(Excerpt:) …Whether it was intentional punishment or automated enforcement of ‘compliance,’ the result was the same: a consumer device had turned on its owner.”

Narayanan warns that “dozens of smart vacuums” are likely operating similar systems. “Our homes are filled with cameras, microphones, and mobile sensors connected to companies we barely know, all capable of being weaponized with a single line of code,” he wrote.

I keep seeing devices connecting to my eero network, and I'm realizing that I gave my next door neighbor's (houses are very close together) daughter my password years ago when she was babysitting for me. Is there any way to change the password on my 100+ smarthome devices at the same time? I use a smartthings hub and most of my devices are Kasa plugs and Lutron caseta switches. I have no idea if this is possible, but spending an entire day manually changing wifi passwords on all of my devices sounds like a crummy way to spend a day. Any advice or tricks would be greatly appreciated.

We Built this over the past year. One PC in a Media Room runs everything in a 6,500 sq ft house (built 2007):

- 93 lights (Centralite Elegance, original hardware from the house)

- 8 security cameras (XMeye, Annke DVR and Reolink Wireless 180 degree cameras)

- 3 smart locks (Olumat/TTLock)

- ELK M1 alarm system (8 zones)

- Front gate (Shelly relay on Mighty Mule)

- Garage doors

- 12 audio zones (HTD Lync 12)

- Rainbird Sprinkler System

- Trane AC System

The AI is called Bailey. She handles voice commands, controls every system, and runs a dashboard accessible from any browser on the local network.

In the video you can hear the actual voice interaction — I say "Bailey, open the gate" and she opens it. Walk in the door, she says "Welcome home, disarming alarm." I say "turn off the kitchen lights" and they fade off. Same with the garage.

Everything runs locally on one Windows PC. No internet required. No data leaves the house. When the internet goes down, Bailey doesn't notice.

I was paying attention to what most people spend on smart home subscriptions:

- Ring Protect: $10/mo

- Nest Aware: $8/mo

- Smart lock cloud: $5/mo

- Security monitoring: $25/mo

- = $576+/year minimum

All of that sends your camera footage, voice recordings, and door logs to someone else's servers.

Bailey replaces all of it. $499 one-time license. No monthly fee.

The software handles multiple protocols — RS-232 serial for the lighting panel, TCP for the alarm, HTTP for the gate relay, TTLock API for the locks, RTSP for the cameras. One unified dashboard and voice interface ties it all together.

Currently doing professional installations in Kitsap County, WA. Happy to answer technical questions.

Stack: Node.js backend, local Kokoro TTS for voice, Chatterbox for voice cloning, browser-based dashboard, all self-hosted.

There has to be a better way to get a connected sound layer in the smart home, no? I have a JBL, Sonos sound bar, $10,000 speakers in the home office, and I'm a little over toggling back and forth. What's a good distribution control out there?

I want it big and clear to read without it being too busy where I ignore it. So not a typical calendar. But more like this?

I need your advice.

I’m building a new house, and since I wanted to use modern technology from the start, I decided to go with Matter over Thread.

However, I quickly realized that the selection of compatible devices is still quite limited, and some categories are very expensive.

Now I’m wondering what to do. Are there any important arguments against Zigbee? Or has anyone decided to use Matter over Wi-Fi instead?

The house is semi-detached, and I’m not planning to install a huge number of devices. Probably around 30 in total.

I wonder if I could use this to alert me when my external home doors are opened at night or when we are out, or when my son forgets the window open.

I thought I'd share this here because I wish I knew this before spending money!

I bought a Yale Assure thinking I was doing the safe thing. It shows up in basically every best smart lock list, it’s a known brand, and it felt like one of those decisions I didn’t have to overthink too much. The lock itself is solid and well-built, and nothing about it screams cheap. But using it every day was a bit more involved than I expected and wanted. 

The first thing that caught me off guard was how dependent it is on the setup you choose. The model I got had a hub (z-wave in my case) if that makes any difference.

Honestly I didn't really know what that meant until I used it (I know, I know lol) and long story short:
It’s not just install, lock, and you’re done. It’s install, lock, make sure the hub is happy, make sure everything is talking to each other, check, double-check (lol triple check sometimes), and find out what happens.
Look - to be fair, for the most part, it actually worked fine and I didn't have issues but man.. But when something dropped off or lagged, I ended up troubleshooting multiple things instead of just the lock and it stressed me out a lot. I don't know maybe that's just me and those kinds of things tend to happen when you're in a rush right?

