Earzz review: AI-powered gadget alerts you to doorbells, alarms, crying babies and more

Earzz: One-minute review

The Earzz sensor uses a microphone, smartphone app and AI to alert you to specific sounds, from a baby crying or a dog barking, to a doorbell, the beep of an appliance or broken glass. The result of a successful Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign, the Earzz is designed as much for the smart home (with IFTTT integration) as it is for helping carers respond to dependants and their needs in a reliable but anonymous way.

It offers around eight hours of battery life, so for most use cases you’re best leaving it plugged in with the included USB-C cable. You can set the Earzz to listen out for up to six of the 20-or-so available sounds. Phone notifications come through quickly, often in just a couple of seconds, and the app keeps a record of every time the device is triggered.

Imagination is key to getting the most out of Earzz. It can buzz your phone when there’s someone at the door, or let a care home worker know when a resident might have fallen. Add IFTTT integration and the Earzz could flash a smart light when your washing machine is finished.

The hardware is pretty basic, but it feels well made. It’s simple to set up and use, and there’s plenty of functionality to be explored. However, it doesn’t always perform as well as I'd hoped, and cannot always be relied upon to deliver accurate alerts promptly. A work-in-progress for now, but the AI will surely improve with training.

Earzz: Price and availability

• How much is it? £79.99 (about $100), plus subscription
• When is it available? Available now
• Where is it available? In the UK, with shipping to US available

At £79.99, or about $100, the Earzz isn't cheap, especially when you factor in the subscription; the company advertises this as £7.99 a month but it's billed at £95.88 annually (about $120). The high costs means this perhaps isn't the sort of gadget you'd buy on a whim to experiment with in your smart home.

Instead, it's aimed at people who are perhaps hard of hearing and need a way of being notified about things such as knocks at the door or a smoke alarm. Naturally, there's a lot of value in such a product, but the high price means casual smart home fans might think twice.

Earzz: Specs

Should I buy Earzz?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How I tested Earzz

• I lived with Earzz for a couple of weeks
• I tried out almost all of the 20 different sound alerts
• I connected the Earzz to my IFTTT account

I created an Earzz account and connected the device to my Wi-Fi network. I then went about testing the Earzz using a variety of real and recorded sounds. This included my intercom buzzer and washing machine; but, unfortunately, the Earzz failed to recognise either. To help things along, I sent a recording of my buzzer to the Earzz team, which added it to their sound catalog. It now works perfectly, but I appreciate this isn't the sort of service a regular customer can expect.

In better news, it responded quickly to two different smoke alarms and a carbon monoxide monitor. It also worked well with IFTTT, and it was easy to create a routine where my Hue lights turn on when the door buzzer is rung.

The app lets users provide feedback for every sound the Earzz hears. I dutifully did this, telling the app what it got right and, more importantly, when it got things wrong, and what the sound should have been. This should help the AI improve over time.

I also played a range of doorbell sounds and dog barks from a computer. These were mostly recognised – but, sometimes, the notifications arrived slowly. I’m told Wi-Fi strength is a factor here, but since the app claimed the Earzz never had more than around 65% signal strength, even when right next to a router or network extender, I couldn’t improve this.