Just received an email that the cloud for my Lightify lighting will be shut down:

THE LIGHTIFY CLOUD SERVERS WILL BE SWITCHED OFF ON AUGUST 31st 2021
Dear LIGHTIFY User,

Unfortunately, we have to share some bad news with you today. After five years of service, we have taken the tough decision to shut-off the LIGHTFY cloud servers on August 31st, 2021.
 
What you need to know now:

You still have plenty of time to react. The LIGHTIFY cloud servers will be available until August 31st, 2021. Only after this date the LIGHTIFY service and support will be discontinued.

This means, that there will be no further updates and a connection to the Amazon and Google voice assistants will not be possible anymore after this date. Compatibility to newer versions of the iOS and Android operating systems can’t also be assured thereafter. However, until then you can use your LIGHTIFY system without limitations.

As the LIGHTIFY System is a cloud-based system, the majority of functions will unfortunately be lost and LIGHTIFY app control will be only very limited. Here you can find an overview of all affected functions.

What you need to do after this period:

To control your smart lights and plugs beyond August 31st, 2021, you need to fully reset your entire system. Afterwards you can simply integrate it into any other ZigBee® compatible system – like other smart lighting or smart home systems with intelligent assistants that are available on the market.

Why is OSRAM switching off the LIGHTIFY cloud servers?

The LIGHTIFY system is meanwhile technically outdated: Its performance (e.g. in respect to reaction times when controlling devices) is significantly lower compared to other systems in the market. Furthermore, the implemented ZigBee® standard is not state of the art anymore (ZigBee® Light Link and ZigBee® Home Automation instead of ZigBee® 3.0) which makes it more and more difficult to ensure compatibility to other smart home systems. The needed investments can unfortunately not be made – especially in regard to the divestment of the general lighting end-consumer business in 2016.

We post updates regularly on our website with updated FAQs.

As always, we will try to answer all your questions which can be addressed via our usual e-mail address lightify@osram.com.

Kind regards

Your LIGHTIFY Team
 
My Lightify lights work fine. Now I need to find a different way to control them (older Zigbee it seems)

This crap is also happening to all kinds of formerly durable goods, even to vehicles.

It is so wasteful to the environment to make products "out of date" or "obsolete" when they still have plenty of life left in them.

Personally, I find a light switch useful for controlling my lights.  

Please, no more smart lighting that being connected to the internet. Tiberias and Ma'alot Tarshicha already have smart streetlighting with lanterns that have a PC like Wi-Fi antennas.

It is so wasteful to the environment to make products "out of date" or "obsolete" when they still have plenty of life left in them.

Ripping out perfectly serviceable discharge lighting to be replaced by LED is a good example.!

The reason I bought "cloud-connected" lighting is because that was, and up until recently, the ONLY way to get good quality configurable RGBWW lighting. We wanted it for the man-cave and the outdoor lighting, and use the functions of it all the time.

I would have preferred radio-controlled like a few other RGBWW bulbs I have, they will never have "software" issues because they don't use software, just a RF remote that can control their RGB and WW functions. But, these lights have yet to perform well as far as lumen output goes, expecially on color. Hue, Lifx and Lightify have very good colored output.

As a lighting enthusiast, it's easy to like lights that change color! But, on the same hand, I don't like how their function is reliant on constantly-evolving tech that seems to be driven by corporate greed to "obsolete" things in a regular cycle to drive sales.

This means these items, be it LED WiFi bulbs, smartphones, blu-ray players, smart TVs, etc are all likely to end up in the landfill way before they physically fail.

K.I.S.S.

Speaking of Blu-Ray, seems everyone is moving towards online/cloud content and the industry is making less and less physical media players every year. Lot's of room for obsolescence and revenue generation if you force people out of their own physical media ownership.

Speaking of Blu-Ray, seems everyone is moving towards online/cloud content and the industry is making less and less physical media players every year. Lot's of room for obsolescence and revenue generation if you force people out of their own physical media ownership.

We're very much in favour of having the physical discs, whether it's Blu-Ray or DVD, as it's sometimes impossible to 'stream' content.  

We like to have holidays on the canal system of England, and frequently there is no signal whatsoever, and as we use Pay as you go mobile data it would be used up at a horrendous rate.!  

