Everything you need to know about Smart Home: ecosystems, tips and more

These logos guarantee a basic level of support. You can connect to the appropriate ecosystem and control the gadget with your voice. Of course, the support of an ecosystem does not mean the same thing for every product. One empty robot should simply be able to start and stop the help of voice commands, another can be told to clean a specific room or work until a certain time. Always look at the list of commands or user feedback to get the full picture of what’s possible.

You’ll find third-party smart home devices with integrated voice assistants. There is a separate “Alexa integrated” logo which allows you to talk directly to Alexa via your device. The equivalent of Google is just the “Google Assistant” logo. The Sonos Beam sound bar It’s an example of a device that has Google Assistant and Alexa inside, so you can talk directly like Nest or Echo speakers. Siri is only available on Apple-made devices, but will soon be available on third-party devices.

The lack of common standards has hindered the smart home scene for many years. Things are starting to change, but it’s still confusing. Different wireless standards connect your smart-home devices from behind. The two most popular examples are ZigBee (used by Philips Hue, Logitech, LG and Samsung) and Z-Wave (used by Honeywell, GE and Samsung).

The thread is a newer standard (used by Apple, Google, and Nanoleaf) that creates a wireless network without the need for a hub. Then there are Bluetooth and Bluetooth LE (low power). This is by no means an accurate list, as there are many other standards out there.

For the most part, these technologies are irrelevant because you can use a mixture in your home. It is up to device manufacturers to choose which of the three main ecosystems they want to be (if not all), regardless of the underlying technology.

But that’s where Matter comes in. It’s a fairly new standard for wireless interoperability. The goal is to make all smart home devices work safely, reliably and smoothly. There are more than 170 companies on board, including Google, Amazon, Apple, Samsung and the ZigBee Alliance. They are yet to determine how the matter will work, but it should act as a mediator in cutting standards and ecosystems so that everything can play out well. With matter, a smart Google Nest Hub screen can display a video ringtone ring tone, for example. (Nowadays no play well.)

Although most new devices support Materia, many old devices will also be updated to support the new standard. In smart lighting, Philips Hue and Nanoleaf have confirmed that current and future devices support the standard. Google says that Matter Support will reach Nest devices and Android phones, making it easy to set up any device with the Google Home app.

Large smart home brands offer easy compatibility with major ecosystems. Philips Hue bulbs, for example, can be added directly from Google Home or Apple Home apps. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. Most devices require the use of at least one third-party application for initial setup and possibly configuration and control.

The setup guide that comes with all smart home devices usually directs you to download the wizard app as a first step. You may need to scan a QR code or enter a serial number, so make sure you do this before mounting anything or throwing anything away, as these codes often appear on the back or bottom of devices or in an instruction booklet.

Associating with the chosen ecosystem can be part of the configuration process, but this is not always the case. You’ll need to browse your Apple Home or Google Home settings to manually link your account. With Alexa, you will probably need to install the appropriate capability.