Two years after Neato Robotics—a company once headquartered in the United States and known for pioneering intelligent robotic vacuum cleaners—officially ceased operations in 2023, the last chapter of its product story has quietly arrived. Former customers are now being notified that their devices have effectively reached the end of their connected functionality. In a series of emails circulated to users, Neato confirmed that its robot vacuums will soon lose access to cloud-based services, an action that ultimately disables remote management through the company’s companion application, the MyNeato app. For many owners, this means their smart vacuums will no longer be the semi-autonomous helpers they once were, but rather manually operated cleaning devices with limited interactive features.
According to correspondence obtained by *The Verge*, the company provided an explicit explanation of this final decision. Neato Robotics clarified that, following the shutdown of its business in 2023, its parent company Vorwerk—which acquired Neato in 2017—had continued to host and maintain the Neato cloud platform to uphold the original five-year service commitment made to customers. However, the company elaborated that the technological and regulatory landscape had evolved dramatically since then. Increasingly demanding cybersecurity frameworks, stricter compliance measures, and fast-changing industry regulations have rendered it unsafe and unsustainable to continue operating these aging cloud infrastructures. In essence, Neato and Vorwerk concluded that keeping the legacy systems online would not meet modern security or operational standards.
As a direct result of this development, Neato’s once-smart vacuums will now revert to a much more limited state, functioning exclusively in manual mode. Users who had grown accustomed to customizing cleaning routines, scheduling automated sessions, or tracking their robot’s movements via the MyNeato app will lose those capabilities entirely. Without the cloud connection, features that depended on remote access and digital synchronization are effectively obsolete. The vacuum cleaners will still perform their fundamental cleaning tasks, but all advanced app-based conveniences will fade into memory, underscoring how deeply interconnected hardware functionality and remote software infrastructure have become in the modern Internet of Things ecosystem.
For existing Neato customers, this transition might feel disappointing, though not necessarily unforeseen. Earlier this month, Neato publicly announced its intention to discontinue cloud support for its robotic vacuums, providing users with a courtesy notice before the final cutoff. The announcement followed the same trajectory Neato set in motion two years earlier when it originally promised to support device software and services for a total of five years post-shutdown. While Vorwerk indeed honored that pledge for as long as deemed secure and feasible, the present termination signals the inevitable consequences of shifting regulatory demands combined with the natural lifecycle of connected technologies.
*The Verge* has contacted Vorwerk for additional comments or clarifications regarding this development. Should the company provide further information or a detailed statement, this article will be updated accordingly to reflect their response. Ultimately, Neato’s situation serves as a sobering reminder of the impermanence inherent in the digital connectivity upon which so many modern products depend—highlighting that the functionality of smart devices often persists only as long as the cloud services behind them remain operational and compliant with evolving technological standards.
Sourse: https://www.theverge.com/news/806246/neato-robovac-cloud-shutdown
