2016: Biggest (Year for) Smart Home Yet

Smart home, connected home, Internet-of-things, digital home, thoughtful home, this varying collection of terms (I personally prefer the term “smart home” when talking about this category, so that’s the term I’m going to use in this post) matches the disparate technologies, platforms, and protocols that make up the market. So far the smart home has felt a bit incomplete and out of reach.

The smart home industry / technology trend seems to be suffering from a couple of symptoms: awareness and education of consumers; and creating a unified, singular smart home experience. These reasons may be why Brad Ward of TechRadar had this to say in a recent smart home article,

“[HomeKit] (Read: smart home) is rather useful, but as of right now, it’s really only appealing to technology enthusiasts.” and “There’s also the aspect that consumers don’t see a need for smart home components yet. They don’t see how it will truly benefit their lives.” (Brad Ward, TechRadar)

I get what Brad is saying in these quotes, and I agree and disagree.

I think that everyone can appreciate the simplicity of saying, “good night,” to their smart phone and automatically have it turn off all of their lights, turn off their Christmas tree, lock their doors, turn down the temperature of their house, and put their smart cameras in “high alert mode,” all with two words! It’s that kind of simplicty and convenience that have made the Harmony Remotes so popular. The smart home’s bigger problem, at the moment, has to do with creating that simplicity.

Want to lock your doors? Turn off the lights? Check the video feed from your connected camera? Change the temperature in the house? Start playing music? Well, you can do those things. Just. One. At. A. Time. Load the August app to check the status of your front door, and lock or unlock it. Want to turn off your lights outside? Open up the Philips Hue app. Want to see that all is well outside your home? Time to open up the Arlo app. Sleeping at cooler temperatures is not only energy efficient but it’s also supposed to be good for your health as well. That double-whammy of benefits is going to require yet another opened app. Go ahead and open the Nest app to check and adjust the thermostat(s). If you’re one of the many people who have a hard time falling asleep at night, perhaps you’ve decided to try using nature sounds to help put you to sleep. Then it’s time to fire up the Sonos app.

Five different tasks, five different apps, five different steps just to get ready for bed. And yes, there are some trigger-and-action integrations and automation out there, but it’s all too cumbersome and/or limiting for someone who’s not a “technology enthusiast.”

So why will 2016 be the biggest year yet for the smart home? Why do I believe that 2016 will be for smart home, what 2015 was for wearables?

In this last quarter of 2015, we’ve seen new products enter the space, as well as new models of existing product lines, hit the shelf. We’ve seen new devices like Ring and dbell which are both connected doorbells. Smart home golden child, Nest, launched three new updated models of their existing product line: the much-improved Nest Cam, 2nd generation Nest Protect, and the 3rd generation Nest Thermostat.

Recently, we’ve also seen Withings launch a new app for the fourth generation Apple TV, which allows users to view the streams of up to four of your Withings Home cameras. I expect that many more smart home companies, specifically those with smart camera products, will follow suit in 2016.

In 2016, we will see the release of several new HomeKit-enabled products from August, including: HomeKit-enabled Smart Lock, Doorbell Cam, and Smart Keypad. On the non-HomeKit front, we will see release of products like Arlo Q, a connected indoor security camera with two-way audio and seven days of free cloud storage for recorded video clips. We will also see a new (partnered) product launch from Nest.

In 2016, we will finally have, in my opinion, enough products available in arguably the two major ecosystems, to offer real, tangible benefits for consumers. Let’s take a look, for Apple’s HomeKit, you’ll have: smart lights, smart thermostats, and smart locks (there’s more but these are the ones that the average, non “technology enthusiast”, person will really care about). In the Nest ecosystem, you’ll have: smart lights, a smart thermostat, a smart camera, and finally smart locks. The importance here, isn’t that these products are available in these ecosystems. The importance here is that these options will be available with tight integrations and will be easily accessible through, a single app, or a set of voice commands.

Working with Apple’s smart home platform also means [August] Smart Lock can be a part of commands like “Goodnight” that turn off connected lights, lock the front door, and lower the temperature. (Zac Hall, 9to5Mac)

Instead of the disparate collection of products, each with their own app, that you have to operate and control seperately for key functionality, we will finally see a simpler, more cohesive, smarter, smart home. I believe this is what “technology enthusiasts” have been wishing for, and what consumers have been ultimately waiting for, before embracing the idea of a smart home. I can’t wait for what 2016 brings home (pun intended) and we’re celebrating the start of 2017 like, “hello from the other siiiide!”