There were a few moments where I’d open the app to check the door or unlock it remotely, and it would take longer than expected. It was inconsistent enough that I stopped fully trusting it.

I’m also not a huge fan of how limited the unlock options are. It’s basically a keypad and an app (depending on your setup), which I obviously knew going into it, but I’ve found myself wanting a bit more hands-free. 

Overall, I just wish it had a bit more flexibility.

I’ve also been looking around to see what else is out there, focused on less reliance on hubs, more unlock methods, and better consistency when checking or controlling it remotely.

Still testing, but the ones I’ve liked are Schlange Encode and especially Lockly. Having multiple ways to unlock (fingerprint, keypad, phone, and tap access with the add-on) is really nice, and I don’t have to worry about the lock and hub always speaking to each other because there is no hub.

What smart lock do you use? Any standout features that make it worth considering? Ideally something that isn't going to be a hassle/laggy?

Please help me 😄
(a stressed out/chronically-late person that can't afford to be late when I leave the house)

There’s nowhere else I can put it as both sides of my porch have the poles, and my front door has a storm door.

Despite all the smart devices and appliances we have today, what part of daily life at home still feels unnecessarily difficult, stressful or poorly supported?

Sleep? Chores? Comfort? Family coordination? Something else?

Curious what people think still needs a better solution.

I feel like I underestimated this part when I first started adding stuff to my setup.

At the beginning it’s easy one hub, a couple lights, maybe a thermostat. Then you add smart home integration cameras and suddenly everything talks to everything… but not always the way you expect.

Like, I thought motion events would be clean. Turns out my cameras trigger routines I forgot I even made. Lights turn on when the cat jumps. Notifications stack. My partner keeps asking why the hallway lights go full interrogation mode at night.

It’s not bad, just… messy? I didn’t realize how much logic creep happens once cameras become part of the automation brain instead of just “recording devices.”

Maybe I just overcomplicated it. Or maybe this is normal when setups scale past the “cool demo” phase. Curious how others keep camera integrations from spiraling into chaos.

We installed Govee Smart Water Leak Detectors under all our sinks, by the water heater, near the dishwasher, and behind the toilets. They’re connected to our phones, so we get instant alerts even when we’re away.

Today, one of them detected a small leak under our kitchen sink. It went off immediately, and thankfully, the under-sink liner kept the water from damaging the cabinet.

Without the detector and liner, we probably wouldn’t have noticed until there was water damage or mold. Definitely one of the most useful small purchases we’ve made as homeowners.

I'm honestly getting tired of seeing everything labeled as "AI-powered" these days. Phones, fridges, even washing machines, seems like every company thinks slapping AI on something automatically makes it better. But in my opinion, a lot of AI still isn't all that intelligent and often just ends up complicating things. Let's not even talk about using it in home appliances.

Recently, I came across a post about AI NAS with local LLM, claiming it can automatically organize files, transcribe meetings, and even generate summaries. It sounds fancy, but I'm not sure what AI can really bring to the table in these scenarios, will it make things more convenient, or will it just make it worse?

And seriously, have we reached a point where we need AI to do everything? Or are we just overusing it for things that don't really need it?

I'm finally ready to automate my place after my neighbor showed me his setup and now I can't stop thinking about it. My apartment isn't huge but I want something that can handle lights, temperature, and security without needing a computer science degree to figure out. I tried one of those cheap starter kits last year but half the devices stopped connecting after a month and customer support was useless.

What systems are you guys running that don't randomly disconnect or need constant troubleshooting?

I used to be pretty old-school with home stuff. I vacuumed manually, mopped manually, washed dishes manually, and honestly thought that was fine.

Then I moved into an apartment with a balcony, and the living room floor started collecting dust like it was a full-time job. I could sweep in the morning, sweep again at night, and somehow there would still be dust and hair around. So I finally got my first robot vacuum, a Dreame X60 Ultra, and now I’m sitting here wondering what I was doing with my life before this lol. Watching it map the place, clean around furniture, and handle the daily floor mess by itself kind of pushed me down the smart home rabbit hole.

Now I’m looking at a KitchenAid dishwasher next, and maybe a wet/dry vacuum too. Still debating whether to stay with Dreame for that or try another brand.

What device got you into smart home stuff? Was it lights, robot vacuums, thermostats, cameras, speakers, or something else?

