How can I make an IoT device at home?

There are three main ways you can use most smart home gadgets: There are still plenty of different apps, but most products have them for both iOS and Android, and manufacturing brands tend to use just one app to control all or many of their devices. However, these manufacturer apps still often don't play nice with other brands. Exceptions such as the Google Home app can let you control multiple devices from one place, though often with a reduced suite of features. Smart assistants such as Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa can be the central hub of a smart home. They're not mandatory, but they make life easier by controlling all your devices from one spot using voice commands. Android phones come with Google Assistant on board, and iPhones have Siri. No phones have Alexa built in, but you can buy a smart speaker with any of these three assistants built in. All you have to do is give the voice command to activate your assistant, then tell it to do something. For example, "Hey Google, dim the lights in the lounge room" or "Alexa, play something romantic from Spotify". Once you get more comfortable with your gadgets, apps like If This Then That (IFTTT) let you create your own voice commands. You might program a smart assistant so that the command, "It's movie time" dims the lights, turns on your TV and makes sure there's no music playing anywhere in the house Some apps and devices can talk to each other without you acting as the go-between. Set the coffee machine to start brewing and lights to turn on as soon as your morning alarm goes off, or have the air conditioning power up when your smartwatch gets within 500 metres of home. read less