Why always either or ?
I have been using Homey and HA in parallel for years. HA can do things and integration that are alien to Homey. Thanks to various apps, we have the option of merging the two systems. This allows us to utilise the strengths of both systems.
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Very good point. I started my home automation with the Swedish Telldus system and I still have it running alongside Homey. Not for any automations but for their version av Insights which I think is way better for monitoring 433 MHz sensors. Thatās the only thing I use the Telldus hub for now that I have Homey.
I would not recommend Telldus to anyone (except if you want to try out home automation for a very small startup investment)ā¦and thatās coming from a Swede. 
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Iāll admitā¦ Iām a little nervous about thisā¦ I was a ST user for years and then Samsung bought it, totally ruined it and now it collects dust in my basement. I am HOPING that will not be the case here.
Youāve got a keen eye! 
An email will be sent out today at 15:00 (CEST) to notify everyone. Hereās a quick summary of the changes:
Apps
Weāve made it more clear that Homey apps can now also work on products other than those developed by Athom. In the future, developers can reach more customers with their apps available on third party products that embed Homeyās software.
Address
Weāve recently moved our office, so the address has been updated.
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Will the communication later today include information on the expected impact for (commmunity/verified) developers for app support? This sounds like I can potentially receive a lot more support question possibly related to operating systems and hardware which I do not have access to.
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The email will not provide any specific information on this matter. Additionally, itās important to note that you wonāt suddenly see Homey appearing on every smart home hub available on the market. We are currently referring to, for example, the LG ThinQ ON hub and potentially more third-party hardware in the future.
I have already been in touch with several colleagues, including some at LG, and we are considering providing developer hardware to verified developers when the time comes. However, these arrangements are still in progress and I canāt promise anything specific. Rest assured, we are committed to supporting developers in every way we can. 
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Does that mean that only verified apps (or apps from verified developers) will be made available to those other products?
Thatās how it will work for the LG ThinQ ON hub, yes.
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LG has acquired 80 % of Homey and will likely own 100 % of the company within the next few years.
Is this a good thing for users ā or a bad one?
Iād like to open this discussion with some personal reflections and use them as a starting point for a broader exchange of views.
I previously worked as a project coordinator for an ambitious startup hub. My role involved talking to many founders, developers, and innovators to understand how they work, what they need, and how environments can be shaped to support them. Iām still in contact with many people from this ecosystem.
A question often comes up: Why do large corporations actively support startups that could one day become competitors?
The answer lies in how commercial culture has changed over the past decades.
How things worked ābeforeā
In the past, large companies maintained huge internal development teams. They would invest millions into multiple parallel projects ā say five products at once:
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Three were never finished because they became too complex or too expensive
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One was cancelled due to negative market forecasts
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Only one made it to market
The full development cost of all five projects was then attributed to the single surviving product, resulting in enormous costs. Worse still, sometimes a competitor later released a product that looked very similar to one of the cancelled internal projects ā and succeeded with it.
This model relied heavily on forecasts, statistics, and assumptions ā and on hiring developers whose real capabilities were often hard to assess upfront.
How things work today
Today, many large companies create or support startup hubs instead.
Providing a few enthusiastic founders with cheap office space, access to labs, or mentoring costs very little for a global corporation. Even supporting 100 startups is pocket money at that scale.
Out of those 100 startups:
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~95 will fail or give up ā not the corporationās problem
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Of the remaining 5, maybe 3 disappear within a few years
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2 survive, prove market fit, build a community, and ship a real product
At that point, the corporation can observe these survivors and, if interested, acquire one of them. This approach is far less risky:
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The product exists
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The market response is known
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The team has proven its capabilities
No guessing anymore.
From the founderās perspective
Now imagine you are one of those founders.
A large company approaches you and offers:
ā1 million dollars for each of you.ā
Youāve lived for years on a minimal income. Maybe youāre now making $2,000 a month but see limited growth ahead. This offer changes your life: house, car, security.
āBut Iāll lose my revenue,ā you think.
āNo problem,ā they say. āYouāve proven your skills. Weāll hire you for $4,000 a month to continue developing the product.ā
Most people would say yes.
Soā¦ good or bad for users?
This is where concerns come in.
When Samsung acquired SmartThings, the outcome was clearly negative for many power users:
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The Groovy programming layer was removed
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The platform was refocused on a broader, less technical user base
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The system became heavily cloud-dependent
In other words, the foundersā original vision was sacrificed for scale and revenue.
The question is: will the same happen to Homey under LG?
Iāve seen communication where LG states that Homey will remain independent and that the existing developers are the experts. LGās goal, according to these statements, is to integrate Homey into its own ecosystem ā nothing more.
That could be pure marketing to calm users.
But personally, I believe thereās a good chance this promise is genuine.
LG is not blind. They have seen what happened with SmartThings.
A broader market shift
Even global players like Apple have changed their strategy.
For a long time, Apple pushed the proprietary HomeKit ecosystem. It was technically solid, already based on Thread, and had strict certification rules ā but adoption remained limited, mostly within the Apple fan base.
Apple was one of the founders of Matter, which is very close to HomeKit in spirit. Eventually, Apple abandoned HomeKit as a standalone platform, renamed it to Apple Home, and shifted focus entirely to Matter.
