Important Update Regarding Works With Nest Integration

Back in May, Google announced a change to their Nest ecosystem. The Works with Nest program is being discontinued and they are encouraging their users to migrate their Nest accounts to Google accounts. Unfortunately, doing so will permanently sever connections between Nest, Wink, and other 3rd Party Platforms.  

Thanks to an overwhelming response by the user base, Google is still allowing these 3rd Party Integrations to continue after August 31, 2019 if you follow these steps.

You can follow these steps to ensure that Nest products will continue to work with Wink beyond this date.

• Do not migrate your Nest account to a Google account. Completing a Nest account migration will cause Wink and other Works with Nest integrations to be permanently disconnected. This process is not reversible.

• Do not disconnect Nest from Wink after August 31st. If you disconnect Nest after this date, you will not be able to reconnect it. This will also affect users that choose not to migrate their Nest accounts to a Google account.

Additional information can be found in this blog post from Nest.

Wink is still dedicated to providing a streamlined home automation experience for our users in a single, unified app. There are times when our partners may make business changes and system updates which can heavily impact our users. Though these changes are often out of our control, we will always try to minimize the disturbance they cause, even if they are often times unavoidable. 

We apologize for any inconvenience and will always notify the Wink community and present alternative options as soon as we have them available. Should you have any further questions about the Works with Nest program and how it will impact your Wink ecosystem, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Customer Support team. Give us a call at 1-844-Wink-App, or email us using Questions@Wink.com

Nest Camera API Integration Security

As technology has grown to be such an integral part of our everyday lives, the security of our information and property has never been more important. Wink works closely with our partner brands to maintain our users’ security. We understand the importance of transparency in resolving such issues. If our users have any security concerns, we ask that they make an attempt at reasonable disclosure by immediately informing our team of their observations. You can find out more about Wink’s Security Researcher and Reporting Program on our page http://security.wink.com/.

On Wednesday, June 19th we received a report regarding our integration with Nest Cameras. A user appeared to have continued access to screenshots in the Wink app even after those cameras had been disconnected from the associated Nest account.

We immediately had our QA team work with several models of ‘Nest Cam’ and ‘Dropcam’ Wi-Fi cameras, as well as all other brands of supported Wi-Fi cameras, to determine if the issue could be reproduced. As our team was not able to reproduce the issue with any supported camera from any manufacturer, and the Wink/Nest integration relies exclusively on the Nest API, we also reached out to Nest and provided them with details of the incident.

As of 6/20/19 Nest had issued an update to all cameras in order to fix the issue. The patch requires no action from Nest or Wink users.

As always, the Wink support team is available to speak with users about any questions or concerns they may have. If you would like to speak with a representative, please reach out to our support center at 1-844-WINKAPP. To learn more about how Wink thinks about security, visit our site: https://www.wink.com/security/

4 Ways to Winterize Your Smart Home

Snow and ice covered the ground in 49 of 50 states this weekend so we think it’s safe to say that winter is officially here. Love it or hate it, the cold, wind, and snow that the season brings can have a challenging impact on both your home and daily routine. Luckily, winterizing your home couldn’t be easier thanks to a few connected devices and easy-to-set-up automations in the Wink app: 

Combat the threat of frozen pipes

The possibility of bursting pipes during this time of year is too high for any homeowner to take lightly. Avoid costly, inconvenient water damage by placing water sensors near potential trouble spots like the dishwasher or washing machine. We like the leakSMART Valve and Sensor Kit.

Connect the leakSMART Valve to your home’s main water supply and then place the Sensors throughout your home. Pair your valve and sensors to your Wink Hub, then using the Wink app, enable a Robot that will automatically shut off your home’s main water source if any of sensors detect a leak. 

In addition to leak detection, the leakSMART Sensors monitor room temperature so you can keep tabs on your home’s climate from afar (and remotely shut off your water supply if it gets cold enough to freeze pipes.

Keep your home well lit with Schedules

The days are slowly starting to get longer, but the sun is still likely setting well before you get home at night. With a Schedule in the Wink app, you can arrive to a bright home and make it appear like someone is there during those long work nights or (hopefully tropical) holidays. It’s easy to set up and will prompt all your connected lights to automatically turn on every night at sunset. Check out the lighting section of our partner product page for the full rundown of connected light bulbs that work with Wink. 

