When buying fridge, washing machine, oven etc, when I moved, I told the sales person, I like quality, am not price sensitive, but any device that requires an app or has a camera/mic built in is out of question. Some didn't know how to handle that, being used to sell it as a "good thing".

If it's a "router" and you can't install a OpenWRT on it, then it's an absolute no-brainer to not to buy it.

I don't disagree, but it's funny that Apple's AirPort routers, which have been axed almost a decade ago, can still be configured with the AirPort app. Years ago, I temporarily hooked up an old AirPort Extreme to replace a broken router, and it even got an update (probably a security update).

At any rate, I think as much as web vs. app, IMO companies should be forced to support their appliances for a certain time period by law (the EU has rolled out a law to require this for some device types). If it was normal for a router to work for 10 years or a washing machine for 20 years, a vendor should be forced to support it for that amount of time since the last sale.

> And this is why "mandatory app to configure" is a dealbreaker

More and more IP cameras can't be set up without a phone app. TP-Link's Tapo line is really bad about it. Even some Reolink cameras can't be setup on their own.

Now that high quality, affordable brands like Dahua got banned (w/o evidence), there's less pressure on the survivors to not be awful.

This is quite literally one of my two grievances against Ubiquiti at the moment: its intense requirement for mobile apps for initial setup.

Stop mandating apps that will eventually break or cease being supported. Give us an OOBE that can be run independent of some mobile app.

I just wish:

- it was more clear when buying a product that an app is required to activate/use/etc a device

- that people who rebelled against this kind of nonsense were backed up by others and respected "more power to you!"

Friend of mine had some (non-Motorola) router that her ISP provided her and the only way to set it up was through an app. The first time I ran into this I couldn't believe it, there was simply no way to set this piece of s*t up without using the app, which (a) didn't work until we'd spent ages faffing around with it and (b) was just a glorified set of different wizards that let you set things up in a few fixed preconfigured ways.

I fear that this will eventually happen to all Amazon Eero products, which has partnerships with telcos in my country for "free" routers.