Just one year after releasing the Harmony Express smart remote, Logitech has announced plans to end its support in September via a new FAQ on its website.
The remote, which only launched back in April 2019, brought Alexa support to Logitech’s widely lauded smart remote series… or at least that’s what it was supposed to do.
Instead Logitech says “expectations were not met”, referring to a number of issues customers had with the remote, and the company is now offering returns or exchanges for the Harmony Elite – which is the company’s flagship home theater product.
Support for the Harmony Express ends on September 19, Logitech says, but the company will allow you to process the exchange up until December 31, 2020.
Smart Homewrecker
While the execution left a lot to be desired, the idea behind the Logitech Harmony Express was a good one: basically, a universal remote control that could be controlled with your voice.
If anyone could do it, Logitech seemed the most capable given its historic success in the universal remote category with the Harmony, but in the end the remote had some serious issues with some users saying it only worked roughly 40% of the time… which isn’t great for a remote.
The silver lining to all this is that now more smart TV makers are adding support for Alexa and Google Assistant on their TVs. LG OLEDs support both assistants, for example, and Samsung, Sony and Vizio all support for one or more assistants.
It was a good try, Logitech. Good try.