How does a smart home work?

Feb 15 2025

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How does a smart home work?

At its core, a smart home is built on connectivity. To have a smart home, you need the following:

An internet connection. A Wi-Fi router (if your home is larger than around 250 square meter or you have a lot of connected gadgets, consider a mesh router). Smart devices, such as light bulbs, locks, thermostats, speakers, and security cameras. A smart home app and / or platform to set up and program the devices. A way to control them, such as a smartphone, tablet, or voice-controlled smart speaker. Smart home devices use wireless protocols for connectivity. There are several in use today, and you can mix and match protocols in your home as long as the smart home platform you choose supports them. There are some proprietary protocols, but most smart home devices use one of these five: Z-Wave Zigbee Wi-Fi (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz) Bluetooth Thread

Some of these protocols require a hub or bridge to work; others just rely on a Wi-Fi router or smartphone. All can work with Matter, a new open standard that provides a common communication standard for devices and is seen as a unifying technology for the smart home. This means that whatever protocol a smart device uses (unless it’s Bluetooth, which is only used for onboarding in Matter), they have the potential to work with Matter. However, whether the device actually will is up to the individual manufacturer.

To use and set up smart devices, you’ll need an app on a smartphone or tablet. Nearly all devices come with their own app, but as you add more devices to your smart home, you’ll likely find you want a single smart home platform to control them through. This also lets you connect devices from different manufacturers together into routines and automations.

There are five major platforms, all of which support Matter. Plus, there are a number of smaller ones that fit more specific needs and more complicated setups. I’ve written a guide on how to pick a smart home platform, and we’ve got deep dives into each of these platforms:

Amazon Alexa
Apple Home
Google Home
Samsung SmartThings
Home Assistant