[DEPRECATED] Blink Camera Device Handler with Motion Sensor, Live Video Streaming, Integration with SmartThings/SHM, Temperature, Signals and Push Notifications

Great news that they will continue this support with @RBoy

Glad blink listens to the community and I have gained alothe of respect for that with the company.

1 Like

This is great news. I am a little concern that they could reverse this decision at a later date and drop ST all together. Right now Iā€™m within the 30 day return windowā€¦ later on I will not beā€¦ decisions, decisions, decisions.

1 Like

It is highly recommended to update your code immediately as Blink is closely monitoring accounts who arenā€™t on the recommended/latest version. The older versions have been disabled as of earlier this week and to ensure smooth operations Blink is requesting customers to upgrade to the latest version.

If you are unable to upgrade to the latest code immediately, PLEASE UNINSTALL the OLD versions of the SmartApp/device handler and then reinstall the latest version when you have access to it. This will avoid any disruption to the accounts/service and help protect the infrastructure.

1 Like

@RBoy,

Thank you for your attention to this. I know that you worked hard to keep the integration with Blink and SmartThings and without you we would have been royally screwed.

Also to Blink,

Thank you for listening to your customers. I understand that without checks and balances, your servers and system could be/ can be compromised. As you have proven yourself to actually care, I will continue to recommend Blink cameras as a good camera system to implement into SmartThings.

Although, I was planning on buying 3 of the outdoor cameras, I do have concerns that this is not just a temporary move. Once I feel comfortable that Blink will work with ST natively, I will purchase the rest of the cameras that I need.

To All that Helped,

Thank you community! Some say that no matter what the consumer request, manufactures will not listen. This proves that together, our voices can help manufactures make better products and better business decisions.

Cancelling my quest to find replacement motion detectors.

4 Likes

Thanks @RBoy for your hard work regarding this issue! We love the integration and the efforts you put into this!

A big shout to everyone who sent messages to Blinkā€¦ Weā€™ve been heard!

6 Likes

I did the same thing, but was going to get Arlo. Why did you switch away from it? How about the Arlo Pro?

Awesome!! Best news Iā€™ve heard all week. Glad to know our voices were actually heard. I personally had a back and forth email exchange with Blink. Glad itā€™s worked out.

Thanks again RBoy!

2 Likes

I had both the Arlo (not the pro) and Blink cameras at the same time (for about a week) to compare them head to head. The two major factors that caused me to send the Arlo cameras back were both related to motion detection.

The first issue was that the motion detection on the Arlo did not do a good job of picking up people moving around my house, even on the highest sensitivity setting. In particular, one of the cameras I had setup on one side of my basement level family room, pointing back across the room towards the stairs (from upstairs/main entry to the house), two bedrooms and two exterior windows. I was able to come down the stars (roughly 16 feet way from the camera) and wall towards it (not straight at it, but pretty close) and not have the camera trigger until I was less then 4 feet away from it. This was in the day time with all the lights on. It did seem to work a little better in the dark for some reason. The other two Arlo cameras I had did not have very good motion detection, even when walking across their line of sight. I had one on top of the kitchen cabinets and it would not detect motion (at about 10 feet) until I had walked nearly all the way across our bar area (about 8 feet into the view of the camera).

Add to the poor motion detection that fact that there was a delay from detection to actual recording and it was possible for the Arlo to completely miss the action that set it off. With that family room camera mentioned above, if I waked quickly down the stairs, across the room, crossed in front of the camera and left itā€™s view, it would trigger be fail completely to catch me on video.

Those two things and the higher cost had me sending them back in favor of the Blink cameras.

2 Likes

Yep this quells my plans on buying more.

Iā€™m in the same boat. I was planning on expanding my system as well, and while Iā€™m happy with the stay of execution, I am concerned that this is a temporary reprieve. I am hopeful for the permanent solution.

1 Like

Can I just add my thanks to RBoys for his work with Blink to achieve this. Whilst this as dented the ST community I think Blink have learnt a lesson or I hope they have and will hopefully introduce the new forms of integration in a more controlled fashion and take into account users feedback.

I too will hold back on expansion or use of the XT model until I see proof of this.

But in the meantime , thank you Rboys

4 Likes

Youā€™re welcome, weā€™ll keep working with Blink to make this a permanent solution through ST native integration.

3 Likes

AWESOME news!! So happy to hear they listened to all of our complaining. Hated to be annoying to them about all of this, but now we know they listen and can adapt. Hope itā€™s permanent.

2 Likes

Excellent work by @RBoy and the whole community in convincing Blink of the need for SmartThings support!

While itā€™s true they could change their minds in the future, well, that would be pretty far down my list of things to worry about in the future.

BTW, we should keep in mind Blink will probably monitoring SmartThings pretty closely; hopefully they will take advantage of the connection with the community via @RBoy if they see anything worrisome and work with the community to get it addressed.

3 Likes

Good news. No cameras to return, and I can continue buying the additional 7 cameras I planned on for my office and cabin.

2 Likes

Iā€™m on the latest one and isnā€™t working for meā€¦was working up to a day ago.
Edit: working again todayā€¦sorryā€¦weirdā€¦
Yesterday was definitely broken. I even tried to reconfigure in the smartapp and no camera was showing. But was working in the blink app. Maybe my email complain made them reenable itā€¦
okā€¦now i just read the updateā€¦thanks and glad it was reenabled.

Nice work to all! esp @RBoy for leading the chargeā€¦

2 Likes

theyā€™ll hopefully realise with Native integrationā€¦itā€™ll lead to more sales of cameraā€¦as it works and act as a motion sensor tooā€¦great for automation.

4 Likes

FYI: Official native integration will also raise itā€™s priority for consideration for possible special handling features in ActionTiles.

6 Likes

@RBoy and all,

Glad the integration is working again, thanks for all of your time spent on this. A special shout out to @RBoy for his commitment - no doubt many hours spent just to iron this out.

This leaves a bitter aftertaste though. If it was so easy for management to pull the plug they will have to show where their loyalties are until I invest in more cameras. Hesitantly positive is my current stance, but I have to admit that I have re-evaluated cloud connections and SAAS business as a whole.

I am surprised that our complaints were heard and listened, did not really expect this outcome. Hmm, a new way to run your business? -misbehave and stir things up, leave the customers hanging so they notice what they are missing, then make them really thankful when they get initial functionality back. Customer side: -"they listened to us! then scurries off to write positive reviews on social media to negate the bad reviews they left, a couple of days old.

Latest DH and SA.
Still i get invalid username or passwod.
Blink native app works.
Is that blink support then`?

Regards