Avoid black ice on the front walkway with a motion sensor

It’s difficult and dangerous to detect ice and slippery surfaces in the dark. To combat the threat, combine the power of motion sensors with connected lights. The Ring Video Doorbell (which is great for seeing who is at the front door no matter where you are) can be connected with connected light bulbs on your porch with a Robot in the Wink app. From there, anytime Ring detects motion, the front lights turn on so your walk to the front door is safely lit. 

Save energy and money with a smart thermostat

Home heating bills skyrocket this time of year - it’s inevitable. Make your home more energy efficient (and save money along the way) with a smart thermostat like the one by Nest or ecobee. These thermostats let you adjust your home’s temperature from afar through the Wink app, learn your heating and cooling preferences over time, and automatically turn off when you’re away.

How are you using your smart home to tackle winter? Let us know in the comments — we want to hear!

Wink-Enabled Nest Thermostats Now Work with Amazon Alexa

Wink + Amazon Echo users rejoice! Today we’re very excited to announce that you can now use Alexa to control your Nest Thermostat (or Thermostats) through Wink.

Last summer we unveiled our initial integration with Amazon that enables Alexa to control Wink-compatible lighting products, and were blown away by the response. We’ve been hard at work ever since adding additional functionalities (dimming) and now, a brand new product category in thermostats.

Connecting your Nest Thermostat with Echo is easy:

1. If you haven’t already, first set up your Nest account and name each thermostat you have (living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc.).
2. Next, connect your Nest account with your Wink app. Your Nest Thermostat will appear in the Wink app as “[location] + [name] + [the word ‘thermostat’]. "Home Living Room Thermostat,” for example.
3. Then, link your Wink account to Echo within the Alexa mobile app (Settings > Connected Home > Device Links > Wink). 
4. Finally, say “Alexa, discover devices.” This can take up to 20 seconds. Your Nest Thermostat will then appear in the Alexa app as [name] i.e. “Living Room” or “Bedroom.”  

From there, you can adjust the temperature day in and day out with an easy voice command.

If you know the specific temperature you’d like your home to be, simply say: “Alexa, set [name] to [XYZ] degrees.” An example would be: “Alexa, set upstairs to 70 degrees.”

You can also adjust the temperature incrementally by saying: “Alexa, [increase or decrease] [name] by [XYZ] degrees.” An example here would be: “Alexa, increase bedroom by 3 degrees.”

In order to conserve battery life on your Nest Thermostat, Nest limits the number of interactions per hour. After the limit is reached, Alexa will respond with "Sorry, the device [your thermostat name] is not responding."

We’ll soon be connecting Alexa with other Wink-compatible thermostats so stay tuned for more!

Back to School - How the Smart Home Removes Some of the Stress

Between buying new school supplies, sorting out carpool logistics and coping with first-day jitters, back-to-school can be a stressful time to say the least!

While the lives of parents will soon become a lot more hectic, there are a number of ways to easily cut out some of the stress. And you won’t find them in the flashy activity tracker or newest ‘phablet,' but rather in your smart home. 

Here are a few ways how:

• Your child forgot their keys at home: Let’s face it, we’ve all done it once. This is where smart door locks - like the Schlage Touchscreen Deadbolt - can really work their magic. You can give your child a unique code they can use in place of a key and receive an alert when that code is used. And if your child forgets their code, no matter. A quick tap within the Wink app can unlock the front door no matter where you are. 
• You’re sick of returning to a tampered thermostat: Traditional thermostats with lots of buttons are an open invitation for children to make the temperature go haywire. Keep tabs on your home’s climate and schedule it to adjust right when school gets out with a smart thermostat like the Emerson Sensi. You can also get alerted if anyone tries to mess with it.
• You want to make sure everyone got home safe: Smart cameras - like Nest Cam - are a great way to quickly see what’s going on at home. Set one up in your living room or kitchen and connect it with Wink for real time monitoring no matter where you are. It’s a great way to get peace of mind that the kids got home safe and the pets haven’t run off into the wild. 
• Everyone is finally in bed, but is everything turned off?: Sure it’s dark in your bedroom, but what about the downstairs hallway? Was the TV turned off? Is the garage door still open? Create a ‘Good Night’ Shortcut in Wink to lock up the house and turn everything off with just one swipe.

A few simple steps with your smart home can go a long way in re-introducing some sanity to the start of the school year!