Without wishing to sound like some nerdy Nostradamus, an announcement that Logitech's Harmony servers will be shutting off at such-and-such date is all but inevitable. Look no further than the Harmony Express, which lost essentially all of its functionality barely a year after its debut, for an example.Įventually, at least some of the connected features of these remotes will stop working, for at least some of the people still using them.
At some point in the future, hopefully several years away at least, the number of remaining Harmony users will be low enough that Logitech deems it necessary to stop spending money on keeping their hardware running. Even giving Logitech the benefit of the doubt that its service record doesn't necessarily deserve for the last few years, that's an impossible task. Which means, given the dedication of many of Harmony's die-hard fans, forever. compatible Harmony remotes will continue to work with Google Assistant/Home and Amazon Alexa.īut for how long? With pleading corporate sincerity, Logitech says that its goal "is to keep service running as long as customers are using it."
Existing warranties will be honored, and the FAQ says the company will "continue to make updates to the Harmony desktop software and Harmony apps for Android/iOS." The support team and documentation will remain in place. "There should be no impact with existing Harmony customers, we plan to continue to offer service and support," says the Logitech representative, though they use a forum handle. Since the remotes rely on software and services from Logitech in order to work with newer devices, and for some of the more advanced models, interacting with smart home tech, how long will it be until at least some of their functionality stops working? How long will Logitech keep supporting the line after it can't sell any more remotes?Īccording to the post that announced the end of Harmony hardware, Logitech is still committed to support.
The end of the Harmony series might not be a surprise, as the market has been moving towards simpler Roku-style remotes and voice control, but it does bring up some crucial questions. But it's still a blow to a community of dedicated hi-fi users who've loved these gadgets for almost 20 years.
The writing has been on the wall for a while the last major Harmony release was almost two years ago, and that was an expensive dud. A couple of days ago Logitech announced the end of its long-running Harmony universal remote line in a rather un-ceremonial forum post.