Nest Labs To End Support For $300 Revolv Smart Hub, Effectively Bricking Them Forever
The whole smart home movement is very much in its infancy in terms of product maturity and mainstream adoption. It's likely to stay that way for some time to come, in part over fear of buying into soon-to-be obsolete technologies. That's the situation buyers of Revolv's smart home hub now find themselves in as Nest, a subsidiary of Alphabet, gets ready to end support for Revolv's platform.
Unfortunately for anyone who's configured a smart home around Revolv, end of support doesn't simply mean no more security updates or patches, it's much worse than that. When Nest pulls the plug on May 15, 2016, the Revolv hub and all accompanying apps will no longer work, rendering the $300 device a pricey paperweight.
This was the worst case scenario that some Revolv smart hub owners feared when Nest acquired Revolv in October 2014, just nine months after Nest itself was scooped up by Google for $3.2 billion. Nest's interest in Revolv wasn't the hardware or platform, it was the talented team behind it. Right after the acquisition, Revolv stopped selling its smart home hub.
Nest had the team behind Revolv focus their efforts on its Works with Nest platform, while continuing to support Revolv. The latter comes to an end next month.
"Now Works with Nest is turning into something more secure, more useful and just flat-out better than anything Revolv created," a message on Revolv's website reads. "So we're pouring all of our energy into Works with Nest and are incredibly excited about what we're making. Unfortunately, that means we can't allocate resources to Resolve anymore and we have to shut down the service."
Revolv owners are understandably livid at the situation. However, it appears that Nest is willing to work with customers on a resolution.
Unfortunately for anyone who's configured a smart home around Revolv, end of support doesn't simply mean no more security updates or patches, it's much worse than that. When Nest pulls the plug on May 15, 2016, the Revolv hub and all accompanying apps will no longer work, rendering the $300 device a pricey paperweight.
This was the worst case scenario that some Revolv smart hub owners feared when Nest acquired Revolv in October 2014, just nine months after Nest itself was scooped up by Google for $3.2 billion. Nest's interest in Revolv wasn't the hardware or platform, it was the talented team behind it. Right after the acquisition, Revolv stopped selling its smart home hub.
Nest had the team behind Revolv focus their efforts on its Works with Nest platform, while continuing to support Revolv. The latter comes to an end next month.
"Now Works with Nest is turning into something more secure, more useful and just flat-out better than anything Revolv created," a message on Revolv's website reads. "So we're pouring all of our energy into Works with Nest and are incredibly excited about what we're making. Unfortunately, that means we can't allocate resources to Resolve anymore and we have to shut down the service."
Revolv owners are understandably livid at the situation. However, it appears that Nest is willing to work with customers on a resolution.
Revolv owners, we're here to help. Please get in touch so we can find the best solution for your needs: help@revolv.com
— Nest Support (@nestsupport) April 5, 2016
Nest also put out a statement saying, "We’ve been working with the small number of Revolv customers on a case-by-case basis since we sent out the first customer notification in February to determine the best resolution, including compensation,"