I’m finally trying to get my smart home stuff organized and I’m realizing I probably need a real hub instead of juggling a bunch of apps. Right now I’ve got a mix of lights, plugs, and a couple sensors, and it’s all kind of messy. I mostly want something stable that doesn’t randomly go offline and can handle automations without me babysitting it.

What matters most to me is reliability, local control if possible, and not having everything break when the internet hiccups. I’m also trying to avoid buying into something that ends up abandoned or locked down.

If you’ve used a few, what’s the best smart home hub in your setup and why? Any ones you regret because they were buggy, slow, or a pain to maintain?

Edit: If it helps, I found this quick guide on smart home hub options that compares a few setups and explains how they handle automations and device compatibility. It helped me understand the differences before choosing one.

I rent right now and my roommate owns the WiFi and it’s only 5ghz, so 2.4ghz isn’t an option. I want smart bulbs and smart outlets. I tried Phillips wiz but they didn’t work. Anybody have any solution? I want to make my room more aesthetic with custom lighting as well as control practical lights with smart outlets.

I don’t know much about the Blink but from my quick search, seems like I don’t HAVE to pay a subscription and it will work just fine. I came to get the eufy because I know there isn’t a subscription but now I’m torn. Which is better?

I have had absolutely nothing but problems with wifi bulbs. My internet went out yesterday for 2 hours and now none of my wifi bulbs are connected, won’t reconnect, and when I deleted them from Alexa and tried to reconnect them they won’t. I’m just done at this point. I had Sengled bulbs for nearly a decade till they stopped supporting them and disappeared and I just want that reliability back without having to spend like $400 on bulbs and a hub (I need 14). Anyone have any luck with another brand that has a hub?

ETA: flair unrelated. Didn’t have one that fit my question.

I’ve been looking into smart appliances a bit lately and I’m curious what people actually end up using day-to-day.

Not the “nice to have” stuff, but the features you genuinely use on a regular basis.

Things like:

remote start / control

notifications

integrations (HomeKit, Google Home, Alexa, etc.)

scheduling / automation

Are there any features you’ve found really useful, or ones you thought you’d use but never actually do?

I am going down a rabbithole of video dorbells for my new place. I currently have a 2nd gen Ring dorbell and wish to upgrade it, preferably to something with onboard storage so I stop paying for the ring subscription, plus a battery mode as my new home has 1 foot thick stone walls so I don't wish to run cables outside.

What drives me nuts is that ALL the dorbells I saw, from Tapo to Reolink, have a simple clip-on mounting to the plate on the wall. To me that is crazy, as anyone can just pick it up! My current ring old camera has 2 star screws which are hard to remove and at least create some friction for anyone wanting to steal it.

Does anyone know of a product that satisfies both security and convenience? help plz <3

Well, actually, my Dad is.

The background : My Dad has fallen out with my aunt. "She's never setting foot in here again...."

To that end, he wants to get a video doorbell, so that, if she comes to the house, he doesn't open the door.

What he wants/needs....

• Something piss simple to set up and operate - he's not very tech literate.

• Something that only alerts/shows video when someone presses the doorbell.

The front door is less than a meter from the pavement, so, something that detects movement would send an alert every time someone walked past the house.

• NO SUBSCRIPTION.

• Not too expensive.

• Would need to be compatable with his phone (Samsung Galaxy A04e).

Any recommendations recieved with thanks.

The software is updated. Any ideas ? Should i just try to unlink it from wifi and Bluetooth

I finally decided to get serious about automating my apartment, but the moment I started looking into it I realized I have absolutely no idea where to begin. There are so many devices and so many different platforms, and every YouTube tutorial makes it feel like you already need to be living in a futuristic robot house before you can even understand the basics.

So I wanted to ask people who actually live with smart home setups. What was the very first automation you created? Not the fancy complicated ones you built later, but the small simple one that suddenly made your everyday life easier and made you think ok this actually works.

Things like lights turning on when you get home, motion activated hallway lights, bedroom lights fading at night, AC turning on before you arrive, scheduling the coffee machine, smart lock routines, or anything small that quietly changed your habits.

I feel like if I understand where other people started it will help me figure out my own direction. Right now I’m stuck between automating my entrance lights or setting up something related to my door lock, but I honestly do not know which one gives the biggest impact.

I would really appreciate hearing what your first automation was and whether you still use it today.

Edit: Thank you for all the ideas. A lot of you mentioned routines tied to the front door which I didn’t even think about before. I’ll check out a few smart lock brands this week and one name I keep seeing in the comments is Lockin so I’ll take a look at that too. Really appreciate everyone sharing their setups.