Earlier, Haier Europe sent a legal notice to an open source developer on GitHub. This German developer developed two HomeAssistant plug-ins for Haier home appliances, allowing Haier users to integrate these plug-ins into HomeAssistant, and then control the home appliances through the iPhone's HomeKit suite.
We are not aware of Haier Europe’s notification of sending a lawyer’s letter. It is very convenient for Haier users to use these plug-ins through HomeKit. Otherwise, they must install Haier’s own applications, and the experience is far inferior to the HomeKit suite.
After many technology websites reported this matter, a large number of Haier users paid attention to this matter. They wrote to Haier Europe and said that it was because of these plug-ins that they were willing to buy Haier products. If there were no plug-ins, they would rather buy products from other brands that can be integrated into HomeKit.
And it is only the independent behavior of Haier Europe:
As an independent legal entity of Haier in Europe, Haier Europe has no direct contact with other Haier companies. For example, Haier America responded to user inquiries on
After seeing this, Mark Atwood, chief engineer of the Amazon Open Source Project Office, also decided to support developer Andre0512, and he will provide free consulting services to developers.
Haier Europe softens attitude after attracting attention:
Since this incident has attracted too much attention, Haier Europe's current attitude has softened. The company published a brief statement on its official website saying that it is committed to providing the best user experience for Internet users and improving the performance and reliability of hOn (Haier Europe's smart home application), so it enhances smart home scenarios based on Haier Europe's authorized use and intellectual property rights. The company will also evaluate all opportunities and solutions that can expand and open ecosystem and IoT platform integration.
Haier Europe contacted the developer and said they could discuss:
Developer Andre0512 received a reply from the person in charge of Haier Europe's brand and Internet of Things. Haier Europe said that it can arrange a conference call between developers and the Internet of Things technology department to comprehensively solve this problem.
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