Wink - Smart Home
Lights. Security. Comfort. Now they’re all connected through a single app, so you don’t need a different one for every product. Simple controls allow you to monitor and manage everything in your home. This means it can do more for you, and you can do less. Finally.
Wink brings the best brands together in a single easy-to-use app so you have flexibility and control when it comes to your smart home: Bali, Cree, Commercial Electric, Dropcam, Emerson, GE, GoControl, Honeywell, Kidde, Kwikset, Lutron, Leviton, Nest, OSRAM, Pella, Philips, Quirky, Rachio, Schlage, TCP, and more partners are added frequently.
Google Now is an intelligent personal assistant that serves information at the right time. If Google and Wink detect you aren't home and your door is unlocked, an alert will now automatically prompt you to take action through the Wink app.
Trigger Wink Shortcuts by saying "Ok Google, activate [shortcut] on Wink." You can choose from eight preset phrases and customize each Shortcut within the Wink app so that multiple smart products can be controlled simultaneously with a simple voice prompt. For example, saying "Ok Google, activate Away Mode on Wink" can now lock the doors, lower the thermostat, and turn off the lights.
Wink makes setup clear with step-by-step guides and videos. If you ever need help with anything, you can talk to a real human at 844-WINK-APP or [email protected].
Wink is free to download and doesn’t charge any fees for use.
Many products work directly with the Wink app. Other products use the Wink HUB to get connected. The Wink HUB allows your diverse collection of smart products to speak the same wireless language so you can control them --and customize their interactions-
- from the Wink app.
SHORTCUTS: In-app Shortcuts allow you to control multiple smart products with a single swipe. Like turning on your house in the morning to setting the mood for moving night.ROBOTS: In-app Robots let you customize the way products talk to each other. You can have your smoke detector turn your lights on automatically if smoke is detected so you can see to safely get out.ACTIVITY: Wink gives you the power to know exactly what’s going on in your home. Easily keep tabs when the door was opened or when the temperature was adjusted.
Category : Tools
Reviews (26)
Worked great when it was a free service. We had their platform for years and never had a single issue. Once they introduced the subscription, the software is no longer as good as it once was. My lock crashes often, i get locked out of the app and told my password is incorrect (which it's not). It's just beyond frustrating when I never had issues before. I would think twice about going with wink after all the b.s you go through as a result of a paid membership!
Awful. Switched to an overpriced subscription model, with next to no warning, in the middle of a pandemic. They advertised the hardware on the fact that there were no subscriptions. They haven't even had the hardware that the app controls available to purchase for over a year. Their competitors offer better reliability, better support, and actually have product available for less than half the monthly cost of the Wink subscription. (And they will help you port your devices over.) Goodbye Wink.
App is buggy. Great when it works but it doesn't work when I need it to. Additionally I recieved a notification via the app that they were going to start charging for a subscription service but when I went to find the message, I couldn't find it. I would hope they would send this sort of information in an email. The hub was expensive enough; if they're going to start charging to use this service (one that only intermittently works at that), I'll find a different solution than Wink.
Not a very stable platform. Before they added the subscription fee, I was willing to put up with the intermittent moodiness of the Wink system (sometimes it works, other times you wait, ok, didn't work, reset their base station, still not working ok, I'll just use the lightswitch). You would think that now being a subscription model, the system would be more dependable. Nope. Still very temperamental. Disappointing. Go with a different platform that is dependable.
Service has consistently gone downhill over the past two years. Then they gave less than a week's notice to some users (the lucky ones, others got less or never got the email) that all functionality would be cut off without a subscription. The subscription would fund "the same great service" and "great ideas," neither of which is worth a corroded penny. So long, Wink, and thanks for all the fish.
While Wink was what got me started with home automation, the product has lagged behind everyone else and has had many issues over the years which have never gotten better. But I stuck with them. Until now, and do I ever wish I had switched sooner. The app is awkward and outdated compared to competitors, the new item setup is hit or miss and there have been no major hardware updates in years. Viable connected products are dwindling and so is Wink's business. $5/mth ended it and I'm happy to go.
I've been getting a lot of errors connecting to their servers lately. The fact that I have to use this app, go through their servers and can't connect directly to my wink 2 hub when on the local network is also a bit of a nuisance (no PC interface and not even a web interface). Automation is somewhat limited, especially conditional automation. Might bump my rating up a star or two if they fix their connection issues. App is worthless at the moment.
