well this isn’t totally surprising given their history, but wink posted today they are moving to a $5/month subscription model on May 13th (yes, 1 week notice). i’d assume this is a latch ditch effort to stay in business.
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Should you choose not to sign up for a subscription you will no longer be able to access your Wink devices from the app, with voice control or through the API, and your automations will be disabled on May 13. Your device connections, settings and automations can be reactivated if you decide to subscribe at a later date.
Yikes!
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I have seen similar service closure before, like SMS services… Just saying…
Otherwise will.i.am must want to make some money finally for any price.
By the way, @JDRoberts, @prjct92eh2 - is it legal in the US?
In order to provide for development and continued growth, we are transitioning to a $4.99 monthly subscription, starting on May 13, 2020. This fee is designed to be as modest as possible. Your support will enable us to continue providing you with the functionality that you’ve come to rely on, and focus on accelerating new integrations and app features.
Subscription Benefits
$4.99/monthNo long-term commitments
Subscribe to Wink today to retain seamless control and monitoring of your smart home devices, compatible with over 50 top brands.
POWERFUL FEATURESAccess to in-app features such as Robots and Shortcuts.
SIMPLE MONTHLY BILLAll the Wink life-simplifying functionality you’ve come to love for a low set price.
EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SUPPORTContinued access to first class customer support.
Hahaha…
Yes it is legal because of the terms of service the customers agreed to at the time that they purchased the hub. Those terms allow the company to stop or change services at any time.
That’s quite common for cloud-based services these days, smartthings has the same thing in their terms of service, except theirs guarantees 10 days notice:
Does SmartThings cost anything?
.
SmartThings reserves the right to require payment of fees for certain features of the Services. Should you elect to subscribe to such features, you shall pay all applicable fees, as described on the Services in connection with such features. Subject to any subscription agreement or other restrictions, SmartThings reserves the right to change its price list and to institute new charges at any time, upon ten (10) days prior notice to you, which may be sent by email or posted on the Services. Use of the Services by you following such notification constitutes your acceptance of any new or increased charges.
.
Will SmartThings ever change the Services?
.
We’re always trying to improve the Services, so they may change over time. We may suspend or discontinue any part of the Services, or we may introduce new features or impose limits on certain features or restrict access to parts or all of the Services. In some cases, the changes we make to the Services may cause older hardware devices, third party services, software configurations or setups to no longer work with the Services, and you may be required to upgrade or change these devices, services, configurations or setups in order to continue using the Services. We’ll try to give you notice when we make a material change to the Services that would adversely affect you, but this isn’t always practical. Similarly, we reserve the right to remove any Content (including any SmartApps or device or external service connections provided by SmartThings or by third parties) from the Services at any time, for any reason (including, but not limited to, if someone alleges you contributed that Content in violation of these Terms), in our sole discretion, and without notice.
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BTW, Philips Hue (Signify) is unusual in being more generous, but even they limit future support guarantees to 5 years from the date of purchase from an authorized reseller for bulbs and 3 years for a bridge.
Commercial equipment for use by businesses often has contractual agreements for support and viability, but that’s a whole different category.
Products for home automation more typically have something like the smartthings policy. As I mentioned, the one for Hue is the most generous that I’ve seen.
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I personally think it’s a great thing!! So you wondering why…
Why in the world will smartthings add features or enhancements to a product that only brings them 60 bucks in a lifetime???
I would rather feel comfortable paying a subscription knowing that it will help drive the company to develop more features and enhance the current system… As of now smartthings has gotten better over the past years but way way too slow…
If a subscription will get them develop faster I wouldn’t mind it at all… You get what you pay for…
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It’s apples and oranges really. Samsung is going after the Alexa and Google Home model. They want SmartThings to be a whole IoT ecosystem, not just the $60 box and a mobile app.
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Samsung wants an ecosystem to support its smart appliances and smart televisions, which is where it makes its big bucks. They are happy with the home automation features because it gets them more buzz and a cool factor, but they don’t need to make money off the hub-based system itself. Very different business model.
I too would be glad to pay a subscription for a reliable system with deferrable updates, but that’s a separate issue in this case. 
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Understood.
But if they make it more profitable by adding subscription they would increase investment which would lead to faster updates and features…
There are some basic features that the new app is lacking… And only thanks to many here in the community via smart apps and custom DTH lots of things can be done… (And most users don’t even know how to set them up it’s too complicated for them…)
It took me a few days to figure out how to properly setup my konnected Alarm panel with Fire tablets on the new app SHM… 3 Smartapps and 2 DTH and Fully Kiosk Browser and smart tiles… Like seriously???
But I still love it!!! Once it’s all set up it’s amazing.
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SmartThings staff have said multiple times in this forum That most of their customers have 15 or fewer devices and never use any custom code. That’s their target market. People who are happy spending $4000 for a television or refrigerator and want a few home automation features to go with it.
Smartthings staff certainly appreciate and value The power users who frequent this forum, but we aren’t the reason Big Daddy Samsung invests in the platform. Just sayin’… 
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Regarding the appliances, have a look at the reviews here:
You cannot even buy the adapter anymore in Europe, meanwhile a lot of new fridges has a few pages of documentation how great is the adapter and its features. In Europe the fridge adapter runs with this number HD39N1230GW.
.
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This is an advanced feature and SmartThings is NOT a security system. I wouldn’t expect it to be easy. I have a couple of Arlo cameras, open/close sensors, tilt sensors, motion sensors and water leak sensors. The new app can do everything I need. So basic features are working.
This reminds me of when a smart sprinkler company went to a subscription model as a last gasp effort to stay alive. They had laid off all their staff except one programmer Who was supposed to keep the subscriptions working, but things begin to fall apart very quickly and they stopped services altogether soon after.
https://www.skydrop.com/open-letter-to-skydrop-community/
OTOH, When looking for the link this morning I noticed that they still appear to be selling some hardware, so maybe they did eventually get some new funding or get acquired, I don’t know. 
Sometimes in a similar situation a subscription is added as a proof of concept as they try to get some other company to buy them.
I’m not sure what’s going on here, but I don’t think it’s a sign of a healthy company just trying to set itself up for a better future.
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WINK has been accused by users of extortion as they were to hand over 4.99 per month within a week or loose all service.
Just unplugged my Wink Hub 2 and ordered a SmartThings hub…
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Well I was with wink for 5 years. I received the email yesterday and bought a ST hub from bestbuy yesterday and pick it up and set it up today! Came on here to see what I can learn. I will miss the Home sitter automation from wink.
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Amazon’s Alexa’s Guard feature can do the same thing as Wink’s homesitter utilizing the devices through smartthings, but it can take it about 10 days to collect enough data before it’s working well.
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I, too, came from Wink last year. I also use Vera. I’ve been migrating all my Zwave from Vera and originally moved all Zigbee from Wink. I can say that you’ll find SmartThings and this forum to be much, much better over time. Sure, it has quirks, but the options seem endless here.
After moving to SmartThings, I’ve trippled my device total because they just work and are easy to pair to the hub.
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