Best Smart Home Apps: Automation to Control Your Devices

As we still spend a lot of time at home, smart homes have gained a foothold as mainstream newcomers have joined the automation bandwagon, and several contenders exist for the honor of the ‘best smarthome app.’

Are you ready to join the smart home software market? Look up our full guide on how to build profitable smart home automation apps, and take your chance.

Home Automation App Market Brief Overview

In 2020, the home automation market was valued at over $46 billion. As of 2021, there are over 250 million smart homes globally, representing a 12.2% global penetration rate. Apparently, there are still several regions where smart homes aren’t fully embraced due to various constraints. They represent a massive opportunity for entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, manufacturers, developers, etc.

Surely, the demand for home automation devices and apps will grow in the future years. Be sure, you won’t lose such an opportunity to enter the trend market or increase your positions there.

5 Smart Home App Features

What features define home automation systems? Before examining the best smart home integration apps, we explore some popular uses of home automation systems.

Entertainment

One of the very best home automation features is entertainment. A smart system can help manage your television, soundbar, and even your projector. All these help you to create a custom home atmosphere, transforming it according to your needs into a work zone, a lounge, or a dining area. This gives another level of coziness at home. One of ProCoders’ past home automation app projects is an entertainment app, FMYL for music discovery.

Security

Another essential feature is safety. The user can monitor the property from outside. Hence, they can ensure that everything is in order while they are away. Security systems are also equipped with alarms activated through a signal from a remote control or app when there is danger.

Smart Lighting

Smart lighting provides lighting control throughout the building. This technology can turn individual lights on and off. It also controls their brightness or in conjunction with motion sensors (for example, to turn lights on when someone enters a room). Smart lighting isn’t only about comfort, it also reduces costs for electricity and is a part of another mainstream, reasonable consumption.

Temperature Control

Some people don’t like how hot or cold it gets, while others worry about wasting electricity by setting the temperature too high or low. Home automation systems offer a solution by detecting and reacting to environmental changes. This simple smart home function is important in regions, where night temperature is greatly different from the daily one and to create the best environment for children and seniors.

Hazard Detection

Connected cameras and sensors can discover a range of hazards, from leaks to break-ins to smoke. They can help to alert users or local emergency services if needed automatically.

7 Best Smart Home Apps – Home Automation App Comparison

Samsung SmartThings app – best home automation app for Samsung SmartThings

Samsung SmartThings universal home automation app allows users to manage connected devices easily. Users can automate actions with various triggers. It consists of a Hub, which connects wirelessly to various devices and sensors.

It has a 4.3 rating in both the App Store and the Google Play Store with over 500 million downloads.

Google Home app – best home automation app for Google Assistant

The Google Home app is probably the best app for controlling all smart home devices. This includes Google Nest, Google Wi-Fi, Google Home devices, Chromecast, and so on. It also can manage smart products from Nest, Philips Hue, and other compatible brands.

It gives you a simple, intuitive way to set up, manage, and control your compatible connected devices. Plus, it also provides access to the Google Assistant, which can answer questions and get things done with voice. Google Home is one of the top ten lifestyle apps on the Apple Store and it has been installed over 100 million on Android devices.

Apple Home app – best home automation app for Apple HomeKit

Another contestant for the best app for smart homes is the Apple Home app. It is the only way to control HomeKit accessories. Because so many smart home accessories work with HomeKit, you can use Siri commands to issue various commands. Note, though, that there is no companion Android app for this solution.

Obviously the best iOS home automation app, Apple HomeKit contains several types of hardware products that communicate with each other using the HomeKit protocol. A HomeKit-enabled accessory is a device certified by Apple to run its own code and communicate over the HomeKit framework with other devices.

Philips Hue – smart home control app for lights

Philips Hue boasts a wide array of connected lighting options and affordable starter kits.

