The best thing about smart homes is that you don’t have to be particularly smart to use them – despite what’s happening behind the scenes
There’s a lot you can do to micro-manage a smart ecosystem. In future issues we’ll likely dive into hass.io, the DIY home assistant that takes complexity to a new level. But what if you don’t care about every tiny thing? That’s fine! You don’t need to.
I know my personal setup is one of those ‘it just works’ arrangements. It’s a busy one, as you’d imagine in this line of work, and while I vaguely have an idea about what protocols are driving which devices – and I certainly know what’s HomeKit and what isn’t, given the extra control offered by Apple’s Home app – I could get away with not knowing. That’s not to say it doesn’t matter, of course. It helps to know your Zigbees from your Z-Waves, particularly if you’re consolidating multiple pieces of kit into a single app. But really? If it works, it works, and that’s what’s important.