Smart Homes are Getting Smarter

It may well go down in smart homes history as “The Alexa Effect.” Amazon’s Echo and Dot unquestionably caught the imagination of homeowners around the world. Last year, it was estimated that more than 100 million devices had been sold. Google hasn’t done too badly with Home, either.

Echo/Alexa opened homeowners’ eyes to a previously unknown world of possibilities: sitting on your couch and turning the lights down, the TV on, and the heating up, as well as countless trivial, but entertaining, other things that the device was capable of doing. There’s also been explosive – and, for many, intriguing – growth in the number of connectable home devices available, from refrigerators to washing machines, doorbells to security cameras, and thermostats to garden sprinklers.

The problem for many