Smart home devices should work without the internet

Spencer Kittleson, writing in October 2026, argued that smart home devices should keep working without an internet connection, citing his Nest integration breaking after Google changed its API, a Samsung fridge displaying a TLS certificate error, and a Camp Chef grill controller that needs Wi-Fi just to report temperature. He laid out further rules developed over ten years and two talks, including keeping the old way of doing things while adding new ones, requiring a logged API for any cloud device, centralizing configuration instead of spreading it across vendor apps, providing multiple access paths such as an app, Alexa, a QR code or an NFC tag, using MQTT pub/sub rather than point-to-point links, and avoiding batteries unless they last a year or more. The argument matters because hardware people pay for once can stop working when a vendor changes its plans or its servers go down. The examples he returns to most are a Tasmota-based sprinkler controller and a long-running garage door automation, which he presents as proof the rules hold up in practice. What to watch next is whether device makers follow suit by exposing local APIs and logging them, so buyers can keep core functions running offline instead of depending on someone else's cloud.