Users of the Insteon smart home system have reported that their smart home hubs have been down since Friday. Several signs have shown that the company may have ceased its operations without even informing its numerous customers.
Background of Insteon Smart Home System Company
Insteon is a smart home system that offered both hardware and software technology. It is owned by Smartlabs, Inc., based in Irvine, Calif. Users who purchased Insteon products can easily install these at home. They can also remotely control these products via the Insteon Hub. The Hub worked with both Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Home Assistant.
There is also an Insteon Lighting app for iOS devices that controls Insteon light switches, keypads, plugs, and other lighting-related products. Many Insteon products were also compatible with Apple’s HomeKit.
Various Signs that Insteon Smart Home System May Have Shut Down
Stacey on IoT reported that some customers who contacted Insteon did not receive any response from the company. It would seem that the company may have shut down its operations.
For instance, the company’s Twitter account has not been updated since June 2021. In addition, the LinkedIn profile of Rob Lilleness, president and chairman of Smartlabs, no longer lists Insteon. Likewise, LinkedIn profiles of other Insteon Management teams also seem to have declaimed any ties with Insteon or Smartlabs. Both the CIO and Chief Research Officer stated in their profiles that their roles with Smartlabs ended in 2022. Likewise, the president and COO indicated that his role ended as early as 2020.
Insteon Home Automation Hardware and Software Customers Are Experiencing Troubles
Since the Insteon servers went down, customers have experienced various troubles. The Insteon app has stopped working. as well as automation and schedules customers had created. In addition, customers could not perform a system reset, since doing so requires a connection to the Insteon server. Those servers, despite a status message on the company’s website saying everything is operational, has been down for several days now.
Insteon Home Automation and Hardware Future Goes Awry
It seems we may have a case of proprietary technology that used to have a brighter future. But due to implementation and other factors, something went wrong along the way. As Stacey on IoT said, Insteon could have paved the way for a big shift to smarter homes. However, as recent events suggest, it didn’t pan out well for Insteon. The smart home system could have been boosted by the launch of the Matter interoperability standard, scheduled for release later in 2022.
While it remains to be seen whether Insteon has totally gone out of business, many customers are left with products that don’t work anymore. Let’s hope that the company will issue a formal statement in the days to come. If not, perhaps some customers will find a workaround to make their Insteon hardware and software work again.
I had Insteon for years, no decades, in my previous home. SmartLabs biggest mistake was not embracing HomeKit and the other smart home technologies.
It was always superior in reliability to any other product. And having a smart wall switch is faster and easier when entering a room than invoking Siri.
That said, PerceptiveAutomation.com is the way to go. All you need is a USB interface and a spare MacMini to create a LocalNet of Things that never relies on an external server. And, yes you can use Siri with a HomeBridge plugin and control your home remotely.