June will immediately change its app interface to prevent smart ovens from turning on accidentally

Smart home appliance maker June is planning an immediate update to its iOS and Android apps to prevent users from accidentally turning on the company’s smart ovens. The updates don’t remove the ability to remotely preheat the oven, but they do put more button taps between opening the app and starting a preheat, which could help avoid accidents.

The Verge reported yesterday that a few June Oven owners experienced their ovens turning on overnight and preheating to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and higher without their knowledge. The company said the preheats were the result of user error — effectively people accidentally triggering their ovens without realizing it. The company planned two updates to address the issue, and it now says it’s moving up the timeline for those releases; the interface updates announced today are additional measures.

The company says the June app for iOS will no longer open to the “Oven” tab by default, which is where people can adjust their temperature and cook settings. Instead, it’ll open to a Cookbook tab. Also, when someone chooses to preheat their oven, a temperature and cook mode will need to be selected to start the preheat session, and two presets — one for roasting and one for baking — will be removed. The iOS app update has already been submitted to Apple. The Android app will also have those shortcuts removed and require modes to be selected before preheating, although it’s unclear whether the default screen is being changed. The Android update is being submitted to Google, according to a post on a private June Oven owners Facebook Group.

Both preventative updates will roll out on September 3rd, June says. One will give users the ability to disable the remote preheat option entirely, though remote preheats will still be on by default. The other update will allow the June Oven to turn off its heating elements after 30 minutes of inactivity. The oven will detect when there’s no food inside it, send users a notification that it’s going to turn off if no action is taken, and then power down. The company had initially planned to roll out the deactivation update next year.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/15/20807845/june-smart-oven-app-update-remote-preheat