Starting Saturday, thousands of smart home users will wake up to find their Belkin Wemo devices suddenly stripped of remote access, voice control, and app functionality. The shutdown, first announced last July, affects nearly every Wemo product from smart plugs to connected coffee makers, leaving customers with little more than glorified manual switches. Only a handful of newer Thread-based devices and HomeKit-configured setups will survive the cutoff, marking one of the most dramatic smart home product sunsets in recent memory.
Belkin is about to turn thousands of smart home devices into expensive paperweights. This Saturday, January 31st, the company flips the switch on Wemo cloud services, stripping nearly its entire product line of the features that made them "smart" in the first place. Remote access? Gone. Voice commands through Google Home and Amazon Alexa? Dead. App updates? Finished.
The move affects everything from the popular Wemo Smart Plug Mini to the company's connected coffee maker, leaving users with devices that only work via manual button presses. According to Belkin's support documentation, just four Thread-based devices will continue functioning: the 3-way smart light switch (WLS0503), stage smart scene controller (WSC010), smart plug with Thread (WSP100), and smart video doorbell camera (WDC010).
Belkin first dropped this bomb back in July, giving customers roughly six months' notice before pulling the plug. But the timing feels especially brutal for anyone who invested in Wemo devices during the pandemic smart home boom. Those Wi-Fi-enabled plugs and switches that promised convenience and automation are about to become relics of a different era.
There's one lifeline, but it comes with strings attached. Wemo devices already set up in Apple's HomeKit ecosystem will keep working after the shutdown - but only if users configure them before Saturday's deadline. Miss that window, and you're out of luck. The HomeKit integration essentially bypasses Belkin's dying cloud infrastructure, routing commands through Apple's local network protocols instead.
