Smart home technology is no longer a luxury only available to the wealthy or tech-savvy, and the tech industry has responded with ever more sophisticated solutions. Although many people bizcrisis.net/how-to-choose-home-security-system associate automation with devices such as Google’s Nest, Amazon’s Echo or Apple’s HomeKit the term is much more broad than that and covers a wide range of solutions for your home. This encompasses everything from remote-controlled lighting and heating to CCTV, home security systems doorbells, and smart locks. Some allow you to keep track of your elderly family members, pets, children and even track your children.

Integration is the most important aspect of an effective smart home system. This is why the best devices are those that can work with other devices and systems to make your home smarter. A smart light bulb, for example is able to communicate with an central hub to schedule your lights on a schedule or turn them off after you leave the house. Or a video doorbell can alert you of unexpected visitors and activate your alarm system to call the police or fire department. Once you’ve learned the IFTTT (If this then that) service that you can utilize services such as Stringify to automate devices in more complicated ways.

Of course, bringing in new smart devices to the home is not without its own set of issues. CNET is dedicated to understanding company policies, address privacy concerns and ask questions directly to companies.