statement overreaches.
See the latest with Blink here:
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Integration has been reenabled via RBoyâs integration. Have a look at the link above. They are working on native integration now with smartthings.
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I understand Roby works at the moment but like many I believe in an open platform that is community driven and supported and Blink only allowing one app that is a license based does not help support an open platform. That is what appealed to many of us before investing in SmartThings - to be able to connect many different devices together and make them work together through one platform. Clearly Blink has an agenda and is only trying to appease the community with limited support for one 3rd party app. I actually find this to be a bit disrespectful especially given their responses noted above when clearly this app here has been heavily developed and invested into and clearly helped Blink sell more product. It would only be he right thing to reach out to this developer and try to work together not completely cut him out given all his effort.
Clearly they want us to use IFTTT which is less than ideal. Only now that there has been some backlash does there seem to be any interest by Blonk creating a native SmartThings app which is something that should have been on their roadmap and communicated well before pulling the only work apps.
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See my additional response - pigeon holing and only allowing one app that is a licensed product does not support an open community. Honestly what they have done is so disrespectful to the community and especially to @krlaframboise as clearly they wonât even make an effort to work with him after all that he has done to support, promote and grow Blinkâs business. Even those that are using RBoy should be worried based on what they did and other things they are doing. Surely they can work with the community while they come up with better solutions rather than cutting everyone off at the knees and then only giving one leg back.
I am glad to hear a native app is in the works but canât help but be skeptical about how long that will be, how realistic it is, what it will actually do and why they keep clearly pushing IFTTT which has limited interest.
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Agreed. I would like an open platform too, but Blink did this because some people misused the integration. Regardless of why (and we know how), they will protect their infrastructure at the cost of openness. At any time, if anyone, requires too many server resources or negatively impacts other users, the company (ST, Blink, etc). will either lock accounts, throttle, or close the APIâs to prevent users from misusing the integration. Closing the code allows this.
But this wouldnât be the only integration where only one is supported. Look at Ring, Harmony, etc. All closed. You get what you get. You canât complain - this was never an ST advertised feature - community apps come and go.
Once incorporated and blessed by both ST and Blink - there will be one. It appears that the intent is that Blink and ST will agree on an integration, and the code will be closed and will prevent future abuse. [quote=âsevencity, post:160, topic:44100â]
they can work with the community while they come up with better solutions
[/quote]
And this appears to be happening. Rboyâs code has been offered as the integration. This is the only solution that will ever be allowed. They will never allow unrestricted access like before. If problems had never occurred, this likely wouldnât even be a topic of discussion (assuming the business conflict didnât raise eyebrows).
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I really think @RBoy should make his code free to everyone. Especially after mentioning trying to get a free integration and persuading people to contact Blink.
I get that he put a lot of time into it, but I put a lot of time into mine too and I never asked for anything in return.
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All of those integrations are provided at no cost; they come as part of your investment into each platform. This situation is different; itâs a convenient way for Blink to limit 3rd party access to their platform by forcing users to pay a 3rd party for integration with which they bear no responsibility for.
What I donât understand here is how RBoy can in good conscience ask his customers to petition Blink on his behalf to keep his integration from being disabled. As the one profiting from the code, the pressure and responsibility lies squarely on his shoulders to protect his customers. To be clear, Iâm not suggesting that users of his integration should not complain to Blink, Iâm only saying that RBoy should not be asking them to.
Further, knowing that Blink may likely still kill the integration, RBoy should either release it for free, or pull it due to the high risk of it being killed by Blink. I find it unethical to continue charging for this integration.
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