Product Changes for 2017

At SmartThings we’ve always prided ourselves on being open and honest with our community–and sometimes that hurts. To be as transparent as possible, we’d rather tell you the good (and the bad) when we can. With that said, we have several unpleasant announcements:

Migration Tool
In 2014, we announced the SmartThings v2 Hub as the next generation Hub to replace our initial Kickstarter product. At that time, we were hard at work on a “migration tool” to help users who wanted to transition from the original Hub to the newer model. Unfortunately, after several false starts, we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not feasible to reliably transfer settings and devices from the first version Hub to the newer model. With that, we are no longer planning to deliver a Hub v1 to Hub v2 migration tool.

We regret that we can’t deliver on our initial promise, but in order to release a migration tool we needed it to deliver a great experience. We found it would be extremely difficult to automatically exclude and shift devices to the new Hub, and we’re unable to meet the expectations we set. Our goal is to always deliver the best mix of features and customer experience, and we regret that we’re letting some of our most loyal customers down.

Windows Phone App
We also regret to announce that version 1.7.0 of the SmartThings app for Windows Phone will be the last major release for the Windows Phone OS. We are no longer able to provide the desired level of updates and support for this platform and have made the tough decision to discontinue Windows phone development.

Version 1.7.0 now offers support for Windows 10 features. Barring unforeseen issues, this version will continue to function (with Windows Phone 10 Anniversary update). On April 1, 2017 version 1.7.0 will be removed from the Windows app store, and it will no longer be possible to download it and install it onto a new device. We will continue to offer technical support through June 2017 for existing users.

SmartApp Curation
Finally, over the next few months, we will be removing SmartApps from the Marketplace that are no longer updated or supported by their developers. We will notify, where possible, the SmartApp developer beforehand, and help existing SmartApp users find alternatives.

SmartThings did not make any of these decisions lightly, and we understand that we are disappointing some of our users. However, these changes allow us to continue to focus on other products and services to help the whole of our community.