Leeo not responding to questions about possible shut down
Leeo, the smart home company, is still quiet about whether it will remain open past the end of this month. The San Mateo, CA-based firm, which makes smart lights that double as alerts, emailed customers in late August 2019 that it was potentially running out of money and may have to end its service as of September 30, 2019.
GearBrain has reached out to Leeo this month, but has not heard back, despite the company asking customers to email if they have questions.
Leeo's limbo
Leeo appeared in the market in 2014 with a device called the Smart Alert, a $49.99 device that reads the temperature and humidity in a space but more keenly sends notifications when it hears a smoke or CO2 alarm go off nearby. The company even earned a 2019 Honoree award at CES 2019 for its newest product, a nightlight that has a more rounded, streamlined design but features the same blue light that the original Leeo had.
Instead of being able to buy the nightlight, though, Leeo is asking people to add their names to a waitlist. The original Leeo is not available on the site. Clicking through the waitlist now brings up an error message saying, "Profile not found."
There's also a service Leeo launched called Ping, which allows people to create a circle of contacts who can get alerts if someone in their group has not been heard from or reached out to over time. According to Leeo's website, the service is app-based and shows people surrounded by color bands — green, meaning everyone is fine, and yellow and red, indicating there may be something wrong. But that service, which won an Innovation Award at CES 2019, only has a waiting list for now — you can't sign up on Leeo's site.
But in the past month, since the email went out to customers, Leeo has been silent about what its next steps may be, leaving many concerned.
Leeo's Twitter handle is also fallow, with the last tweet from the company back in February.
Those who have Leeo in their homes have voiced confusion on multiple boards on Reddit about whether they should be looking for alternatives now. Leeo had told customers it would reach out before the end of September with an update, but a message has not gone out to users yet.
While some features may still work on Leeo — even if the company goes dark — the company said in its original August email to customers that they can't guarantee all of the original services will work. One thing that will stop working? Alerts sent to smartphones if Leeo detects something a smoke or CO2 alarm has sounded in the home, the primary feature of the device in the first place.
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