I loveBack to the Future,and I was particularly enamored by the smart home of the future as seen in part two of the trilogy. All sorts of wonderful automated luxuries that we would have one day in the far-off year of 2015.
Well, 2015 is far in the rearview mirror and the way things are now, I don’t see that dream of a seamless, unified smart home ever coming true. Well, Icansee some ways it could happen, it’s just that I don’t think it will, and here’s why.
7Too Many Standards, Not Enough Standardization
From Zigbee to Z-Wave, Thread, Bluetooth Mesh, and Wi-Fi-based platforms, smart home devices are stuck in a never-ending standards tug-of-war. Matter was supposed to be the great unifier (and my editor thinks it’s going to succeed), but in my opinion, Matter has turned out to be more of a truce than a true alliance between different smart home hardware and software makers.
While lots of devices across brandssupportMatter on paper, that doesn’t mean they actually work well together, or the feature sets may be limited based on the hub or app you’re using.
Standards wars aren’t uncommon in the technology world, but few technologies have to interoperate to the same extent as smart home devices, so for this to really work, we need some sort of communication standard for home automation technology that does for smart homes that Internet Protocol did for the internet.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we might need some sort of government-enforced standard for home automation systems, that makes it a legal requirement to adhere to certain safety and interoperability requirements.
6Walled Gardens Are Killing the Ecosystem
I guess this is just an extension of the “too many standards” issue, but the truth is, a big part of the problem is that each company that makes smart home equipment wants you to use their ecosystem, and try to draw third-party hardware makers to their side.
Apple wants you to use HomeKit. Google wants you on Home. Amazon wants Alexa everywhere. Every major tech company has carved out its little corner of the smart home market and has made itjustinteroperable enough to draw you in—but not enough to let you leave easily!
When you end up mixing-and-matching across ecosystems (and you have to, because no one makes everything) you end up losing functionality and control. At the very least, it becomes a chore to manage it all, because it’s a fragmented mess.
My colleagueTim BrooksfiguresHome Assistant is the answer, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
5Setup Is Still a Nightmare
In theory, onboarding a smart device should take seconds. In practice, you’ll often find yourself in firmware update hell, hunting for QR codes, toggling airplane mode, or trying to guess which of the three identically-named Wi-Fi networks is your smart plug.
And once it is connected, there’s usually an unintuitive app (or two) to download, vague automation settings to tweak, and a ton of trial-and-error before your smart light stops randomly turning itself on at 3 a.m. The average consumer doesn’t want to be a sysadmin for their fridge.
I have a “smart” bulb that randomly decides to reset itself and starts flashing like I’m at a nightclub for no apparent reason, and then just fixes itself randomly too. I would have thrown it away already if it hadn’t been working long enough for me to forget about this glitch.
4Smart Devices Die Dumb Deaths
When I buy a thermostat, a light switch, or some other bit of common household hardware, it’s with the expectation that I will get decades of use out of it. Think about how old some of the stuff in your home or apartment is. An AC unit that was put in 20 years ago, but with proper servicing, it still works just fine, for example.
Likewise, if I buy a washing machine or a dishwasher, I expect to get more than a decade of service, with the help of occasional repairs or servicing.
Unfortunately, that seems antithetical to the business model of smart home hardware. The worst situation isn’t just when the updates stop coming, but when a company decides to brick your otherwise perfectly fine device, turning it into e-waste. That’s why I personally believe that any smart home that relies on remote services to work isn’treallya smart home.
3Privacy? What Privacy?
Every smart device is potentially a sensor feeding data back to the mothership. Your routines, your voice, your camera feeds—all potentially monitored, harvested, and monetized.
Even if a company promises not to snoop, poor security practices and frequent breaches mean you’re always one firmware bug or misconfigured server away from your baby monitor becoming a public livestream. Some people try to stay private by avoiding cloud integrations, but that often breaks key functionality as I mentioned above.
I think the recent rise in popularity of local home servers is partly in response to fatigue when it comes to the privacy shenanigans that are constantly coming into public view. Not to mention people who buy dubious smart devices, like security cameras, that end up having malware, or are simply easy to hijack, so some sweaty hacker in a basement can watch you go about your day.
2It’s All Too Fragile
A smart home often relies on several layers of technology: the internet connection, your router, a hub or two, the cloud servers, and the devices themselves. When it works, it’s magical. When one link fails, the magic vanishes.
Your smart lights won’t turn on because your ISP is having issues. Your voice assistant stops working because the cloud service is down. Your smart lock needs a reboot because the last firmware update broke Bluetooth. Reliability is essential for something like a thermostat or a lock, and most smart homes just can’t meet that bar in my view.
It’s like having one of those new cars without door handles. What if the power fails? What if I can’t cook my dinner because my smart oven refuses to work because the internet is down? We definitely need a broad standard for fallback automation and manual operation as smart home technology becomes more widespread.
1Most People Just Want a Light Switch
For all the talk about “intelligent automation,” most people don’t want to open an app to dim the lights or yell at a voice assistant to close the blinds. They just want a button. A switch. Something that works every time, without fuss.
The best user interface is one that doesn’t require explanation. And while smart homes are undeniably cool when they work, they’re often too finicky to become truly indispensable. Most people would trade 90% of the “smart” features just to know their lights will turn on when they flip the switch.
While I remain skeptical that I’ll see the “real” smart home dream during my own lifetime, some technologies like AI could help get us closer. Maybe agentic AI will be the solution. Maybe Tim’s hopes for Home Assistant will come true. For now, I’ll keep being very selective when it comes to which parts of my home are “smart”.
