A smart home for the real world…
Nest recently introduced family accounts to let users add family members to their accounts and share their connected services. Before that, you would have to share your username and password to give Nest access to others — which is common with most Smart Home applications.
It makes you think — why are we designing the smart home for just one person when your home really is for your family?
I’m not the only person in my house that turns on the lights, locks the doors, turns down the thermostat, sets the alarm. Why are applications designed to behave differently compared to my real life? The best applications are ones that capture the essence of real world experiences and then build on them.
Getting back to my real-life home experience:
- Lights — Everyone in the family has the ability to turn them on/off
- Thermostat — The thermostat is a little bit higher so my wife and I can adjust the temperature, but not my kids
- Locks — Only people with a key can open my door, and I need to give them a key
- Security Alarm — Only people with my pin code can set or unset the alarm
For a truly great smart home experience, you need to be aware of how the whole home operates in the context of a family. You need an experience that gives you the ability to share your smart things with others and also give you the control to not share certain things as well.
I like that Nest supports sharing to others, the downside is that I’m forced to share everything — my real world doesn’t really work that way. I may want to give access to the thermostat, but not my Nest Cam or my front door. I’m also stuck to whatever Nest integrates with — what about things that don’t work with Nest or other connected thermostats?
At Myknock, our goal is to make your connected life better for you, and your family. Unify all of your connected things, have the ability to share them with your family and control what you share.
Share with your family and control what you share.
With Myknock, I can easily share access to my thermostat and door locks with my wife but not my kids. I can give my kids (and everyone else) access to the Hue Lights, our shared family photo album and my location.
Add a variety of Things
Myknock doesn’t limit you to Nest products — you can add a variety of Things including other smart thermostats like Honeywell Lyric along with the other products mentioned above.
The Internet of Things is past the point of being that cool factor for the tech-savvy early adopter, it’s now here for everyone. It’s time to start building the experience with everyone in mind.
