Wink (platform)

Wink is an American brand of software and hardware products that connects with and controls smart home devices from a consolidated user interface. Wink, Labs Inc., which develops and markets Wink, was founded in 2014 as a spin-off from invention incubator Quirky. After Quirky went through bankruptcy proceedings, it sold Wink to Flex in 2015. As of 2016, the Wink software is connected to 1.3 million devices. In July 2017, Flex sold Wink to i.am+ for $59 million.[1]

Wink
Original author(s)Quirky (2014-2015)
Flex (2015-2017)
i.am+ (2017-present)
Developer(s)Wink, Inc.
Initial releaseJune 23, 2014 (2014-06-23)
Operating systemiOS
Android
watchOS (Apple Watch)
Android Wear
Available inEnglish
TypeHome automation
Websitewink.com

Corporate history

Wink, Labs Inc. was founded at Quirky, an incubator program for inventions that relies on crowd-sourced product ideas. Wink, Labs was originally created as part of a collaboration with General Electric to control co-branded smart home products like air-conditioners.[2][3][4] It was founded by current CTO Nathan Smith[5] and received about $20 million in funding.[6] The company spent twelve months working with fifteen electronics manufacturing companies to offer about 60 Wink-compatible products by July 2014.[2] Wink was spun-off from Quirky in June 2014.[2][7]

According to Quirky, Wink products were in 300,000 homes by 2015.[8] In April 2015 Wink experienced a security problem that made many of its smart home hubs go offline or break, forcing the company to issue a recall. The recall caused a several-month inventory backlog and subsequent shortage of the Wink hub.[9][10] Due to financial difficulties, due in part to the recall, Quirky began looking for buyers to sell Wink to in 2015. That November, after Quirky went through bankruptcy proceedings, it sold Wink for $15 million to Flextronics (now called Flex), to whom Quirky owed $18.7 million. Flex was Wink's primary supplier of firmware and hardware.[11][12][13] As of 2016, 1.3 million devices were connected to Wink.[14]

On 27 July 2017, in its First Quarter Report, Flex announced[15] that it had sold its interest in Wink for $59 million, representing a $38.7 million gain on the balance sheet. Although the Report described the purchaser as "an unrelated third-party venture backed company", stories circulated in the technology press identifying the purchaser as i.am+,[16] the technology firm founded by the performer Will.i.am.

On May 6, 2020, Wink announced that they would be updating their platform from being free from monthly fees to charging a monthly service fee in order to continue using the Wink app, hub and devices.[17] Users were notified that they had until May 13, 2020, after which Wink devices would be inaccessible from the app, and all voice control, API and automations would be disabled. The deadline for subscriptions was delayed, eventually taking effect in July 2020.[18]

On January 25, 2021, Wink suffered a wide spread outage.[19] Remote control and cloud automation features were broken. Some users reported a complete and total outage including local control of their smarthubs, contrary to the company's public statements.[20] The outage persisted for nine days.[21] Wink resumed operation on February 3, 2021, posting on their blog that customers would receive a 25% discount on January and February's monthly dues. No cause for the incident was provided.[22]

Products
Homescreen of the Wink app for iPhone.

Wink connects with third-party smart home devices associated with the Internet of Things, such as thermostats, door locks, ceiling fans, and Wi-Fi-enabled lights, to provide a single user interface on a mobile app[23] or via a wall-mounted screen, called Relay.[23][24][25] This allows the user to remotely control those devices. The mobile app is free, while consumers pay for a Wink Hub, or Wink Relay, which connects with smart devices in the home.[26] The hubs integrate with competing software standards used by different manufacturers.[5][11] Wink integrates with software from automated home device brands, such as Canary, which markets an app-controlled home system.[5][27] In February 2016, new features were introduced to allow Wink to operate on the local network, in case a user's internet connection is down.[28] In June 2016, compatibility with Uber, Fitbit, and IFTTT, was added to the Relay product.[29] A second generation version of the Wink Hub was released in November 2016.[30] Compatibility with Uber has long been abandoned as of January 2021; as has the Wink Relay and sales of its standalone Wink Hub.[31]

The second generation Wink Hub supports most smart home devices with Zigbee, ZWave, Lutron Clear Connect, and Kidde protocols. Wink 2 also added Bluetooth Low Energy, 5 GHz Wi-Fi radio, an Ethernet port, and 512MB of memory.[32]

In October 2017, the Wink Lookout home security system was announced, consisting of open/close sensors, motion sensors, a siren, and the Wink hub.[33] The Wink Lookout, released on October 31, 2017, was the last major product released by the company as of January 2021.[34]

Reception

In a 2014 competitive review comparing Wink to SmartThings, CNET said Wink was cheaper and supported more wireless standards, but had fewer and less reliable sensors to support automation. The article recommended SmartThings for tech-savvy users and Wink for general consumers.[26] In an August 2014 review, CNET gave Wink a 7.7 score out of 10. It complimented the product for being close to the "ideal" whole-home security and automation service, but lamented that it wasn't "a perfect replacement for some of the more sophisticated standalone smart home device apps."[35] A January 2015 review of Wink by Tom's Guide rated the product a 7/10, "very good". The reviewer criticized the application for not giving as much control over individual smart home electronics as their own apps, but praised Wink for providing "an easy way for people to dip their toes into smart home systems."[36]

