If you live in America and have a garage, you probably know the name Chamberlain. They dominate the garage door market with their two consumer brands, Chamberlain and LiftMaster. (They own a bunch of related companies, too.)
If you live in America and have a garage and want smart home control of your garage door, you probably already know that Chamberlain is pretty hostile to folks using its openers with HomeKit and other smart home ecosystems.
The Empire and the Rebellion
In 2023, MyQ (Chamberlain’s garage door app) cut off API access, as reported by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy at The Verge:
The Chamberlain Group — owners of the MyQ smart garage door controller tech — has announced it’s shut off all “unauthorized access” to its APIs. The move breaks the smart home integrations of thousands of users who relied on platforms such as Homebridge and Home Assistant to do things like shut the garage door when they lock their front door or flash a light if they leave their door open for 10 minutes, or whatever other control or automation they wanted to do with the device they bought and paid for.
The move comes a year after Chamberlain discontinued its official Apple HomeKit integration and a few months after it finally killed support for Google Assistant. It’s sadly another example of how the company continues to be hostile to the interoperable smart home.
Even though MyQ had cut off official access, third parties stepped in to bridge the gap. Products like as Tailwind, Meross, and Ratgdo restored smart home capability to MyQ-powered openers.
Sadly, even that has changed. Here is Jennifer Pattison Tuohy again, writing today:
Garage door opener manufacturer The Chamberlain Group has launched a new version of the communication platform that powers its connected garage door openers — and it’s bad news for smart home users.
The new Security+ 3.0 platform, launching alongside Chamberlain’s latest openers, shuts down the workarounds that third-party accessory makers such as Tailwind, Meross, and Ratgdo developed to let you integrate your garage door with Apple Home, Home Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and others.
Instead, you’re pushed into Chamberlain’s ad-stuffed MyQ app and a short list of partners and integrations, nearly all of which require paid subscriptions and none of which are the major ecosystems. (Controlling your door in the MyQ app itself is still free).
Here’s how the company announced Security+ 3.0:
Chamberlain Group (CG), a Blackstone portfolio company and a global leader in intelligent access and monitoring solutions, is reimagining the garage door opener for the modern, technology integrated home with the launch of its new LiftMaster and Chamberlain smart garage door openers. The new line offers enhanced tech features and incorporates next-gen video functionality, creating a new standard for the industry.
With this new lineup, Chamberlain Group cements the leadership position in access control providing video monitoring via built in cameras as a standard across the new line and convenient smart control with the myQ app making access and monitoring convenient and effortless for today’s homeowners.
“Garage door openers have come a long way from simple motors that open and close your door to becoming the central hub for monitoring and access control in the modern home,” said Erich Struckmeyer, Chamberlain Group EVP and Chief Product Officer. “This new lineup represents a major leap forward in the industry, combining our powerful legacy performance with important standard smart features like built-in video, myQ app-based control, and seamless integration with other myQ devices. We’re excited to lead the evolution from analog garage access to intelligent, secure, and convenient home entry and monitoring.”
I am shocked that the announcement doesn’t mention AI anywhere. Really seems like it would have been in there.
Time will tell whether third parties will find a way to work with these new openers. I hope something can be worked out.
An Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized Age
I’ve been keeping up with this story because my garage door is almost 40 years old, and I will have to replace it at some point. I recently changed a burned-out lightbulb in it, and the plastic shroud around the bulbs fell apart in my hands.
I’m a massive fan of HomeKit and, naturally, added my opener to my setup via a Meross MSG100. It plugs into an outlet and has a pair of wires that piggyback on the wires coming from the opener’s wall button. I’ve used this Meross gear for over three years, and it’s been mostly reliable. Every few months, I need to power-cycle it, so I plugged it into a smart plug so I don’t have to drag out my ladder if it needs to be restarted.
Modern garage door openers may have fancier features, but I love my noisy old one. It’s dumb as a brick, and bringing it into HomeKit was as simple as could be. That’s how I prefer things. I’d rather have a lamp with a normal bulb controlled by a smart plug than the same lamp with a Hue light bulb in it. Adding brains to traditional household gear is the way to go, but Chamberlain clearly disagrees.
No… There is Another
While Chamberlain enjoyed a vast market share, they are not the only game in town.
Genie is another popular garage door opener. Some of their products support smart home ecosystems through their Aladdin Connect app, but HomeKit is noticeably absent. Like with previous Chamberlain openers, there are workarounds, but as always, unofficial support can prove fragile in the long run.
Security is more important at home than anywhere else, and I understand that these companies are trying to harden their openers against unauthorized use. I hope that a middle ground can be found before I have to replace my opener.
I hope I can find a reasonable opener when I need it.