Yeah, but do people actually need home automation? Making it simpler/better will make it more viable for people that actually want it but it feels like the bulk of people think it’s a solution without a problem.
Need? No, of course not. But it simplifies an assortment of things and once Matter is more broadly adopted, setting things up fully local will be a massive improvement and future-proofing.
The big players are signaling that they are not making money on voice, so I’m expecting them to start charging or give up (typical Google answer).
A few of my use cases:
Litter robot is in error or offline state for 30 minutes, toggle power
Easing of light intensity and color as sun sets daily
Vacuum when we’re gone and it’s between allowed hours.
Return vacuum to hub when we return home
Turn on lights so vacuum can “see”
Improved environmental control because I have better presence detection using HA than Nest.
Turn off power for cable box if conditions are met (otherwise it’s nightly updates and reboot illuminate the bedroom at 3 AM.
I thought litter robot was great, unfortunately the larger of my two cats does not. Unfortunately he decided that he does not like them only AFTER we bought a second one, and AFTER the 90 day trial period expired.
Personally I think notification is the potential life changer most people don’t realize. Imagine an easy way to tell when the laundry is done without that godawful buzzer. Did I leave the stove on? Is there water in the basement? Is my fridge out or otherwise not leaping cool? What about my garage door? Is the hose running?
A house that can let you know when something is wrong would be huge. Today, a few techies can make that happen with sufficient time and effort. Matter can make that straightforward for everyone. My Mom could never understand Home Assistant or all the components, but she can act when the house tells her she left the oven on
I’ve gotten into it. There are a few automations I like, such as a single button to turn off all the lights when I go to bed. Or for the robot vacuum to clean when I leave the house.
Even with that, I could totally live without any of the smart stuff.
Want vs need is always blurry, but home automation can fall on the latter side of that continuum for a lot of people. Some people get super fancy with it, but I think most people would like being able to put lights on timers/control them based on events, have their HVAC do specific things on a schedule or when xyz events happen, etc.
Yeah, but do people actually need home automation? Making it simpler/better will make it more viable for people that actually want it but it feels like the bulk of people think it’s a solution without a problem.
Need? No, of course not. But it simplifies an assortment of things and once Matter is more broadly adopted, setting things up fully local will be a massive improvement and future-proofing.
The big players are signaling that they are not making money on voice, so I’m expecting them to start charging or give up (typical Google answer).
A few of my use cases:
I thought litter robot was great, unfortunately the larger of my two cats does not. Unfortunately he decided that he does not like them only AFTER we bought a second one, and AFTER the 90 day trial period expired.
Personally I think notification is the potential life changer most people don’t realize. Imagine an easy way to tell when the laundry is done without that godawful buzzer. Did I leave the stove on? Is there water in the basement? Is my fridge out or otherwise not leaping cool? What about my garage door? Is the hose running?
A house that can let you know when something is wrong would be huge. Today, a few techies can make that happen with sufficient time and effort. Matter can make that straightforward for everyone. My Mom could never understand Home Assistant or all the components, but she can act when the house tells her she left the oven on
I guess people don’t need it. But there are nice efficiency gains when automating certain parts of the home like heating or cooling.
I’ve gotten into it. There are a few automations I like, such as a single button to turn off all the lights when I go to bed. Or for the robot vacuum to clean when I leave the house.
Even with that, I could totally live without any of the smart stuff.
Want vs need is always blurry, but home automation can fall on the latter side of that continuum for a lot of people. Some people get super fancy with it, but I think most people would like being able to put lights on timers/control them based on events, have their HVAC do specific things on a schedule or when xyz events happen, etc.