The first purifier that makes maintaining your home’s air quality as intuitive as setting your thermostat.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Dear fellow air breather —
🚨 This is not a drill 🚨 ... We just found out that ...
Mila has been named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2021! 🏅
How amazing is that?! And of course, we had to share this breaking news with you — our Kickstarter fam and the Mil'iebers who helped us get to this point. We came on Kickstarter with the goal of building the world's best air purifier and two years later, that goal remains unchanged (we just had the incredible opportunity to make 3,636 new friends here on Kickstarter in the process 🤗 ).
So NOW, to celebrate this awesome news and spread the clean air — we're doing something extra: it's a big ol' discount party and y'all are invited.
Live it up with 15% off in our shop for all new Milas with the code YAYMILA at checkout. 🥳
And for our friends in the EU, Singapore and Hong Kong, prices are already discounted in Backerkit for you — no code needed. 😉
Then you can say you own multiples of one of the best inventions of 2021. Which, in a year when a life-saving vaccine was invented, is saying something. Enjoy!
xoxo —
The Mila Care Squad
Dear fellow air breathers —
We've missed you. ❤️ It's been a hot minute since our last update, and as we've gotten everyone's Milas home, you've probably noticed all the new skills your Milas have been learning these past few months. Last week, we released new firmware, this week we're announcing our latest app release and the debut of the Milabot 🤖 that makes Mila even more thoughtful and automagical. ✨
The 1.6 app release (and 1.3 firmware release) activates Mila's positronic brain to provide you with deeper insights into your home health. You can now find the latest version in the Google Play Store and the App Store. Take a walk through just some of the new things your Milabot can do.
A real-time feed updating you on what your Mila(s) are up to, and what they're sensing. And as you might have guessed, it's big on gifs and emojis. 🙂
🤖 Milabot Insights (Beta)
What good are sensors without some actionable takeaways? Start receiving meaningful insights about your home air quality, including a few tricks that Mila has learned in this latest release:
What's New in the 1.3 Firmware
In conjunction with the 1.6 app update, your Milas received a new 1.3 firmware. This includes an upgrade to the pairing logic, which allows Mila to now search for hidden networks and sort WiFi connections based on signal strength (a popular request particularly from our Kickstarter fam!)
It also adds the necessary support for the Milabot, and lays the foundation for some upcoming features releases including: Child Lock, Pollen Alerts, and Energy Save Mode to help reduce your Mila's energy footprint even more.
What's Next 🤫
What Mila's Learned
Mila's been busy learning new skills these last few months, and here's a look at just some of the highlights from our past updates ...
We know that while we're all e-mail BFFs now, many of you still are looking to connect with us here on Kickstarter (and we miss you!), so we'll be back with an update with each new release. And in the meantime, join our Facebook Group here (or if you want to connect in all the places, follow us on Instagram at @milaliving).
— The Mila Cares Squad
p.s. Looking to get another Mila for your own? 👀 Milas play well together, and get $20 off your next Mila Air Purifier with the code 2KDRGQ through March 6 (not valid for filters). And, if you're looking for filters — the filter store is now open (see here for US/Canada, and here for outside the US/Canada)
p.p.s. Need a hand with your Mila? Send an email to our Care Squad at [email protected]. ❤️
Dear fellow air breathers —
First, we hope you are all staying safe and well. With wildfire season coming earlier than ever on the West Coast (also Mila’s home base), we’re reminded of just how far-reaching the effects these fires can have, particularly on our air quality. So many of our Mila air breathers up and down the coast have shared their stories, and we’re humbled to have been able to help bring some clarity to your indoor air quality and the air you breathe under these smoky skies.
Here’s just a few notes that you have shared with us:
And some others that had us ROFL :) Some of you Mil'ebers crack us up. ❤️
Beyond that, thanks to the 600+ of you who have shared feedback, tips and suggestions as Mila settles into your homes. As you probably know by now, we’re big fans of specificity (and sharing — some may call it oversharing 😉) and we wanted to give a quick recap of the feedback we’ve heard from you so far:
Most of you have (more than 76%) had five-star delivery experiences, which we’re glad to hear! We’re continuing to work with our regional shipping partners to improve the experience, and have recently transitioned to a new shipper within the US. The biggest areas we’ve heard for improvement were around (1) having tracking numbers available sooner and (2) having extra filters ship together with your Mila.
We are making improvements internally and with our partners on both fronts, grown our operations team, and hope to have a more streamlined process for those cases where tracking numbers may have gone out later than we would have liked. On the second point, due to the size of the Milas, while we do our best to have boxes ship together, there may be instances where they will still be delivered separately.
