As time and technology has progressed, there has been more cross platform integrations available. For instance, you may have seen “Works with Amazon Alexa” or “Apple HomeKit Compatible”. Depending on how you have your smart home equipment set up, may affect how best it would be to access and interact with your smart home. If you are interested in voice commands while you are at home, then Google Home or Amazon Alexa interactions may be the best options for you to investigate and consider. For interactions that are needed remotely from your smart phone, you may look into Apple HomeKit or Samsung SmartThings compatibility. There are plenty of other hub based smart home systems available. For me, I am most interested in the smart phone integrations for ease of use.
For those with the Apple smart phones and ecosystem, the HomeKit integrations are worth looking into for the ability to quickly access your smart home equipment. Not only does it show all of your compatible equipment in a quick interface but it can make use of your location as a way to trigger various actions. In addition, time scheduling and Siri interactions are very useful as well. There is an ever-growing list of HomeKit compatible brands to include some of the well known brands like Belkin, D-Link, Ecobee, Honeywell, Insteon, Kwikset, Phillips, Schlage, Sylvania, and many more. For those brands that aren’t listed as compatible yet and for advanced users, you may want to investigate HomeBridge as a Raspberry Pi application to act as a HomeKit bridge.
For those with the Samsung ecosystem, the Samsung SmartThings is very similar to the Apple HomeKit system. It offers many of the same features like time scheduling and custom automation actions. SmartThings also has their own line of sensors and equipment in addition to offering many integrations with other equipment brands like Bose, ADT Security Systems, Ring and CURB.
The speed at which the smart home is evolving opens the door for many more integrations in the future. Having a central hub appeals to me and many others as well. I hope you enjoyed this insight. Consider signing up for our email list for more resources and product information delivered straight to your inbox.
