The Best Smart Home Devices for 2019

Who doesn’t like a cool home like Tony Stark (Ironman)?

If the entire world is at your fingertips; why not your own home?

Home automation has been a dream for each one of us at some point in time. But smart home devices are not just for the rich anymore. Due to modern technological advancements, this amenity can be relished by anyone. No need to get out of the car every time to open the garage door or start an expedition in search of numerous remotes for your entertainment panel. All of this can be done with a single smart home app on your phone.

Home Automation has become more than some parlor tricks that your rich friend used to show off. You can control virtually infinite appliances with a single app. Just choose the room and then select from all the IoT integrated appliances in that room. Then you get the list of actions you can perform from your smart home app. Companies are working to integrate apps with voice-enabled technologies like Cortana, Alexa, and Siri right now. So next time you wanna take a hot bath just tell Alexa to heat the water.

Enough of claims, now let’s get down to facts.

Stats on Smart Home Industry

· The global Smart Home Automation market has increased 250% from 2017 to 2019.

· The predicted valuation of Smart Home Market will reach $53 billion by 2022.

· Just the Smart home Security market will reach $22 billion by 2021.

· In 2018, 41 million Smart Home devices were shipped just in the US.

· By the next decade, all the IoT devices are expected to triple in number.

(Source: Statista)

Top 5 Smart Home Devices for 2019

The Smart home systems are the set of devices that are designed to automate processes that previously needed humanitarian assistance. These smart devices can be used for various purposes ranging from convenience, security, entertainment, business, and much more.

1. Controllers and Hubs

You’ve seen these connected home devices many times. It’s probably the most trending set of smart home devices. They are the only IoT platform devices that are connected to all the other smart devices in the house. The hottest and most famous controllers and hubs are Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomePod. There are many various functions that a controller offers but the main feature is to control all the other smart home devices.

Google Home and Amazon Alexa are going neck to neck in this industry with their respective smart speakers, trying to outdo each other with every new update. With new skills and commands being added every day, these smart home speakers can access more and more number of devices and make them do almost every task remotely.

Industry Leading Products:

· Amazon Alexa Speakers

· Google Home Speakers

· Apple HomePod

· Sonos One

· Google Home Hub Tablet

· Amazon Echo Show Tablet

2. Home Security

With the world going digital there is a greater need to focus on security. The attackers and thieves are getting smarter and their tools more advanced so homes need to upgrade their security too. Many times people forget to lock their front door and accidents happen, but with new IoT based locks, you can lock the doors remotely from not just any room of your home but anywhere in the world. This was just one example of how recent smart home devices can improve security.

Various devices like front door cameras, doorbells, door speakers, window sensors, etc can be connected to a mainframe using IoT which can alert the homeowner about a possible break-in and alert authorities in time. One danger that these future IoT devices face is from hackers. So these devices should be developed such that they can withstand any cyber attacks. Introducing AI in the mix can help systems analyze user behavior pattern and report in case of any unusual activity.

Industry Leading Products:

· Danalock Bluetooth Z-lock

· Oplink Alarm Shield

· Belkin Wireless NetCam

· Chamberlain Garage Door Controller

· Schlage Door and Window Sensors

3. Heating and Cooling

Now that you are safe at your home thanks to smart home security devices, let’s make the home cozier for you. There is no need to get out of your bed to increase the thermostat, just install a Nest smart thermostat and control it from your smartphone. Install this smart thermostat and use it for a week and it will learn your routines and plan the whole day’s temperature according to your daily routine. Such smart thermostat proud themselves on saving energy and many of them show a report of how much energy you saved each day.

Not every room in homes is the same temperature. With smart sensors, the thermostat can understand the priority rooms and control each room temperature differently. Such smart thermostats also keep the homes secure. You’ll get an alert on your phone if the temperature is too low or high for an accident to occur.

Industry Leading Products:

· Nest Thermostat Series

· Ecobee Thermostat Series

· Honeywell Lyric Series

· iDevices Thermostat

4. Home Ambiance Control

Home ambiance control is the Recent Trend in Iot Devices. Philips Hue is the industry-leading standard for such Iot Technology Trend Devices. I’m sure many of you have seen a scene in a movie where the hero changes the whole ambiance of the room for the heroine with just a switch. Well, that is Ambiance control. You can set multiple smart devices to a particular mode for each command.

For instance, if you wish to have a romantic dinner with your partner, just set the lightings to dim and the speaker to play slow jazz music in the background, the AC to a cool condition. Now the next time you just have to give a command to set up a romantic dinner and all these actions will be performed simultaneously. There are a lot of things that you can do with Ambience control like setting up movie nights, playdates for kids, and much more.

Industry Leading Products:

· Philips Hue Lighting

· Nightingale Sound Machine

· Various Smart Speakers (Mentioned above)

5. Best Smart Home Plugs

The smart home features need a smart power source. So you need something more than the simple electric plugs. Enter Smart Plugs. What if you don’t have the budget to buy smart lighting or smart ACs, once again smart plugs can help you with this. These plugs are connected to your smartphone so whenever you wish to turn on a specific light in a room, just turn on its corresponding smart plug.

You can further make it smarter by adding motion sensors and contact sensors so that they can be accessed by gestures or simply your presence in the room. The latest Smart plugs have also been integrated with Siri and Alexa so that you can operate them with voice command.

Industry Leading Products:

· Belkin WeMo Mini Smart Plug

· iDevices Switch

· Lutron In-Wall Wireless Switches

Conclusion

The Smart Home Devices have come a long way in the last decade but all of these were also possible due to a silent stakeholder, Smart Home App Development. All the smart speakers respond to your searches and requests only because most of the big companies have integrated smart device compatibility to their app development process. If you own a business that can benefit from people asking for you using these speakers then you should think about integrating smart devices to your app.

The Best Smart Home Devices for 2019 was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.