We love all the love for the Mila box — and all the creative uses for it from building Mila forts to upcycling/recycling for holiday gift wrapping. We’re also glad more than a few of you noticed and appreciated our efforts to save on paper with in-flap instructions :)
Most of you have found the on-screen experience to be intuitive, which is 👍. The biggest ask is for some work around keeping curious fingers and paws outside of Diagnostics Mode :) We've made some changes to make it harder to enter into Diagnostics Mode, which you'll see in a firmware update in the next two weeks.
Another concern we’ve seen is the cricket noise that about 6% of you have reported on — which is far more than where we would like to be. We’ve isolated the issue to a power supply that was susceptible to failure if it was bonked around hard during shipping. The route from the factory to the container to sea freight is very secure and designed to specifically safeguard against this, so we think there may be something happening in that last mile with boxes getting bonked around in the back of a truck. We are addressing this in a two fold way: 1) we are actively working with our shipping partners to see how we can have carriers handle these with more care and 2) we are working with the factory to replace the power supply with a stronger unit that’s less susceptible to this type of shock.
You also shared feedback on the ability to rename a room without having to go through the pairing process again — this is something we’re working on introducing in a future app update. This also means having the ability to set individual settings for each Mila, so be on the lookout for that!
You all had lots of thoughtful feedback to share here :) The biggest issue we’ve seen in this area was around connectivity, which we’ve been working hard to beef up in the last month. In the early weeks, we were seeing a record number of Milas coming online for the first time, which was putting significant stress on our servers. We’ve since increased our server capacity by more than ten fold, and you should now be seeing a much smoother in-app experience.
Other feedback you shared:
All good feedback that we have either implemented or are in the process of implementing in an upcoming update.
Overall, most of you have already noticed a change in your air, and just as importantly, have learned more about your indoor air quality. We have truly enjoyed reading every single note you’ve sent us and are actively incorporating that within the different parts of the Mila-verse. Your favorite modes have been Sleep, Housekeeping, and Quiet.
We have now shipped out 94.5% of all rewards from Kickstarter, with the remaining 5.5% coming your way as part of the second batch shortly. Here is an update on where we stand on this globally:
As we deliver these final units, we just wanted to also take a moment to say “thank you” to everyone who has written in and contributed to the campaign — as we move forward, we’ll be consolidating our communication channels (and you’ll continue to see more from us on this front!) with two main areas right now:
Thank you for being a part of this journey —
The Mila Team
p.s. interested in getting another Mila or spreading the love? Check out the *new* Mila website over at https://www.milacares.com.
p.p.s. want first dibs on the latest and greatest on Kickstarter? Our friends at Jellop curate a weekly newsletter sharing early access to projects, straight to your inbox. Check it out here.
Dear fellow air breathers —
It’s been a crazy first week here on the Mila Mothership! Our Mila Cares Squad has been working around the clock to get 500 Milas a day settled in at their new homes.
We are loving all the notes, thoughtful feedback and 🤗 we’ve been getting from backers on how Mila has helped keep that air so fresh and so clean. 🍃 We feel the ❤️.
As more of you get settled in over the next couple weeks, we wanted to share some helpful tips and answers to some of your most frequently asked questions and give an update on shipping.
Batch 1: for those who finalized their Backerkit survey before April 30
Batch 2: for those who finalized their Backerkit survey after April 30
If you finalized your Backerkit survey after April 30, you'll be part of the next batch out, which will be leaving Mila's factories in China next week (week of August 24). From there, it'll be about a month to land in their respective ports, and we'll be back with more updates come time. If you need to change your address, please feel free to do so in Backerkit at https://mila.backerkit.com. Addresses will remain open until it's closer to shipping.
Please note that your filter is pre-installed in Mila itself. Please make sure to remove the plastic wrap from your filter before use (otherwise, it'll make some funny noises). Your Mila also comes with a quick start guide and handy instructions on the flaps of your Mila box (we're all about doing right by the environment and saving trees and minimizing waste) — in case you need it, you can find a digital copy of it here.
You may also experience a smell of "freshness" during the first few days of using your Mila; while we try to prevent any of that "new purifier" smell it can be present if you have a finely tuned nose. This will normally dissipate in a few days.
Your CO2 and CO sensors require a 48hr "burn-in" time, and your VOC sensor will take about 20 minutes to settle in. During this period they can act wonky. In the app (v. 1.0.1 and up), we have placed labels on these sensors values during that calibration period. This will automatically be cleared once it’s finished.
On your Mila screen itself you should NOT be seeing any CO and CO2 alerts for the first 48 hours. And you should not see any VOC alerts for first 20mins after it boots up.