Why? Because even with massive resources and global reach, proprietary smart-home standards donāt scale well.
Now Apple sells Apple TVs and HomePods that act as robust Matter controllers with redundancy and multi-admin support. Users can buy almost any Matter device, share it with other ecosystems, and still enjoy an exceptionally stable base. Apple makes money ā and gains satisfied customers who might later buy a Mac, an iPad, or at least an iPhone.
Thatās smart strategy.
Why this could be good for Homey
I suspect LG may follow a similar approach.
I own an LG TV, and honestly, its current smart-home integration is nothing special. Now imagine:
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Homey users becoming more aware of LG devices
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LG TV buyers discovering Homey through their TV
That could easily become a win-win situation. LG sells hardware, Homey gains visibility and users, and both ecosystems benefit.
Just my two cents.
Iām genuinely curious how others here see this acquisition ā especially long-time Homey users and power users.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
First of all, welcome to the Homey Community!
To make sure you are aware of the forum rules, please read the Welcome to the forum! post here.
There was already a topic about that, so moved and feel free to discus there further. (but thre was already much said. 
)
btw, AI is giving nice summaries.
LG has acquired 80% of Athom, the company behind Homey, a smart home platform. Emile reassures users that Athom will continue to operate independently and prioritize customer privacy. However, many users are concerned about the potential consequences of the acquisition, including the collection and sale of user data. ChrisG points out that according to LGās Ad Solutions, the company plans to sell user data to third parties.
Some users, like robertklep and Sharkys, are considering switching to alternative platforms like Home Assistant. Others, such as Arie_J_Godschalk and Adrian_Rockall, are taking a wait-and-see approach, hoping that the acquisition will bring positive changes to Homey.
Developers are also weighing in, with some like spkesDE choosing to keep their apps in the store for now, while others are considering removing them. Doekse from Athom emphasizes that the company will not sell user data and that partnerships with other brands will continue.
The community is divided, with some users expressing concerns about the future of Homey and others being more optimistic. Paxman chooses to believe Athomās founders and will continue using Homey until something negative happens. As Jonathan_Draper suggests, users can review Athomās privacy policy to understand how their data is being handled.
But That was the state of this topic up to ~1 year before your post.
/OT I Love AI - Note AI can make mistakes, like we do 
Thank you for the clarification and for pointing me to the forum rules ā even though Iām not new to this forum.
I fully understand that rules are important and that avoiding parallel discussions is generally desirable. I was a moderator of a car forum for many years myself, so Iām very familiar with these considerations.
That said, from experience, threads that have been inactive for more than a year are effectively dead ends. They usually no longer attract attention or meaningful new discussion, especially when the context has changed ā which is the case here. Thatās why I considered it legitimate to start a new thread rather than reviving an old one.
I understand that you see this differently, and of course thatās your decision to make. I just wanted to explain my reasoning.
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True ā AI is great at summarising the past.
What Iām actually interested in, though, are peopleās thoughts going forward.
Thatās not quite Back to the Future yet
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One important aspect I forgot to mention in my original post:
Homey already exists in three distinct forms:
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a hardware-based local hub,
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a cloud-based version,
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and a self-hosted version.
From LGās perspective, this is actually a huge advantage. They donāt need to reshape or ākillā a local-first platform to serve their own interests. They can simply choose the variant that best fits their products and strategy.
For example, LG could:
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leverage the cloud version for mass-market integration with minimal adaptation, or
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deploy a self-hosted Homey instance on higher-end devices where local processing makes sense.
In other words, LG can benefit from Homey without forcing a single architectural model onto everyone. The platform already offers the flexibility that other ecosystems had to painfully introduce later ā often at the expense of power users.
Thatās another reason why I believe the Homey situation is structurally very different from what happened with SmartThings.
Iām not necessarily interested in rehashing this whole discussion, but I canāt refrain from commenting on some of your points.
I have no idea what you base that on, given that Samsung said exactly the same in their press release about the acquisition of SmartThings.
Which is what? The number of SmartThings users is huge (62 million active users according to Wikipedia). Itās also a great way for Samsung to sell more products and to collect user data, which is also something that LG has literally said is one of the reason for their acquisition of Athom.
Homey is a great way to gain insight in the types of devices that people use in their homes, both for LG the device manufacturer as well as LG the (would-be) data broker. Samsung already monetizes such data and Iām certain that LG will as well.
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We seem to have different expectations about the future.
Iām not claiming to be right ā time will ultimately show which view proves more accurate.
No clue what youāre trying to achieve. LG bought Homey because of Homey OS.
The only thing changed since the ādeadā LG topic, is Homey SHS is now available for āliveā testing.
Oh, wait, I forgot to use AiAi here, that seems to be necessary:
I want to express my thoughts about this matter.
Despite of your long post:
I have no clue about what you are trying to a achieve
LG stated they are only interested in Homey OS
Homey SHS is now available for āliveā testing by anyone- This is usual with new Homey products
Conclusion:
Nothing has changed
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Agree. As mentioned before, LG can choose the model that suits them best and may not need to change anything else.
