Nuki is a popular smart lock maker in Europe, producing high-quality door locks, fobs, and intercoms controlled with voice assistants and smartphone apps. The company used to support using old Android devices as a network hub for Nuki products, so purchasing a separate hub wasn't needed, but now that option is going away.

Like many smart locks, Nuki's products don't connect directly to your home Wi-Fi network, to prevent the internal batteries from running out quickly. Instead, they transmit data to a hub device, which itself is connected to your home network. Nuki has offered a hardware hub since day one (which currently retails for 99€), but the company also offered something unique — an app that turned old Android devices into the required hub. No need to purchase a hub, and no need to throw out that old phone or tablet.

Sadly, the software hub option is now going away. "Four years later," Nuki said in a blog post, "we have found that the use of the Android Bridge has dropped significantly over time. [...] Since the maintenance outlay for a security-related app like the Nuki Software Bridge is very high, and we want to focus all our resources on developing new features that are relevant to all users, we have decided to discontinue the Nuki Bridge app on 31 January 2021."

Nuki's software option for a bridge was unique in the smart home ecosystem world, but it does require extra effort to maintain, which likely isn't worth the trouble if Nuki's claim of a minimal user base is true.

Source: Nuki