Bottom line: Amazon is notifying Cloud Cam users via email that it will stop supporting the device later this year as the company transitions to newer home security solutions. Although Amazon is offering impacted customers free upgrades, killing a product still raises e-waste concerns.
Amazon confirmed last week that it will end online services for the Cloud Cam and Cloud Cam Key Edition on December 2. After that deadline, the cameras and their companion app won't function. Amazon will delete all camera recordings, but will let users back them up before December.
Amazon introduced the Cloud Cam in 2017 as a way to keep watch inside homes from anywhere through a mobile app. The Key Edition worked with its namesake service to ensure safe Amazon deliveries. Since then, the company shifted to newer smart home devices like its Amazon Echo and Blink camera, which it's offering to Cloud Cam users for free.
Before December 2, Amazon will send Cloud Cam users instructions for redeeming a complimentary Blink Mini---which has similar functionality---along with a free year of the new device's subscription plan.
Cloud Cam Key Edition owners can get a free 4th generation Echo smart speaker. Unfortunately, they'll lose interoperability with Amazon Key, which now only supports Amazon's Ring Indoor Cam, Ring Stick Up Cam, and myQ Smart Garage Camera.
Due to their reliance on Amazon's servers, after December the older cameras will essentially become another obsolete paperweight. The company would do well to let users turn them in for recycling.