Chamberlain’s new technology blocks aftermarket controllers from working with its garage door openers

Garage door opener maker The Chamberlain Group has launched a new version of the communications platform that powers its connected garage door openers — and it’s bad news for smart home users.

The new Security+ 3.0 platform, launched alongside Chamberlain’s latest door openers, puts an end to workarounds developed by third-party accessory makers such as Tailwind, Meross and Ratgdo to allow you to integrate your garage door with Apple Home, Home Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Google Home and others.

Instead, you’re pushed to Chamberlain’s ad-filled MyQ app and a short list of partners and integrations, almost all of which require paid subscriptions and none of which are major ecosystems. (Controlling your door in the MyQ app itself is always free).

It’s another sign that the market leader in garage door openers has no interest in an open, interoperable smart home. Chamberlain is locking users deeper into its proprietary, subscription-centric ecosystem — a trend punctuated by its quiet exit from the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the industry group behind the smart home interoperability standard, Matter. Which, coincidentally, just announced support for garage door controllers.

For those unfamiliar with it, let me take you back to 2014, when Chamberlain launched MyQ Garage, its first smart garage door controller. An accessory device that connects wirelessly to your Chamberlain or Liftmaster door opener (the company’s professional installation line), the MyQ lets you control your opener from your phone – a huge upgrade that lets you check and close your door from anywhere. Subsequently, Chamberlain integrated MyQ directly into its door openers and now has an extensive MyQ ecosystem that includes security cameras, video doorbells and keypads.

Competitors quickly entered the market, including third-party companies offering universal controllers connected to the back of the opener. But these companies soon discovered that new Chamberlain door openers with patented Security+ 2.0 technology did not work with these dry contact triggers. So they developed workarounds, first by connecting their devices to an aftermarket remote, then using a software solution to mimic the rolling security codes used by wired communications technology. This was first implemented by Ratgdo (which stands for Rage Against the Garage Door Opener), after founder Paul Wieland became frustrated with MyQ’s limitations.

Meanwhile, Chamberlain, which was sold to private equity firm Blackstone in 2021, began locking down its MyQ technology, which it had built directly into its door openers. It discontinued its Apple HomeKit bridge, ended its Google Assistant integration (after first trying to charge for it), and blocked unofficial Home Assistant integrations. Today, most supported integrations require a subscription or are tied to paid services like Amazon Key. These developments only made aftermarket controllers more attractive to those who wanted to decide for themselves how to control the hardware in their garages.

Security+ 3.0 slams the door

With Security+ 3.0, the workarounds developed by these controllers stopped working. “All the aftermarket controllers, like Ratgdo, Tailwind, Meross, Konnected.io, none of them will work with Security 3.0 devices,” explained Scott Riesebosch, president of Tailwind. The edge in an interview. “And there is no possibility of a firmware update for any of these products that will work, because these devices all communicate over a wired communications channel.”

I asked Chamberlain if that was the case. “Our approach to third-party partner onboarding remains the same,” Christina Marenson, Chamberlain Group’s senior director of marketing and public relations, said in an email. “We strive to provide the most secure and seamless experience for all users, which means we can only allow approved integrations, including Alarm.com, Resideo, Ring, Vivint, and IFTTT. »

Security+ 3.0 is a complete overhaul of the company’s communications technology and comes with new hardware that Marenson says “modernizes the industrial design of our hardware for a contemporary smart home ecosystem.” This hardware includes new remote controls and keypads that can be assigned to specific people, so you know who opened the door and when.

Technically, the big change is the move to completely wireless communication; wired connections now only power the opener and safety sensors. “Our communications architecture continues to leverage rolling code encryption technology, now complemented by Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) operating at 2.4 GHz to provide more secure handshaking, faster provisioning and extended range,” says Marenson.

It is this patented rolling code technology that has made it difficult for third-party devices to work with MyQ products. And even though their software solutions relied on wired communication, now that everything is wireless, those solutions won’t work with new devices.

Konnected.io founder Nate Clark, whose blaQ controller works with Chamberlain openers, confirmed this on the Konnected community forum, writing that this is “an intentional decision by Chamberlain/LM to lock you into MyQ.”

For many Chamberlain customers, the MyQ app is fine, as long as they can handle the intrusive ads and constant upsells for cloud video storage that come from MyQ cameras, many of which are now built into door openers. But many users don’t want to use multiple apps to control their home, don’t want critical cloud-related access devices, and prefer to integrate everything into a single smart home ecosystem.

Today, MyQ does not work with popular home automation platforms, such as Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home. Its connections are largely through subscription-based security companies like Alarm.com and Vivint. It doesn’t support free services like CarPlay or Android Auto; instead, we partner directly with automakers, including Honda and Volkswagen, who charge a subscription of about $50 per year to open your garage door from your car’s screen. (Chamberlain works with the free HomeLink solution, a proprietary platform that uses an in-car button to connect to openers locally and via the cloud.)

It seems likely that these are all partnerships that improve the company’s bottom line, unlike more open platforms.

Even though Chamberlain has a U.S. market share of more than 70 percent, there are alternatives. Riesebosch praises Genie and its Aladdin connectivity platform for its more open approach to the smart home. Lock maker Kwikset recently launched a door opener that it says will be compatible with Matter.

Still, if you find yourself with a Chamberlain Group Security+ 3.0 garage door opener (the easiest way to identify it is to look at the learn button; white circle means 3.0, yellow means 2.0), aftermarket manufacturers are working on solutions. However, Riesebosch says this will be difficult. “Chamberlain has put up some pretty significant barriers.”

One of them is a new validation check that phones the home to confirm that any remote or accessory trying to connect to the opener is made by Chamberlain and not a counterfeit, duplicate or clone. Marenson said this cloud-based authentication was introduced with Security+ 3.0 due to “the growing presence of counterfeit accessories…that do not meet the performance, security and reliability standards of the myQ ecosystem,” and is designed to “protect our consumers and maintain the integrity of our trusted myQ user experience.”

If you’re handy, you can hack a Chamberlain Security+ 3.0 remote by soldering the wires to connect it to the controller of your choice. But perhaps there is a simpler solution.

Third Reality’s new $50 smart garage door controller is a super simple gadget that’s basically a box that holds your garage door remote and uses a mechanical finger to press the button. It supports Matter, so it works with Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, Home Assistant, etc., giving you full smart home control.

Chamberlain’s new remotes for its Security+ 3.0 range appear to be similar in size to existing ones, they should fit into this gadget. I would love to see how Chamberlain plans to block This workaround.