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New 'Wemo Bridge' Will Bring HomeKit Support to Belkin's Wemo Line This Fall

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Belkin today announced that its Wemo line of smart home devices will support HomeKit starting this fall with the launch of a new HomeKit-enabled Wemo Bridge.

The Wemo Bridge, which will connect to any home Wi-Fi router via an Ethernet cable, will allow current Wemo Smart Plugs and Light Switches to connect to a HomeKit setup. Wemo products will respond to Siri voice commands and will be able to interface with other HomeKit devices in Scenes when connected to the bridge.

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"Wemo is offering this bridge to address the overwhelming request from customers to make currently installed Wemo products work with HomeKit and other HomeKit compatible products," said Brian Van Harlingen, chief technology officer at Belkin International. "We're proud to work with Apple to bring together two of the most influential Smart Home platforms. Wemo has been providing smart home devices for more than five years, and millions of people use Wemo devices every day. The Wemo Bridge will allow current and future Wemo users to experience the benefits of HomeKit, including Siri integration and interoperability with other HomeKit devices while also leveraging all the Wemo features customers enjoy."
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With the addition of HomeKit support, Wemo products will work with almost all connected home solutions on the market, including Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Nest Learning Thermostat (Home and Away modes), and IFTTT.

Bridge-compatible Wemo devices include the Dimmer, Mini Smart Plug, Insight Smart Plug, and Light Switch.

Belkin plans to debut the Wemo Bridge in the fall. Pricing has not yet been announced.

Article Link: New 'Wemo Bridge' Will Bring HomeKit Support to Belkin's Wemo Line This Fall
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/05/25/belkin-wemo-bridge-homekit-support/
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Great news, with this and IKEA lights supporting HomeKit soon, HomeKit products should become cheap and widely available enough for everyone to upgrade their homes.​
 
WEMO already works pretty easily with SmartThings (without any added hardware pieces). SmartThings also supports Z Wave and ZigBee protocols. Until there's a device/hub that just works with everything, we're going to constantly need to look at cobbled together solutions like this.

...Also looks like that HomeKit adapter hub rumored from a few months ago will not be happening.
 
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I started looking at other options when Wemo announced on their site they had no plans to support homekit. In the middle of a remodel so we'll see what happens, but fall is probably too late for me.
 
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lw9090 said:
2 years too late.. I sold my 12 WeMo's and moved on..... Screw you Belkin
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I had a handful of wemo devices as well. A few light switches that failed and I couldn't get working again. I moved on and used it as an opportunity to try out some home kit enabled devices. I'm quite surprised at how stable they've been.
 
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Lots of companies have announced bridges like this to add HomeKit to their existing products. So far, it seems, none have actually been released - instead they end up replacing their old products with new products with built-in HomeKit, or abandon HomeKit altogether. At least that has been the case with several products I own. Hope this time it's for real.
 
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With such a huge market for smart outlets homekit or otherwise it still amazes me Lutron hasn't come in and released an in wall outlet supporting this. Already have their serena shades and a bunch of their homekit switches why not outlets?
 
This would be a great product if it weren't for the fact that Wemo is as unintuitive as you can get, not to mention buggy, and simply doesn't work. I bought one outlet to try it out. I won't be buying any more. Compared to my Philips hue products (which are NOT fantastic) these simply do not work.
 
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Vasilioskn said:
Basically we need a bunch of hubs to use HomeKit , does anyone else think this is inconvenient and kind of sloppy on Apples part?
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No.

You don't need hubs if the device is engineered to begin with for HomeKit. These hubs are mostly for older devices.

And the improved security is worth the trade offs. I feel much more confident with a HomeKit setup than with the alternatives.
 
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cmaier said:
No.

You don't need hubs if the device is engineered to begin with for HomeKit. These hubs are mostly for older devices.

And the improved security is worth the trade offs. I feel much more confident with a HomeKit setup than with the alternatives.
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hi don't know that much about homekit , i've got philips hue lights are you saying that cos it's homekit compatible i can buy any other bulb switch etc as long as there homekit capable i'll work fine without buying that manufacturers hub ?
 
Vasilioskn said:
Basically we need a bunch of hubs to use HomeKit , does anyone else think this is inconvenient and kind of sloppy on Apples part?
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Not especially. If vendors would make devices that included the mFI chips from the start, there wouldn't been need to retrofit in this manner.

Alternatively, just do homebridge. I run homebridge on a Raspberry Pi Zero W. The only cable hooked up to it is power. It's got an 802.11n radio, so it's on the network, and I've got homebridge modules for my Nest smoke detectors, MyQ garage door opener, and our Logitech Harmony Hub. None of those devices are HomeKit devices, yet there they are, in my Home app, working with HomeKit, and it's all because of homebridge.
 
groovyd said:
With such a huge market for smart outlets homekit or otherwise it still amazes me Lutron hasn't come in and released an in wall outlet supporting this. Already have their serena shades and a bunch of their homekit switches why not outlets?
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Lutron offers HomeKit-compatible Caseta adapters that plug into outlets and control whatever is plugged in. They are great. Are you talking about something else?
 
Insleep said:
You can already add HomeKit support to WeMo switches for free with Homebridge. All you need is a computer -- could be a Raspberry Pi, old Windows PC, Mac, etc. I run it on my main machine (2012 Mac mini) and it works really well.
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Does Homebridge works with wemo bulbs?
 
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bluespark said:
Lutron offers HomeKit-compatible Caseta adapters that plug into outlets and control whatever is plugged in. They are great. Are you talking about something else?
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yes, im talking about native support built right into the outlet. i'd swap out every outlet in my condo if they did. i haven't seen their adapters though but i am trying to get away from blocks plugged into blocks. it would also be nice if they supported dimming too.
 
groovyd said:
yes, im talking about native support built right into the outlet. i'd swap out every outlet in my condo if they did. i haven't seen their adapters though but i am trying to get away from blocks plugged into blocks. it would also be nice if they supported dimming too.
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Ah, understood. The Lutron Caseta adapters do support dimming, but they are "blocks plugged into blocks." I agree that a hard-wired option would be nice.
 
bluespark said:
Ah, understood. The Lutron Caseta adapters do support dimming, but they are "blocks plugged into blocks." I agree that a hard-wired option would be nice.
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exactly... waiting for native outlets that support dimming and at least 15 amps. i'd be fine with 2 types, one that is lower power and supports dimming and one that is simple switched 15+ amp. bridge or no bridge really doesn't matter to me since i already have their bridge for the wall switches and shades but to be honest these days you shouldn't need a bridge. implementing wifi is just as cheap and easy as zigbee.
 
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