At HomeSeer, we are constantly looking for ways to enhance the smart home experience for our users. Our commitment to reliability and an intuitive user experience is at the forefront of what we do. It’s with this in mind that we’re announcing some important updates to our voice and app integration services for MyHS – including Google, Alexa, and IFTTT.
What's Happening?
Starting March 12th, support for voice and app integrations will be available exclusively through our MyHS Plus, PRO, and Business subscription (paid) tiers. These services will no longer be available to MyHS Lite (free) account holders.
Why the Change?
When we launched MyHS more than 10 years ago, our goal was to provide free remote access to all users for the life of their system. Since then, we’ve added IFTTT, Alexa, and Google integration to our free plan and, through the years, we’ve been absorbing the additional server costs and fees to do this. However, we’ve reached a point where we cannot continue to absorb these costs. This decision wasn’t reached overnight, and it was a tough one.
We have been working hard to avoid subscription models for as long as possible. We don’t want to become like other companies charging you for something you’ve always been able to access while providing empty promises of future improvements. (looking at you streaming services) With IFTTT already adjusting their pricing, it’s reasonable to anticipate similar moves from other partners in the near future. By transitioning these services to our subscription tiers, we can better ensure the reliability and continued advancement of our platform. And to show our commitment to this, we recently overhauled the user interface for MyHS. You can read more about that in the previous blog post.
Will This Affect Me?
If you’re using Alexa, Google, or IFTTT with a Lite (free) account, this change will affect you. If you’re using a Lite account for remote access only or if you’re a MyHS premium (paid) subscriber, this change will NOT affect you.
What's the Timeline?
March 12th, 2024 – New accounts require Plus, PRO, and Business plans to access voice and app (Google, Alexa, and IFTTT) integration through MyHS. Existing MyHS users with one or more registered licenses will be gifted 2 months of the Plus plan for free. To avoid any disruption to your smart home experience, we encourage you to log in and finalize your subscription choice before May 11th.
May 11th, 2024 – All accounts require Plus, PRO, and Business plans to access voice and app (Google, Alexa, and IFTTT) integration through MyHS.
What's MyHS Premium?
In addition to Alexa, Google, and IFTTT support, all of our premium plans include multi-system support, multiple users accounts, cloud backups for your HomeSeer system, and cloud backups for your security camera recordings. Our MyHS plans start at $39.95/year or monthly starting at $4/month. Information about the different plans and pricing can be found on the MyHS Premium info page on our website.
Did you know, system backups through MyHS is the #1 reason to subscribe to a premium plan according to subscribers?
What About Remote Access?
Remote access to your systems will remain free and is not impacted by this change.
Smarter Together
Our mission at HomeSeer is to deepen the connection between people and their homes, making everyday life easier, more comfortable, and more intuitive. We believe these changes are a step forward in that journey.
Open dialogue is a cornerstone of our community. We welcome your thoughts, feedback, and questions as we transition together. Your trust and support mean the world to us, and we’re excited to continue building not just smarter homes, but a richer, more connected living experience for everyone. Thank you for being a part of the HomeSeer family.
9 thoughts on “Google, Alexa, and MyHS Changes”
A couple bucks a month is really a small price to pay to keep a system updated and relevant. Of course nobody is going to say “Yay!” for one more thing to increase in cost, but people have to understand that cloud integrations like Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT, etc. is where evolution is happening all the time, and these systems never stay the same for long. As an Insteon user, (who now runs a whole house of Insteon devices with HS) I can tell everyone about what happens when a company doesn’t adequately fund its ability to keep smart integrations alive. If you can’t afford $4 a month then your life may have other needs more urgent than having Alexa turn on your light.
Will google integration work better as I can’t update my device without wiping my whole environment and starting over a few times a year. Would love to not see that “page not available” message when I try to update my device list. Constantly unable to refresh or add devices without a complete wipe of the voice settings is extremely frustration. Is there any fixes yet for this that would allow me to want to pay for the service?
Victor – thanks for writing. Sorry you’re having an issue with Google integration. Is this still happening with your system? If so, please send an email to support@homeseer.com and include the details. This will create a support ticket and one of our reps will reach out to help.
So will the HS Buddy plug in still work with Lote version, or will I need to go to a paid version?
Hi Timothy – This change only affects Alexa, Google and IFTTT integrations. HSBuddy would not be affected.
Will this also effect the ability to broadcast to google speaker’s using the Chromecast Plugin?
Hi Tyson – No, the Chromecast plugin will not be affected. That will continue to work as it does now!
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