A review in PCMAG of the Wink Hub 2 said it was easy to use and compatible with many devices, but had no battery backup or USB ports.[32] Under "Bottom Line" the review said, "Works with virtually every wireless protocol out there and supports dual-band Wi-Fi. Installation and device pairing is quick and easy."[32] It gave the Hub 2 4.5 out of 5 stars and named it its new Editors' Choice for home automation hubs.[32] In contrast, CNET gave the device three stars. The reviewer said the device is easy to set up and compatible with many devices, but gave the reviewer error messages.[37] The reviewer was never able to successfully set it up the way she wanted.[37] Tom's Guide gave the Wink Hub 2 7 out of 10.[38] It also said the device was easy to use and compatible with many devices, but missing some advanced features. Tom's Guide said it was good for "basic" smart homes.[38]

References
  1. Lunden, Ingrid (27 July 2017). "i.am+ buys Wink, the smart home hub formerly owned by Flex and Quirky". TechCrunch. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  2. Lohr, Steve (June 22, 2014). "Quirky to Create a Smart-Home Products Company" (Newspaper article). The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  3. Popper, Ben (April 24, 2015). "How the Invention Factory at Quirky Almost Imagined Its Way Out of Business" (Web magazine article). The Verge. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  4. Rhodes, Margaret (September 25, 2014). "Wink Could Be the Next Big Platform for the Smart Home" (Magazine article). Wired. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  5. Ruth, João-Pierre S. (February 10, 2016). "Founder Nathan Smith on What Comes Next for Wink, Smart Homes, and IoT" (Web news article). Xconomy. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  6. Higginbotham, Stacey (July 15, 2015). "Quirky's CEO: Quirky is Out of Money and Needs to Find Funds for Itself and Wink" (Magazine article). Fortune. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  7. Kelly, Samantha Murphy (June 23, 2014). "Quirky, Mophie Founder Launches Wink for Smart Home Automation" (Web magazine article). Mashable. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  8. Higginbotham, Stacey (July 15, 2015). "Quirky's CEO: Quirky is out of money and needs to find funds for itself and Wink". Fortune. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  9. Primack, Dan (June 12, 2015). "Exclusive: Quirky Ditches Device Manufacturing, Preps for New Investment" (Magazine article). Fortune. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  10. Lawler, Richard (April 19, 2015). "Wink Smart Home Hubs Knocked Out by Security Certificate (Update)" (Web magazine article). Engadget. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  11. Kastrenakes, Jacob (April 1, 2016). "Wink opens up about surviving the fall of Quirky" (Web magazine article). The Verge. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  12. Palenchar, Joseph (November 16, 2015). "Wink Gets a Nod from Flex" (Magazine article). Twice. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  13. Lohr, Steve (September 22, 2015). "Quirky, an Invention Start-Up, Files for Bankruptcy" (Newspaper article). The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  14. Kastrenakes, Jacob (April 1, 2016). "Wink opens up about surviving the fall of Quirky". The Verge. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  15. Brotherton, Renee (July 27, 2017). "Flex Reports First Quarter Fiscal 2018 Results". Flextronics. Archived from the original (Web news article) on 2017-08-02. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  16. Lunden, Ingrid (July 27, 2017). "i.am+ buys Wink, the smart home hub formerly owned by Flex and Quirky" (Web news article). Flextronics. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  17. Peters, Jay (2020-05-06). "Smart home platform Wink will require a monthly subscription starting next week". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
  18. "Update On The Upcoming Wink Subscription". Wink Blog. July 8, 2020. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  19. "Wink's home automation service has been down for a whole day". Engadget. Archived from the original on 2021-01-27. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  20. "Wink users head for the exits following a week-long outage". TechHive. 2021-02-01. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  21. Humphries, Matthew (2021-02-01). "Wink's Smart Home Automation Has Been Broken for 8 Days". PCMag UK. Archived from the original on 2021-02-01. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  22. "A Message Regarding the Recent Outage". Wink Blog. February 3, 2021. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  23. Nield, David (September 22, 2015). "Quirky Files For Bankruptcy, Selling Wink To Flextronics" (Web magazine article). ReadWrite. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  24. Popper, Ben (September 23, 2014). "How One Tiny Startup is Winning the Race to Power Your Smart Home" (Web magazine article). The Verge. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  25. O'Connell, Ainsley (July 8, 2014). "Wink Squares Off Against Nest In The Battle For "Home" Field Advantage" (Magazine article). Fast Company. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  26. Crist, Ry (November 12, 2014). "Smart-home showdown: SmartThings vs. Wink". CNET. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  27. Higginbotham, Stacey (October 27, 2015). "Bankrupt Wink Keeps Adding Partners" (Magazine article). Fortune. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  28. Oswald, Ed (February 10, 2016). "Wink turns on local control for connected light switches, bulbs". TechHive. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  29. Crist, Ry (June 28, 2016). "The Wink Relay smart switch adds support for Uber, Fitbit and IFTTT". CNET. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  30. Heater, Brian (27 September 2016). "Wink's smart home hub gets some key upgrades for its second generation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  31. "Wink Hub Amazon Listing". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  32. Delaney, John (October 20, 2016). "Wink Hub 2". PC Magazine. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  33. Hardwick, Tim (25 October 2017). "$199 Wink Lookout Home Security Pack Bundles All-Wink Products for the First Time". Mac Rumors. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  34. Wroclawski, Daniel (May 7, 2020). "Wink Tells Users: Pay Up or We'll Disable Your Smart Home Hub". Consumer Reports. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  35. Wollerton, Megan (August 20, 2014). "Wink Hub Review: Harness Your Smart Home with Wink's Low-Cost Hub" (Website product review). CNET. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  36. Murphy, David (January 27, 2015). "Quirky Wink Hub Review" (Website product review). Tom's Guide. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  37. Wollerton, Megan (October 19, 2016). "Take 2: Wink's new smart-home Hub sticks to the script". CNET. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  38. "Wink Hub 2 Review: Good for Basic Smart Homes". Tom's Guide. December 8, 2016. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
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