Logitech’s smart home graveyard claims another victim | usagoldmines.com

It’s time for another sad episode of “Smart Home Graveyard,” with Logitech warning users of its POP line of smart home buttons that their devices will be rendered useless in a matter of days. 

POP Smart Button owners began sharing the end-of-line emails from Logitech late last month, which noted that the buttons would cease working on October 15, giving them only slightly more than two weeks’ notice. 

“For close to a decade, we have maintained the POP ecosystem, but as technology evolves, we have made the decision to end support for the device,” Logitech’s email reads. “As of October 15, your POP button(s) and the connected hub will no longer be supported and will lose all functionality.” 

Logitech added that it would give POP button owners a promo code giving them a 15-percent discount on Logitech and Ultimate Ears products (Logitech owns the Ultimate Ears audio brand). 

Annoyed POP button owners on Reddit didn’t hold back about the prospect of their devices being turned into paperweights. 

“This is why, ‘local first’” wrote one user, while another complained, “12 buttons and 3 hubs in my home are going to become beautiful useless [pieces] of tech. Why?” 

We’ve reached out to Logitech for comment.

First introduced roughly 9 years ago, the Logitech POP system consists of a round, flat POP button and a hub that connects the button to your local network. Each POP hub could support up to 18 of the buttons. A POP kit that included a hub and a button cost $60, while additional buttons went for $40 each. 

You could program the buttons to trigger up to three different smart-home commands via a single-, double-, or long-press.

The original POP buttons were compatible with a variety of smart home ecosystems, including Philips Hue, LIFX, Lutron Caséta, Sonos, Belkin’s WeMo brand, and Insteon, among others. The buttons also worked with Logitech’s Harmony universal remote hub. A separate HomeKit-compatible version of the POP button arrived in 2017. 

Logitech’s decision to nix support for its POP buttons comes amid the company’s growing ambivalence towards the smart home.  

Earlier this year, Logitech chopped support for its earliest Harmony remotes, which can still work but can no longer be reprogrammed. Logitech purchased the Harmony brand in 2004 but stopped making the remotes in 2021, although it’s keeping the servers on for more recent Harmony products—well, for now, anyway. 

Two smart home products that Logitech does still sell are the Circle View Doorbell and Circle View Camera, although the company’s relatively new CEO seemed uncertain last year whether the devices are still available. (They are, The Verge later confirmed.)