You bought the hardware. They kept the app.
Plenty of hardware only works through the vendor's phone app. The app is not the device — it is a client talking to a cloud server, and anything an app can say, you can say yourself.
We took two cloud-locked gadgets apart and released the results: each one is now a token-gated HTTP API you host, with no vendor app, no account, and no subscription. Same idea as the rest of this site — you should not need permission to use what you own.
Read the full story here — how we found the protocols, what broke, and what we learned.
EvoStart Car Relay
Remote start, without the vendor app
Start, stop, lock and unlock an EvoStart / Fortin EVO-START LTE starter over plain HTTP. Works with Home Assistant, Homebridge, curl, or a voice assistant.
Bestway Spa Relay
A hot tub that answers to HTTP
Control a Bestway SmartSpa / Lay-Z-Spa over plain HTTP: heater, jets, filter, and target temperature. A Node port of the SmartHub cloud protocol.
Protocol credit: epheterson/bestway-spa-v2
View on GitHubBoth are MIT licensed. Use them, fork them, sell what you build with them.