it's worse than that - those locks are bluetooth-based, so they don't care about the cloud.
What happened is that they are disabling the app, so it is no longer usable.
What happened is that they are disabling the app, so it is no longer usable.
I recently bought a G-Shock watch, it can connect to your phone via Bluetooth, it was a selling point but may be convenient to sync the time with a quick connection.
First, the G-Shock app displayed a prompt that it won't work with animations turned off which is just baffling. I have them disabled in Android settings under accessibility options because I find them frivolous.
Then with the animations enabled the G-Shock app says that it's EOL since mid 2023, now CASIO WATCHES app is for everything.
Install CASIO WATCHES, doesn't complain about animations being disabled which is an improvement but then when I want to add a watch it says I need an account.
Two local devices connecting via Bluetooth need a goddamn online account! Uninstalled that shit immediately.
I don't regret the purchase, I like the watch and it works perfectly without any connection crap but boy is all this online nonsense annoying.
Some of them are also compatible with Gadgetbridge (also OSS, but much richer in functionality).
That said, they are putting some functions behind the garmin connect app, which is troubling.
That means you need to keep the app project updated and all dependencies in reasonable form. It’s not outlandish if you are a big company but as someone who oversaw the development of platforms where you had apps dedicated to hardware - it definitely takes effort. I can understand why companies want to cut loose ends here.
It's that they just don't want to. They're greedy as hell, and they don't care about you.
Even if it would be too much work at one point, e.g. if Apple would finally update their Bluetooth stack more often then every 10 years, and the API completely changes. Why not just open source the whole app, or at least their interface so independent developers could develop something so not all of their products need to go into the waste? Because even in this hypothetical scenario, one thing holds true: They're greedy and they don't care about you.
...and the Lovecraftian gradual drift as incremental recursive hallucinations turn them into still... mostly working... strange little app-like-bundles of Something Weird.
But my laundry has never smelled so fresh.