Also with the provider 'owning' the content they can remove it at any time and you lose out on having it.

We're very much in favour of having the physical disks, whether it's Blu-Ray or DVD, as it's sometimes impossible to 'stream' content. 

In USA, the transition from OTA and/or cable-based TV services to streaming style services was touted as being a "benefit" to the consumer.
We lost OTA a few years back when they went to digital (well at least our TVs stopped working unless we get extra equipment).

However, I recently looked into the more common streaming service providers: The price ranges from $55 to $90 a MONTH just for basic packages! I am not talking about Netflix here, I am talking about Fubo and Hulu and HBO, these are the guys that are supposedly offering what cable companies traditionally offered, such as sports broadcasting. Netflix is $15 a month but the selection keeps getting pared down.

And, to make matters worse, any one of those streaming content providers offers such a mix-mash of programs that you can't really be "satisfied" with just one streaming service.

For example, my son loves the NBA. We tried Fubo ($55/mo) so he could watch NBA games. Turns out Fubo doesn't broadcast all NBA games, only some of them, which means often he can't watch his favorite team, the Phoenix Suns. We would need to get a different service for that. He was able to watch other NBA teams....

To compound matters, whilst the $55/mo does match cable TV offerings in price, you must also have high-speed internet at home. In USA that is anywhere from a minimum of $40/mo to well over $100/mo.

I have resorted to just buying DVDs and Blu-Rays from eBay and making my own disc library. Good thing as I get older it becomes easier to "disconnect" as I become saltier with age.

Streaming is all very well if you are at home with a halfway decent broadband connection. If, as Sammi says, you are in the middle of nowhere on a boat with no mobile signal whatsoever, or if there is any, coverage that is barely enough for a text message to get through, never mind a phone call or any decent data throughput, then, to put it mildly, you're stuffed.

With a physical disk in your possession, nobody can cut off your access to what you have paid for. Streaming providers can delete content on a whim, leaving you with nothing but a bill for content you can no longer make use of.

Good RGB lighting can be achieved in any number of ways - dimmers (on filtered lamps), DMX512 RGB spotlight, RGB LED tape powered with 3 bench power supplies, 3 luminaires on 3 DALI channels, to name a few

None of that requires ANY connection to the "cloud"

None of what you want needs or justifies ANY connection to the "cloud" anyway

How do you suppose I can bring DMX into my 6" recessed cans, R30 tracklights and outdoor light fixtures?

I hate RGB tape far more than I hate the "cloud" BTW

Personally, I find a light switch useful for controlling my lights. 

Yep a switch works perfectly for normal lights...and (very important) contains no spyware like the cloud-based stuff does. It won't do RGB though.

Please, no more smart lighting that being connected to the internet.

'Smart' lighting, yes cool...but no need for it to be connected to the internet.

The Christmas-light control stuff I use can absolutely be considered 'smart'. And could be internet-connected if you wished the ability to control it remotely & such, but it can also (like I do) be ran on a non-internet connected network.

This means these items, be it LED WiFi bulbs, smartphones, blu-ray players, smart TVs, etc are all likely to end up in the landfill way before they physically fail.

Yep true... and a total waste
I have a 'smart' TV. Its not connected to the internet. It works perfectly fine for receiving OTA TV signals. (And as a 2nd large 'monitor' on a computer which also isn't on the net )

We're very much in favour of having the physical discs, whether it's Blu-Ray or DVD,

As am I.. And CD's for music. (MP3's are fine too for portability)


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Streaming & downloads are fine for at home...as long as there is no charge for them.

Good thing as I get older it becomes easier to "disconnect" as I become saltier with age.

You don't have to be old to be salty about the world, humans, technology and all the bs surrounding it. I can go for hours. I choose not generally to because I have been said to act like an old man before.

If in peoples heads being young == mindless rush after everything "cloud" "smart" etc then its in their heads

Yep a switch works perfectly for normal lights...and (very important) contains no spyware like the cloud-based stuff does. It won't do RGB though.

Normal lights are the only sort we want or need 

Normal lights are the only sort we want or need 

"normal" oh, uh, excuse me....please define normal!