Insteon's Smart Home Cloud Closes Down, But the Open Source Home Assistant Leaps to the Rescue
A bankruptcy means Insteon devices are no longer smart, but Home Assistant stands ready to take over — and run entirely locally, too.
Users of Insteon-branded smart home products have received the unwelcome news that the company behind the tech has filed for bankruptcy, effectively rendering their devices effectively useless — unless, that is, you connect them to Home Assistant instead of Insteon's own cloud.
"The US smart home company Insteon abruptly went dark and turned off its cloud. While Insteon products talk locally, the app and voice assistant integrations do not," Home Assistant's Paulus Schoutsen explains in an announcement brought to our attention by CNX Software. "Without this, users are not able to control and configure their hub and automations don’t run."
Naturally, Schoutsen has a solution — and, equally naturally, that solution is Home Assistant, the open source home automation platform he created. "The good news is that Home Assistant is able to talk to your Insteon devices via the Insteon hub or modem. You will be able to pair new devices and set up links as you’re used to. The other good news is that Home Assistant works 100% local. There is no cloud necessary for any part of it to function and no one can remotely shut it down."
First released back in 2013, Home Assistant is a Python-based control system for smart home systems. Available as a roll-your-own download compatible with everything from high-end servers to a Raspberry Pi or as pre-configured device dubbed Home Assistant Yellow and due to launch later this year, Home Assistant offers integration with a range of third-party smart home ecosystems — including Insteon.
"Tom Harris leads the development of the Insteon integration in Home Assistant and he is putting the final touches on a new Insteon page for the Home Assistant interface," Schoutsen writes. "This page makes it easier to manage your Insteon network, just like you would have done via the Insteon application. It’s expected to be available in 1-2 weeks."
Smartlabs, the company behind Insteon, has meanwhile blamed the closure of the company on "financial difficulties" starting in 2017 and exacerbated by the global pandemic in 2019, which prevented the company finding additional funding or an outright buyer. "Although incredibly difficult," the company announced of its closure on the Insteon website, "we hope that the Insteon community understands the tireless efforts by all the employees to serve our customers, and deeply apologize to the community."
More information on Insteon support in Home Assistant, and on Home Assistant in general, is available on the official website.