Wink backpedals on its monthly subscription rollout
By Michael Allison published

What you need to know
- Wink has delayed its plans to move all customers to a paid plan by May 13, 2020.
- The company had planned to end its free-service and move to a $4.99 plan, announcing this with only a week's notice.
- It was subsequently met with backlash on its social media pages are users revolted.
Wink announced earlier this month that it would be moving to a subscription-only service. Priced at $4.99 a month, it would come into play from May 13, 2020. The company also planned to disable existing Wink Hubs for users who didn't pay for from that date, effectively moving all its customers to either a paid plan or nothing. As you can imagine from the ratio, customers weren't very impressed by this.
We’re moving to a monthly subscription on 5/13 in order to better serve our users. This will enable us to continue providing the functionality customers have come to rely on, and focus on accelerating new integrations and app features. Go to https://t.co/zWYdv6HavN to learn more.We’re moving to a monthly subscription on 5/13 in order to better serve our users. This will enable us to continue providing the functionality customers have come to rely on, and focus on accelerating new integrations and app features. Go to https://t.co/zWYdv6HavN to learn more.— Wink Smart Home (@TheWinkApp) May 6, 2020May 6, 2020
Today, Wink has backpedaled on that initial plan with somewhat dubious comments:
We want to start this message with a huge and sincere THANK YOU to everyone who subscribed. Wink was in a very rough spot, but thanks to your support, we are able to keep moving forward! It was not an easy decision to switch to a paid service, and we know that the short timeline put a lot of pressure on all of you, but we had no other way to continue the Wink service as it is currently known.The support we have seen for our subscription service has been incredible. We feel we can extend Wink's free service for the time being, confident that we can set a new start date for the subscription service to begin, giving you all more time to use Wink (subscription-free) whether you signed up or not.For those customers who have signed up, we want to assure you that the first month's payment has not yet been processed, and we will notify subscribers before we move forward with Wink Subscription.
Now, if you believe that Wink got so many people to promise to pay that they don't need to actually pay right now -- I have a bridge to sell you. For existing Wink customers though, the reasoning behind the delay doesn't matter, just that it remains free for the time being.
Best Smart Home Products Under $50 in 2020
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This is a company that is primed to implode.
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"Now, if you believe that Wink got so many people to promise to pay that they don't need to actually pay right now -- I have a bridge to sell you." I'll buy that bridge, but is there any assurance you won't suddenly put up tollbooths in a few years?
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It's in the terms and conditions
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Badly orchestrated, but you have to imagine no company can provide cloud services indefinitely based on selling hardware. Sooner or later your revenue for hardware sales dries up, because most everyone who wants one, has one. Then what? The alternative would be having an ad pop up before you can check on your baby cam.
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Yeah I’m still leaving. This company has been shaky for a while now. I think I’ll just go with the big South Korean company that has unlimited resources. I hate it but it is what it is.
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They should have offer a free usage for some basic features. But wait, Wink does only basic features.
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Already threw it in the trash.. lost me with needing internet to control my home..now a cost..get real.
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Already replaced with smartthings, cya wink
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