How many smartphone apps do you have just for controlling the devices in your home?
You probably have one for your lighting, your thermostat, and your home security system. Maybe one for your fridge, and another for your coffee machine and laundry machine. And of course, there's Amazon Alexa or Google Home.
It's no secret that the Internet of Things is a bit of a mess. It seems like every single business and brand that develops a smart home product is convinced that it needs a companion app — and most of them don't think much about whether or not said app plays nice with everything else. The problem is that many of the companies now responsible for manufacturing smart devices are in completely unfamiliar territory.
A company that makes kitchen appliances traditionally never had to understand application lifecycles. A light bulb manufacturer won't generally have a background in cybersecurity. A business that makes dishwashers and refrigerators isn't traditionally going to have a grasp of software development best practices.
Of course, these vendors could bring in third-party expertise to help them get things right. But many of them can't really be bothered. Because the thing about the smart home industry is that many of the businesses involved are in a perpetual state of 'rush to market.'
They want to get a working, attractive product in the hands of their audience before the competition can, and they'll cut plenty of corners to do so.
In a perfect world, smart home products would integrate seamlessly and intuitively with one another. Everything would be controllable via a single hub, and there'd be no need for encyclopedic user manuals, cumbersome account registration, or unnecessary smartphone apps. Unfortunately, due to what we described above, we don't live in a perfect world.
But smart home solution provider BroadLink has taken an important step in making that world possible. Its new smart home technology, NoApp, integrates directly with Google Home and Amazon Alexa to seamlessly onboard and configure new smart devices. And it does so without requiring you to install a single piece of software on your phone.
Through NoApp, BroadLink turns each new endpoint into its own wireless access point, creating a portal through which you can login with your phone. From there, all you need to do is enter your router's details and the device is configured, connected, and hooked in directly to your smart home hub. Better yet, as reported by BroadLink, other IoT device manufacturers have already shown a great deal of interest in NoApp.
NoApp is currently available on all 4th-generation BroadLink smart devices.
You can explore more of Broadlink's products here.
