Smart home

The phrase smart home refers to a hodge-podge of home automation products that require, or benefit from, internet connectivity. Such products exist for voice recognition, lighting, keyless door entry, security cameras, sensors (for temperature, motion, water, etc.), on/off switches, thermostats, TV's and streaming devices, smoke detectors, robotic vacuum cleaners, lawn watering systems, and many more. What makes such devices "smart" in this case means there is wireless control and monitoring with (sometimes) internet access, whether the device is powered by the electrical grid or by battery. Smart devices contain tiny microprocessors and some kind of radio for wireless communications. Collectively, all the smart home devices in one home make up what is called the Internet of Things (IoT) for a given consumer. Today, homes may contain dozens or even hundreds of such devices, and consumers may enjoy their benefits while knowing little about how they work, or even realizing that they are present.

Requires Wi-Fi and a smartphone or tablet

Home Wi-Fi and a smartphone or tablet are required for use of smart home technology. At present, consumers must make sure that the smart device they wish to use is specified to be compatible whichever phone/tablet operating system they use (Apple vs. Android).

Not all home automation is "smart home"

Many wireless and automated devices in the home do not require either Wi-Fi or a smart phone, never require internet access, and are not considered to be "smart home" devices because they do not form a part of the Internet of Things (Iot). Examples are a wireless doorbell, a battery-operated wildlife camera with Bluetooth file transfer to a computer, a programmable thermostat that is programmed on the device itself and does not require Wi-Fi, keyless car entry, and garage door openers. Such devices may have microprocessors and radios in them, but they have no internet connections and no need for a logon account. However, they may still have very serious security risks associated with them, as their control signals can be hijacked by bad actors with the right radio signaling technology available, or simply by getting hands on the remote control. Garage door openers are of particular note in this regard.

Modern automobiles, in fact, are full of automation similar to the above devices, and cars are hackable by bad actors in a number of way. See Wikipedia's Automotive hacking article for more infromation.

A jungle of incompatible and competing products

Since there were no standards originally, by 2015 a jungle of competing methods for networking, control and monitoring had grown up. Consumers often had to buy special hubs specific to one vendor to use that vendor's products, and products were not often interoperable. Most vendors did make sure there products could be reached by smart speakers by Amazon, Google, Apple or Samsung, but consumers usually also need to open a different app on their smart phone or tablet in order to control devices by each manufacturer. This meant that a consumer would become "locked in" to one company, making it expensive and awkward to add similar devices from another company.

Serious security concerns have arisen

Security for smart home products has, in the past, been uneven and sometimes non-existent. Smart thermostats which can monitor whether a home's occupants are present or not, locks which open front or back doors, and many other smart home devices can present very real dangers if hackers can access them. The emerging standards seek to assure that compliant products provide a minimum level of privacy and security.

Matter, emerging standard as of 2023: Secure, reliable, and interoperable

About ten years ago, industry consortiums formed to work on standards for smart home device communications, and their underlying wireless communications, which would make it possible for products from all vendors to work together seamlessly and provide fast performance, privacy, and security and would work even if there is not connection to the outside internet (i.e., no connection to "the cloud" or to servers). This resulted in a new standard, called Matter whose first version was finalized in Sept. 2022 and emerging in the marketplace during 2023. Most major vendors have committed to adhering to the basics of the emerging standard within a few years. Another important, emerging standard for smart home devices is Thread, which specifies how the wireless communications among smart home devices will work when using the Matter standard.