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Best smart home automation systems in 2024
Add motion-triggered actions, home monitoring, and voice controls to your every morning, noon, and night
Do you remember the first time you saw a smart light respond to a voice command? You probably wanted to have one of these bulbs to call your own. We’re right there with you, but nowadays a simple on/off action by saying “Hey Google, turn the light on,” is home automation in its most simple form. These days, there are entire home automation systems that can control and manage all of your smart home devices, from cameras to lights, under one roof. You’ve probably heard of Google Assistant and Alexa, but these are just two automation tools among many others.
Add smarts to nearly any garage door with these super cheap accessories
With prices starting at $20, you won't want to miss out on these offers
If you’re looking to make your home smarter, you’ve likely purchased the basics, like robot vacuums and smart bulbs. You can take the smart home conversion one step further with a smart garage door opener. Not only is it convenient, but it can also enhance your home’s security and provide peace of mind. This is the best time to purchase one because October Prime Day is offering amazing discounts on some of the best models.
The best smart home apps for your Android phone
For those times when you don't want to say "Hey Google"
Smart home devices make our lives easier, but controlling several ecosystems can become difficult as the gadgets pile up. Setting up your smart home ecosystem can feel daunting as you try to make sense of all the devices and standards in your smart home setup. Each smart device has an app to control it, but using multiple apps to control various smart appliances in your home makes little sense.
This tiny translucent box can help you manage smart home devices on a budget
The software centralizes your devices in one go-to hub
Even if you didn’t intend on becoming reliant on a Ring doorbell or Google Nest Hub, these devices likely snuck their way into your home over time. Companies like Amazon and Google continue to give away these products as a part of promotions, and it’s hard to say no to the convenience of home automation. However, these devices rarely play well together, making them difficult to manage across an entire home. Worst of all, it can be a nightmare to track them across different apps on your mobile device. Home Assistant has resolved many of these pain points with its open-source home automation software, but people are often intimidated by its tech. This is where Home Assistant Green comes in, a new piece of hardware that can streamline device management without punishing your wallet.
Smart home devices bring convenience into our homes, making it easier to control devices remotely and bringing a new level of automation. The easiest way to make devices work with each other is to ensure they come from the same manufacturer or ecosystem. The new Matter protocol also makes it easier for various products to communicate with each other, breaking boundaries across brands. Still, not all products are compatible with Matter or each other. However, they may support IFTTT, making it easy for devices from various manufacturers to work with each other.
Google Home will let you share control with household routines
Device triggers also continue to roll out to more and more users
Big things are happening in Google's smart home ecosystem, starting with a revamped user interface for the Home app, which is still in the preview phase. Ahead of its widespread rollout, we saw the app extend the convenience of device triggers to some users last week. That feature is now making its way to even more Google Home users, alongside a new option for household routines.
A powerful new Google Home automation feature is starting to roll out earlier than expected
The feature was supposed to accompany the UI redesign
Earlier this month, the Google Home app started getting a redesign, accidentally spilling some details about the Pixel Tablet in the process. The new look for the app is still in the preview phase, but even before that's ready for the masses, we're already getting a handy new automation trick — the ability to use device triggers for Assistant routines.
The Samsung Galaxy SmartTags offer some slick home automation routines
SmartThings and a nearby Galaxy phone are a must, though
When Samsung launched the Galaxy SmartTags alongside the S21 series, the company teased that they could be used for home automation via the SmartThings app. Now that the S21 and the SmartTags are arriving at people's doorsteps, it becomes clear how exactly this automation works. Our own Max Weinbach went hands-on with the tags' smart home routine capabilities.
IFTTT resumes support for Tuya Smart Life and Wink, gains 22 other new services
It also lost compatibility with Seagate, Digg, and others
IFTTT is one of the most convenient ways to automate tasks at home by linking smart home devices and platforms together. The service is regularly updated with new additions and removals, and we just got our fair share of changes for the summer.
D-Link to drop IFTTT support for its smart home products
Smart plugs, sensors, sirens, and cameras won't be compatible with the popular platform after December
If you're using home automation devices from various brands, it can be hard to make them communicate with each other. Thankfully, IFTTT is an excellent way to automate tasks and create conditional triggers, regardless of your IoT products' brands. Unfortunately, D-Link is announcing its smart home products will no longer work with the platform this winter.
Android 11's long-press power menu might become a smart home control center (Update: DP2 video)
The power menu could become much more powerful
Read update
In Android 11, evidence has surfaced that Google might finally add quick wallet access to the long-press power menu, but it looks like the company has much more in store for this system feature. XDA Developers has discovered that the menu might be turned into a control center for home automation, letting you easily manage smart appliances in your house.
Google Assistant is branching out to more smart home devices at this year's CEDIA Expo in Denver. You've already been able to turn on ovens, cameras, HVAC units, washing machines, lighting rigs, entertainment systems, and a lot more. But for people looking to squeeze out some autumn grilling and for those using an automation hub, we've got some good news coming in.
Smart home gadgets are futuristic in the best way. With a robot sweeping your floors, lights that set themselves automatically, and a doorbell that can tell you who's ringing, you're practically living in The Jetsons. All that automation can cost a pretty penny, though — so thank goodness for Prime Day, when just about everything you can buy online gets a little (or a lot) cheaper.Here are all the deals we've spotted on home automation and security tech so far this Prime Day. If you're not seeing the price as we have it here, you may have to click a "view offer" button in the top-right corner of the listing.
There are a plethora of different home automation platforms like SmartThings, HomeKit, Wink, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and many more. Some of them play together nicely, but once you're mixing and matching, you're going to end up with a bunch of apps and hubs to control all of your devices, and some features just won't work with the provided software. Koushik Dutta (or Koush), the developer of beloved tools like ClockworkMod, has run into these limitations. To overcome his issues, he simply created a smart home hub himself that allows users and developers to script their own actions to interconnect their devices, similar to Tasker. Enter Scrypted.
Automation mega-app Tasker has a new update out, and it's a big one. The app, which recently changed hands, is now on v5.7, bringing new NFC, keyboard, and nav bar actions, amongst other things.
There's a reason why IFTTT's the most popular automation platform out there, and that's the incredible amount of services it supports. Since we last covered IFTTT additions back in September, 16 new services have been added to the support list. Highlights include Logitech Circle, Legrand, and Roost.
Sonos is a well-established player in the multi-room audio space with a reputation for exceptional sound, but its products haven't always played nice with other services. The walled garden approach doesn't appear to have had much of a negative impact, but even so, the company is starting to get with the times and partner with other platforms to improve the experience for users. This latest integration will be the icing on the cake for many.
Automation services like IFTTT are great, but are only useful so far as they support the devices and platforms you're interested in. With hundreds of such options already lined up, IFTTT has a pretty darn solid library of compatibility, but just because it's already so big doesn't mean there's not room to grow. We've been keeping an eye out for all the new additions to the IFTTT support list, and we've got quite a few to share since we checked in with you last.
IFTTT (if this, then that) is an expansive, free automation platform that helps users connect apps, services, and devices. The possibilities are aplenty, and now there are 10 new channels open for use. Most are related to controlling and setting triggers for smart lighting, security, and energy systems at home.
As we get REALLY close to Google I/O, we're getting a rollout of the latest Google Home app. Like everything lately, we're not seeing much in the way of UI changes, though support for Ice Cream Sandwich is going away. However, there are some big things to see in a teardown. We've got signs of a remote control feature that works with various home automation features, lots of stuff happening with captions, and two new tabs for navigation.