This is about garage door openers, close enough to car tech, right?
A week or 2 ago, several TWIT panelists said they live their garage door openers. They must not use chaimberlain/myq. Since myq has no Home integration, the API was reverse engineered to allow for integration into HomeKit via homebridge or Home Assistant (among others). Myq is now activity blocking those 3rd parties to give preference to their paid partners. They basically want to make subscription money on their API.
It’s the same thing that Twitter and reddit did. I’m so sick of this song. I just want to use my voice to open/close my garage door in 2023.
What’s the story here? Did somebody work out the API for these garage door openers and then the manufacturer blocked it just so that they could make money?
Basically, yes. And it worked fine for at least the last 10 years I’ve used Homebridge/Home Assistant. I can’t stand the excuse of “this affects a small number of users.” So why bother then? Apparently the native app even has ads, but since I block ads on the DNS level, I’ve never seen one.
Because the terms of the contract that existing licensees signed probably states that they MUST secure the API against unpaid interlopers… or else why would anyone pay.