I've regretted buying the Wink hub since the day I got it in 2016. I just had no choice back then. Imagine a device that uses WiFi and yet will not work if it gets too good a signal! Everyone is trying to saturate their homes with WiFi for better performance of all their WiFi devices and this thing won't work if it gets too much wifi like being too close to the router! Ridiculous! I had to put mine inside a kitchen cabinet for it to work. All these years and such unreliable service and now they want to charge for a subscription. No F'ing way! Luckily I've moved all but 2 devices to my Echo Plus and replaced the rest with WiFi devices. I guess it's finally time to get rid of this thing. Good thing I've had WiFi versions of the switches sitting in my closet. Bye Wink. Can't say it's been nice knowing you.
Wink Hub 2 has been nothing if not inconsistent. At some points it would work flawlessly. And then for a week, it wouldn't work at all and would time out all the time. Then I would try and test the siren and nothing... app timed out. But 3 hours later the siren would sound scaring everyone in the house. So today I've added a new GE Z-Wave switch for the pool pump. Was able to connect with minimal issue. Although it says supported by Wink, I had to add it as a generic binary switch. The problem started after configured. less than an hour later the hub would not connect to the switch. I moved the hub closer and still nothing. Now I have it directly on the other side of the wall from the switch and it's still inconsistent. And I'm currently trying to test connectivity and the app goes non responsive. I'll test unlocking the door, and it will unlock 10 min later. I'm beginning to think that wink doesn't work as advertised. Since support is no longer available on Friday, I'm unable to call. I'll see if I'm able to deal with this till monday... because at this moment, I'm about to jump to a different home automation solution.
I purchased this hub back in late 2017/early 2018. I loved it because it was the bridge between devices that didn't have integration elsewhere. The hub was moderately expensive for its kind, I think I paid around $150 for it, but services were included with the device Recently the company switched to a $5/month subscription model which doesn't fly with me. It's like holding my purchase hostage. I would never have bought the device if there was a subscription. Wink should just shut down.
The app has horrible lag between selection an action and it occurring. It constantly has a spinning circle in the top right like it's trying to work but takes forever. A lot of time it doesn't sync up well with the current state. The app shows lights are on when they are not. The app hasn't been syncing with my Nest either. I try to change thermostat settings and it takes forever. Then I open the nest app and its instant. I feel like it used to be better I don't know what changed.
The lag in this app makes it unusable most of the time. There is literally at least a 30 second lag between the time I turn a device off or on, and the time it responds. I have had this app for 2 years, and it has had the same issue for the entirety of that time. Sometimes, it does improve, but only temporarily. Alexa app is nearly instantanious. So, I use Alexa 95 percent of the time now.
I have been using WInk since hub 2.0 was released and other than not having enough "approved" devices, the ecosystem has been OK. This app is not OK. It looks good and is easy to use. It works well as long as you don't mind that a light turns on 45-60 seconds after you make the request in the app. What is most irritating is that just about EVERYTHING that uses the Wink API works quickly, even Amazon Echo/Alexa commands and third-party apps - but if you're expecting that level of speed from the official Wink app, forget it. There is absolutely *NO* reason for this. The Wink app should be the one that is reliable and fast. Saying "we're working on it" makes no sense at all when others have no problem with speed. Stop trying to protect the ecosystem and open the box up to users so they can implement full control and use apps and equipment they can rely on.
Wink, the concept and initial execution was ahead of its time, home assistant is the open source picking up where you left off. However, by picking up where you left off. Unfortunately the past is what home assistant and others rely on exclusively for functionality and last mile connectivity/ bridging to users via cloud. If you're going to subscription service, then fine, but only do so for managing remotely from outside home wifi network, and enable local control as a free alternative.
Delay, delay, delay. I have had the Wink Hub then Hub 2 from when they each first came out. But I am seriously considering switching to a different hub system soon. Why? Because I have been told many times over the past few years years that the delays in controlling devices via WiFi were going to be fixed in "the next update." But still not fixed. Here is an idea for Wink... If you know it repeatedly does not work well over Wifi for SO many of us users, just disable the Wink app from trying to use WiFi. If you can fix the problem, stop making us suffer with it broken and just have the Wink app use cellular data to activate/change the devices for now. Or give us the ability on our own in the app to toggle "Wifi use by Wink app on/off."