If you have Philips Hue lights, the official Philips Hue app is for your basic control needs. It’s quick and easy to use. It also offers a nice variety of features. You can adjust the color and brightness of your lights. You can as well create automated routines that follow a schedule or respond to a specific event (like sunset).

The app will show you all the information about each light — brightness level, color temperature, and so on. The Philips Hue app has won favorable reviews on various mobile platforms, including a 4.5 rating on the App store and 4.4 on the Google Play Store.

Alarm.com – smart home hub app

With Alarm.com, you can control your entire property remotely. With intelligent alerts and live video feeds, you can know what’s happening all the time. Alarm.com combines your home or business security systems with home automation and smart services.

With the touch of a button or swipe of your finger, you can monitor the status of your home or business, see who’s at the door, and control household devices—all while keeping an eye on kids and pets via live streaming video feeds.

For business owners and employees, Alarm.com is the all-in-one solution for the connected, protected office. It seamlessly integrates with building systems to provide the right information at the right time.

FindWhatYouLike (FWYL)

FWYL is an app for music lovers who want to listen to music with friends. Many music apps have features for sharing playlists. However, FWYL allows simultaneous playback between music apps.

While FMYL is not a home automation app, ProCoders engineers added functionality to connect this app to various other apps and services. So, besides being able to use FMYL with YouTube Music or Deezer, users could also connect the app to a Sonos speaker, for instance, and play music from any part of the home.

IFTTT – one app to control all smart devices

IFTTT (which stands for If This Then That) is not predominantly a universal smart home application. IFTTT is a service that helps you do more with the technology you love. It allows you to create powerful connections with one simple statement: If This, Then That.

As an app that can connect and automate various apps and devices, it has become acclaimed among smart home users as the best Android home automation app, even though it works on iOS as well. IFTTT works with various kinds of smart appliances.

Alexa Smart Home – best home automation app for Amazon Alexa

The Alexa Smart Home app is where you can discover, set up, and manage all your smart home devices from one convenient place. It is definitely one of the best home automation iPhone apps and Android as well.

Routines are shortcuts for Alexa — they’re like macros. For example: “Alexa, I’m leaving,” could dim your lights, turn down your thermostat and lock your doors. You can, in addition, create routines within routines — like having Alexa tell you about your day while the sun comes up, or turning off the lights when you’re getting into bed.

Ready-made Option or Custom Solution?

Key considerations when creating your own best zigbee app include:

• Cost – a custom solution costs a lot of money upfront, especially if you’re also going to pay for marketing. You’ll need a decent budget here, as things will be expensive fast. It is possible to manage this by dividing costs between the MVP and other advanced stages, or by building a flow of gradually released premium features.

• Tailorability – how much flexibility will the design permit? You probably want to create something that matches your brand and existing devices.

• Development time – building a custom smart home automation app takes time, which means a long development cycle. An MVP might be ready in about two months, but a full-fledged cross-platform app can take up to six months, depending on the features required. In various situations, you can execute quicker by choosing a pre-made solution.

When to Choose a Ready-made Option?

What happens when you use ready-made IoT platforms? The advantage is obvious: you avoid starting from scratch and developing everything on your own. So, you profit from launching quickly while expending fewer resources.

The disadvantage, however, is that this approach limits your options and flexibility. It also makes your product one of the several others already established in the market. So, there’s no unique and competitive excellence.

Creating a custom smart home app solution is difficult and time-consuming, and you’ll need a lot of money for development and marketing. Also, if you’re just starting, it is often difficult to attract investors, which can put you behind the competition.

If you decide to go for a ready-made platform (which is rather affordable these days), remember that the best way to maximize your ROI is by developing the best home automation app that fulfills user needs better than any other solution out there.

When the Custom Solution Is Better?

It’s important to start considering the long-term goals of your business before you even begin creating your smart home automation app. Is it meant to be a helpful tool, or is it just supposed to make some money?

The ability to create tailored apps is one of the major advantages of developing your own best iPad home automation app or for other operating systems such as Windows.