If you are seeing either of these we suspect your device did not get the 1.0.1 firmware update when it first booted up. You can check which version you have on the boot up “Hi” screen in the bottom corner.
You can set your Bedtime Schedule under "Profile" in your app. Note that this ONLY works if you have your Mila set in a bedroom type room (e.g., Master Bedroom, Guest Room, Kids' Room). It will not work in other room types such as Living Room, Home Office, etc. Associated Automagic settings tied to the Bedtime Schedule include: Whitenoise, Sleep, Turndown Service.
Yes! Even if you're offline, your Mila is still working in the background to keep your air fresh and clean. You can always control Mila from the buttons on the on-screen display (+ , - , o) to switch between Automagic and Manual Modes and adjust fan speed when in Manual Mode.
With all the new Milas onboarding at once, the servers back on the Mila Mothership are experiencing extremely high loads and processing over 4,000,000 commands per hour. This has caused some latency and outages in this first week — we've made some major improvements over the past few days, with more to come. Please see below some tips and notes to help you get online (pro tip: even if your Mila is "offline" for a short period of time, know that it's still working hard in the background. You can still adjust your Mila using the on-display controls. Mila does not require WiFi to operate (it just is more automagical with it :))
Get the latest scoop on the Mila Mothership status at http://status.milacares.com 👀
Please see below a handy 15-point guide to get you set up if you're experiencing any pairing issues.
1. Delete your Mila(s) from the app by scrolling to the bottom of the room page and clicking “delete this device”
2. Log out/in of your app
3. Reboot your Mila by turning off/on the switch in the back.
4. Open your Mila app and press the + button in the middle of the dashboard to add a new Mila.
5. Make sure the Mila is powered on, and finished with its initial "Calibration Phase." Press and hold the “O” menu button in the middle of the Mila display until your hear it beep and a “Ready To Connect” a screen pops up.
6.Then, press “Join Mila Air Purifier” when it pops up on your app. Make sure you wait for the loading "spinner" to finish before you press the green "Next" button. (Note: If you see an error "Failed to connect to Wifi AP" it means you didn't press the O menu button on your Mila display to put your Mila into pairing mode. In some cases, you may also need to manually select the "Mila Air Purifier" network from your WiFi networks.)
7. Next, you will be asked to choose a room where to place your Mila. (Note: If you don't see a list of rooms, it means your phone is older and has a tiny screen 😉 But, Mila loves all phones equally so we are releasing an update soon that will improve things for the tiny phone display folk.)
8. In the next screen it will ask you to “Connect to Wifi.” You will see a list of all WiFi networks your Mila can see. Click on your home network name. If you don't see any networks listed here, then place your Mila closer to your base station during the setup process. (Note: Mila can only connect to 2.4ghz wifi networks, so make sure that is active if you have a dual band network).
9. Now type your WiFi password - carefully :) Important: after you enter your password make sure you hear the tri-tone “happy beep” indicating your password was correct. If you hear a flat-tone single “sad beep," it means your password was incorrect.
(This is important because there is a scenario when using an iPhone where you could enter your password incorrectly, you will hear the sad tone from Mila meaning it failed, but ... your App will still show you a success screen. It's related to an iOS security restriction.)
10. Follow the remaining steps to finish pairing. You will hear another tri-tone happy beep once you press "Finished".
11. After this, wait up to ~1-2 mins for a single beep. This indicates your Mila has successfully connected with the Mila Mothership.
12. Then wait to see your Outdoor AQI on your Mila display go from “--” to the correct number. This may take a few minutes after you hear it beep.
13. If your Mila has not updated to the 1.01 firmware yet, you may soon see your screen say “Firmware Update” and then hear a single beep, followed by your Mila rebooting. This means it successfully updated to the 1.0.1 firmware. You can check by rebooting your Mila again and looking at the lower right corner of the your "Hi" boot screen.
14. Now check your app to see if its showing your Mila as online. This may take 15-30 mins if the servers are experiencing a high volume of activity from a lot of Milas onboarding at once. You can hard reset your app every few minutes to force it to refresh quicker.
15. Once your Mila shows up online you are all set! 🥳 Remember we will continue to have some latency and wonkiness in the app until we finish our upgrades to handle the heavy loads from a lot of Milas onboarding each day. You can check in on the status of Mila's services at https://status.milacares.com.
No problem! Please send us a note at [email protected] and someone from our Mila Care Squad will take care of you. Please try to note which step you got stuck on (screenshots and pictures are super helpful!) so we can zero in on the potential issue. Please note that the Mila Cares Crew is currently working through a large number of inquiries at the moment and will get back to you as quickly as possible.
Thanks again for welcoming Mila home to keep your air fresh and clean. 🍃
— The Mila Team