I bought the Wink hub a few years ago and set up all of the wifi enables bulbs in my house on it. It worked so-so at best and I dealt with bulbs getting knocked off the hub all the time. Finally it seemed to get better (still very far from perfect) and I resigned myself to just dealing with it. Out of nowhere I get a notification that they're switching the system that I already paid for to a subscription service. Now it never works at all. Do not buy. Run away. Fast.
What a complete waste of money. I purchased Wink Hub 2 to use Z-Wave devices. At the time, the point was to purchase a hub that did not have a service fee, as it doesn't make sense to pay monthly to use devices I already own outright. Fast forward two months, and I receive an email from Wink saying they are FORCING everyone to pay a fee to continue using services exactly as they've always been. Needless to say I'm switching to SmartThings. I'm extremely disappointed to say the least....
Wink is great but they can't figure out the WiFi connection issues. I can't control lights, can't control locks or the garage door opener and the Nest thermostat control is spotty at best. I can only use this app to add items to the hub and I am forced to use other apps to control my smart home. Wink NEEDS to fix this. Update: Support failed, tried to change me monthly. SmartThings to the rescue. Wink doesn't care anymore. :(
Cannot believe how bad this entire platform is. Down almost all the time AFTER becoming a paid subscription service. Also, smoke detector activation notice in-app is just an icon in your notifications area, instead of...I dunno, maybe an actual alarm or something???? Contacted Wink about it, and they said they'd put in a feature request. Over a year ago. Guess they couldn't see the logic. Deeply regret going with Wink. Seriously the worst. Unbelievable.
Extortion! Saying I need to start paying 5$ a month (per user) or I cant use any of my devices anymore when we have being using everything for the past 3 years and you aren't adding anything to the experience to justify the charges all of a sudden. In the process of switching to SmartThings and it's already a better experience to set up devices and voice commands.
Been using this platform for a few years. Overall it has been ok. Can be a little buggy at times. But it is free so never complained. Now they want to charge a monthly fee to keep using the product I paid for with the idea it would be free. Total bait and switch after I spent the last few years getting more and more devices connected to wink.
Have been using the app for years BECAUSE IT WAS FREE but now that they decided to charge $4.95 a month for it I will look for something more dependable. They talk about "keeping the blue light on" but I have had to either reboot or reconnect my hub at least two or three times a week. Will- I - Am should be ashamed. Update I have switched over to the SMARTTHINGS HUB was able to move everything over to it and I am working on getting my xfinity cameras on it as well. FOR FREE!!!!!!!
Totally insane that they want to charge a monthly fee to use their app, which constantly had bugs and issues, for an air conditioner that claimed the app was free for life. I'd have no issues paying for a hub (if it worked, which I've seen many complaints for as well), but this is to strictly use the AC only - on my local network. Now that doesnt work either. Getting tossed next season. What a waste.
I don't know if it's the app or the wink 2 but the delays are random, yet mostly present and annoying. I didn't want to rely on a cloud based service but that's all it is. My net went down and everything died. Even the robots with the motion sensors. I set a robot to shut a light off after 1 minute and it takes between 3 and 5 all the time. Most of the time I have a 7-10 seconds delay between tripping a sensor and getting the light on. With the app anything between 2sec to 15-20. Rarely realtime
We've had a minimal Wink setup for a few years now, and it's been anything but trouble free, which stopped us from using the platform more. There have been frequent service interruptions, huge latency issues, many dropped commands, and the Android widgets malfunction frequently. Now Wink is trying to extort us to pay for an additional subscription, with no improvement in service?? Laughable. Had they fixed any issues in the last 2 years, maybe. We moved onto Home Assistant, and you should too.
Absolutely useless and a slap in the face to customers. I've owned a Wink Hub 2 and eight (8) smart bulbs for four or five years but haven't used them for the last two because of a move and not getting around to setting them up. Today I dug things out, installed the bulbs I own, plugged in the hub and re-installed the app only to discover that you can't even add compatible smart items without a subscription that is at least $5/month, let alone utilize "robots", etc. What a slap in the face.