Developing your own smart home automation app can seem like a long, arduous, and costly task, but the truth is that you can maximize your investment when you outsource app development to a software development company. When you work with a reliable team of developers like ProCoders, you can still retain great control over your project while working with the best minds to build something truly innovative.

Important Considerations for Building Home Automation Apps

How to choose the right home automation app for your needs? Whether you just want to know how to build a home automation app or are looking to build something on a larger scale – it’s important to understand the background of home automation and the key considerations that come with it. Take into account the following when choosing the best home automation apps for specific devices (e.g., lights, thermostats, locks):

• home automation apps with voice control

• home automation apps with remote access

• home automation apps with scheduling and automation

• home automation apps with security features

• home automation apps with multi-device compatibility

If one or more of these capabilities are a priority, look for a solution that meets these needs. Here’s more on what to consider before making the decision:

Functional Capacity

Building a single-purpose app is more manageable than developing an all-in-one solution, which requires advanced skills and knowledge of several technologies. As a bonus, you can release your single-purpose app quickly and start marketing it sooner.

In our experience, we’ve seen one great way to determine whether you want to create a single-purpose app or a multi-purpose app. Listen to what potential users want and observe how they interact with existing solutions on the market.

User Interaction

When creating your smart home app, you must have consideration for the users who will be using it. Don’t forget that their needs come first. Once you’re able to understand the situation from the user’s point of view, it will be much easier to make well-informed decisions about the design and function of your app. Understand how users interact with your product. Conduct user research to better understand what your users want and need. This will give you a solid foundation for your product roadmap.

This is part of what helps us at ProCoders execute our projects seamlessly: the strength and depth of user research we carry out in partnership with our clients before starting the project.

App features

The first thing you should do is define the core features of your solution: what does your app do? How does it work? What values does it give to users? How does it differ from other similar solutions out there? You must also determine what features to include at the MVP stage. After all, not all features must be included initially.

Also, define the features that can be accessed for free and which ones require a premium subscription or an upgrade. You can also choose the best free home automation apps to get familiarized with.

Organizing features early on helps both product manager and product owner to allocate costs, implement the right solutions, and identify which areas they can beat competitors.

Security

A lot of smart homes are vulnerable to hackers because of the lack of proper security, so you have to choose the best home automation apps for security. Every device in a smart home is connected and relies on the network, so if one device gets compromised, it can affect the whole network.

Consider all risks of hacking, from physical entry to attack via the internet, when calculating IoT security and configuring smart home software. Protection measures like secured communication channels, encrypted data, etc. will minimize the chances for attacks by hackers.

How to Develop Home Automation Apps with ProCoders Dedicated Team

If you’re developing a smart home automation app, you need the best talent on your team. That’s where ProCoders comes in: helping you to hire mobile app developers. We have a large pool of IoT software development specialists waiting to work with you.

IoT programming is a new frontier that requires a lot of skill and creativity. The requirements for a good IoT app programmer are more than just being technically gifted, but also showing a talent for envisioning what needs to be done and having the ability to bring it to life.

One of our current projects involves building an app to automate and monitor smart homes using mobile devices. We have engineers assigned to this project with the responsibility of connecting hardware sensors to a comprehensive remote software solution. The mobile app is being built using Angular and Ionic, two powerful frameworks that enable efficient development.

In another project, our expert team built FindWhatYouLike (FWYL), a music app that helps users listen to music with their friends at the same time. While FWYL was not a home automation app, it did require a connection with home automation devices, such as smart speakers from Sonos to play music from any part of the house.

Our team of in-house IoT developers can help you build an entire smart home automation app from scratch. We make sure that every project we touch results in a phenomenal experience for our clients, be it a simple smart home automation app or a complex IoT application.

Finding developers for startup to build your smart home automation app takes time and effort, which is why our outstaffed development model works so well. ProCoders’ IoT developers have decades of combined experience in programming for the Internet of Things and can get a new project up and running quickly.