Hunter ends Google Home and Alexa support for smart ceiling fans

Hunter will stop supporting the cloud-to-cloud connection that lets HunterSMART ceiling fans work with Google Home and Amazon Alexa on January 1, 2027, 9to5Google reported Monday. The company said in an email that “legacy cloud-to-cloud connections used for app linking between the HunterSMART™ mobile apps and Google Home and/or Amazon Alexa will no longer be supported”.

After that date, voice commands, scenes and automations that depend on the legacy link will stop working. The HunterSMART app and the included remote control will keep working, but they will no longer connect fans to those smart-home ecosystems.

Hunter is moving eligible models to Matter. The company has spent the past year adding Matter compatibility to select ceiling fans, and a list of compatible models is available on Hunter’s website. Firmware updates roll out through the HunterSMART app. According to Hunter, “Depending on your fan model and hardware configuration, a firmware update or updated hardware components may be required for Matter compatibility”. 9to5Google notes that one fan it reviewed in 2020 requires updated hardware, and the Android setup app “consistently crashes” when trying to reconnect Wi-Fi to check for an update.

Once a fan is Matter-enabled, it will not use the old cloud linking service. Owners will need to set it up directly in the Google Home or Alexa app through the Matter setup flow, instead of linking a HunterSMART account.