Best Buy has quietly announced that the mobile apps platform to control the brand name for the Insignia smart home would be closed Nov. 6. The company said the affected products would continue to operate at the base level, but the features that rely on its application and Insignia Connect platform would no longer work. Products include its Insignia smart wall outlets, Wi-Fi lighting switches, smart camera and Wi-Fi freezer (yes, a Wi-Fi freezer). Best Buy now runs a refund program for any unhappy soul who has decided to buy one of these products.

Perhaps more importantly, Best Buy confirms on its FAQ Connect page that its smart freezer "will retain all normal functions of the freezer". There are also variants of the Apple HomeKit Smart Wall Socket and Light Switch, which means that these specific products will retain some mobile features even after Connect is closed next month.

Even if you are on Android, the plug and the switch will not be entirely useless

The functionality of the Insignia Connect application will not work, but all programmed timers previously configured will continue to work. In addition, the plug button will continue to operate manually as the on / off switch if necessary.

I hope your timers are set correctly.

Best Buy also advises all customers who use its Insignia Wi-Fi camera to download video clips stored before November 4, two days before the general closing of Connect, otherwise these clips will be permanently lost.

Best Buy states to offer a refund for the purchase of an affected product, with electronic gift cards that will not expire, but will not refund any installation fees if, for example, you paid the Geek Squad to install smart switches in your walls. The company says that customers can trade up to 10 serial numbers for a refund via its website.

And to the credit of Best Buy, it seems that these products no longer sell on its website and they appear as "Discontinued" on insigniaproducts.com. But some of them are still on sale at Amazon.

But there are still questions. It is not clear if you can get fully Reimbursed for buying an Insignia Smart Home product that will not work as advertised in two months, or simply. partially reimbursed In its FAQ, Best Buy does not indicate to what extent it offers these refunds, or whether these refunds apply to any Insignia smart device purchase made at any one time in the past, or if there is a limit any purchase.

Be that as it may, the situation is not ideal for those who have purchased the Insignia platform for their smart home needs. This type of silent shutdown has become an expected and unfortunate trend in the smart home sector. Using these platforms internally may seem like a good idea to reduce costs in the beginning, but doing so over months and years seems to be difficult and costly. Customers are then left dry when the platforms are inevitably closed.

We saw the same scenario reproduce the same way at the beginning of the year, when Lowe's decided to no longer support its Iris Smart Home platform, but rather to send its customers to Samsung's Smart Things. To appease customers, Lowe's sent prepaid Visa cards.

Similarly, Google has decided to close its Works with Nest program to migrate smart home integrations to Google Assistant earlier this year. The result was unpleasant to say the least, as Google was forced to extend integration support indefinitely until it could replicate each of them via Google Assistant. A number of other smart home companies have struggled after Google announced in May to ensure that nothing will break by August 31.

Of course, placing the eggs of your smart device in a platform basket manufactured by Best Buy is not exactly the most savvy choice of consumers. But it should not be normal for these software ecosystems to be calculated without considering their lifetime, to let customers on the support line claim their money.