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Belkin's Wemo Smart Devices Will Go Offline On Saturday 26

Posted by BeauHD from the end-of-life dept.
Belkin is shutting down cloud support for most Wemo smart home devices on January 31, leaving only Thread-based models and devices already set up in Apple HomeKit functional. Everything else will lose remote access, voice assistant integrations, and future app updates. The Verge reports: The shut down was first announced in July and impacts most Wemo devices, ranging from smart plugs to a coffee maker, with the exception of a handful of Thread-based devices: the 3-way smart light switch (WLS0503), stage smart scene controller (WSC010), smart plug with Thread (WSP100), and smart video doorbell camera (WDC010). Wemo devices configured through Apple's HomeKit will also continue to work, but you have to set them up in HomeKit before January 31st if you want to use that option.

Other affected devices will only work manually after Saturday. If your Wemo device is still under warranty, you may be able to get a partial refund for it after cloud services shut down.
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Belkin's Wemo Smart Devices Will Go Offline On Saturday More

Belkin's Wemo Smart Devices Will Go Offline On Saturday

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  • The cloud strikes again (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    When will people learn?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      The Cloud is too busy doing AI stuff to be concerned with your pathetic little lives.

    • Re:The cloud strikes again (Score:4, Insightful)

      by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Friday January 30, 2026 @10:29PM (#65960328) Journal

      When will people learn?

      Never. They never will which is why companies keep churning out new gear and then killing off the old stuff. Lather, rinse, repeat.

      I've seen these 'ecosystems' of devices like this come and go over and over and over again. And the main reason it turns into e-waste overnight is because the company turns the servers off.

      See, they figure they've sold about as many as they're gonna sell, so it's time to 'obsolete' it and make everyone buy new stuff.

      This is why I run everything that I can locally, no cloud reliance whatsoever, and no AI refrigerators or Alexa or anything like that. The only exception is some real-time cloud backup for security video footage.

      If you want to do home automation, go the open source route or you'll forever be jumping from system to system as the product line ages out. Ask me how I know.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        People are learning. Look on Amazon, many devices are now advertising "no cloud" and "no subscription" as a valuable selling point.

        • Though itâ(TM)s not always correct. I got a garage door remote that, yeah, works without their cloud stuff, but you canâ(TM)t modify several parameters like open/close detection delay with the open source side. Not that itâ(TM)s a big deal; you can sign up for their account using a throwaway email address and never use it again.

          • . I got a garage door remote that, yeah, works without their cloud stuff, but you canâ(TM)t modify several parameters like open/close detection delay with the open source side.

            That's blatant anti-user design in my opinion.

      • Yup, same here. Like the B52, modbus has been around since forever and will outlive all of its successors. Local, wired, nothing for a vendor to discontinue or declare obsolete.

    • True. But the more important question is when will regulators learn to step into what are obviously mass-scale contractual violations?

      Cloud-controlled devices should have a mandatory, enforceable clause to open-source their control interface in the event the manufacturer shuts down the cloud component.

      The manufacturer could configure their device to try and contact a local IP (say, 192.168.1.200) immediately after factory reset, for further reconfiguration by a locally-hosted interface

  • Pointless gadgets (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TwistedGreen ( 80055 ) on Friday January 30, 2026 @11:37PM (#65960374)

    Is is that hard to just use a normal goddamn light switch?

    • LOL, found the Luddite. /jk I was thinking the exact same thing.

    • Newsflash - switches are not just for lights.

      Smart switches and other smart devices allow for many applications that are simply not possible to do with dumb ones, such as scheduling.

      To be back on topic, there are 100% cloud-free alternatives to Wemo, such as Z-wave devices. ESPHome devices also come to mind.

      • These devices are NOT smart. I have mechanical timers that switch stuff on/off on a regular schedule.

        All of this is just automation, and unless a person sets up the parameters, logic, etc it is 100% useless.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dskoll ( 99328 )

          I used software to turn on and off a light on an irregular schedule while I was away on holiday. On at 30 minutes after sunset and off a random time between 11:00PM and 12:30PM. Makes the house look a bit more lived in and was fun to script.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by madbrain ( 11432 )

          Where do you draw the line at "smart" ? What does that word even mean to you ?

          Of course you have to program your devices for them to be useful, whether they are mechanical or electronic. Is there an argument ?

          Scheduling was just one example I cited. I have many other automations based on other triggers. For example, some that run my circulation pump only when I need hot water as opposed to 24/7, which saves energy, the lifetime of my pipes, and noise. This is accomplished with motion sensors near shower, an

          • Congratulations on having complex automations.
            Complex smart.

            That kind of automation was around in industrial sites 40+ years ago.

            • So at least you now admit they are smart. Mine is a home environment in 2026, not industrial 40 years ago. The reality is that smart devices can have many benefits, and can be implemented cloud free. Everything is mentioned is.

              • No, I said it was complex, not smart.
                And complex was used to say it was just more than simple.
                You are just doing what was done 40+ years ago with relay logic but with silicon instead and using wireless vs wired.
                And "Cloud" 40 years ago typically meant it was going to rain.

                All the "Smarts" came from YOU programming the set up for a desired set of outcomes.

                I have home automation too, but in no way do I consider it smart. And yes, I was also working in industries back in the 1980s that used relay lo

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dskoll ( 99328 )

      I have some remotely-controllable WiFi plugs. I use them in emergency to power-cycle my main server if I'm far from home and the server locks up. There are good uses for remotely-controllable plugs and switches.

      But they don't rely on any cloud provider; they run Tasmota and I control them directly via their Web interface or API.

      • Even cheaper are ESP devices with small relays. I use those to drive the power switch pins of motherboards - short for on, four seconds for hard off.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dskoll ( 99328 )

          My devices are Sonoff S31s that cost me $7 apiece at CloudFree [cloudfree.shop], though I see the price has been raised to $11, or $14 if you want them pre-flashed with Tasmota or ESPHome. (I did the flashing myself.)

          Also, the critical server in question happens to be a Raspberry Pi, so to power-cycle it remotely pretty much means doing it at the outlet.

  • marches on

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Swervin ( 836962 )
      Belkin has always been shit. I remember almost 20 years ago working for an ISP and Belkin had a router model that would not properly renew IP addresses via DHCP. They had to be power cycled every time the lease expired.We "fixed" the issue on our DHCP server by giving Belkin MAC addresses very long lease times. I didn't run the DHCP server so I have no idea what the exact issue was, but we had other issues with Belkin devices. It really gave me the impression that they weren't high quality.
  • It is a good idea to only buy "smart" hardware that is known to function without the cloud with Home Assitant or some other open software. Beware though: "Home Assistant-compatible" sometimes means that there's an HA plugin that is able to talk to a cloud API, which is not very useful in cases like this. I am pretty sure this will soon become public knowledge that closed systems aren't worth buying and behaviors like this will backfire badly. I hope so.

  • pyWemo support (Score:3)

    by esarjeant ( 100503 ) on Saturday January 31, 2026 @09:21AM (#65960734) Homepage

    In case anyone else gets here wondering what to do next with their now enshitified WeMo devices:

    https://github.com/pywemo/pywe... [github.com]

    I've put together a script that I'm planning to use as well which includes support for sunrise / sunset using astral [ https://github.com/esarjeant/p... [github.com] ]. Feel free to use anything from this to make your own scripted controller...

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