Smart home hopes
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
It had been a long day. The drive back from the office hadn’t been smooth sailing, traffic was heavy with a sudden downpour only serving to compound the issue. Disconnecting his phone from his car he noticed a new notification from How we feel, taking a moment he found tired and logged the emotion.
As he approached the door he heard the familiar click as it unlocked itself, stepping inside the door the sound of the disembodied voice echoed down the hall… “Welcome home Ezra, it looks like you’ve had a long day at the office.” Flopping down on the sofa he heard the soothing sounds of his favourite Ludovico Einaudi album begin to gently play over the speakers in his living room, the lights dimming to a warm glow. He checked the time, 20:15, “Siri, message Michael to apologise for missing home group and tell him I’ve only just got home.” “I’ve sent a message to Michael”.
Prising himself off the sofa he walked over to the kitchen, the glow of the lights brightening and the kitchen ones turning on. Opening the fridge, he sighed. He forgot to buy dinner on the way home, “Siri, order my usual from the Chinese.” “No problem Ezra, I’ll let you know when Hakka Chinese responds”.
Back to the sofa, he turned on the TV, the music stopping automatically and the lights dimming again. The words What would you like to watch greeted him? with next episodes of the three shows he was working his way through beneath them. A notification pops up in the top right of the screen “Hakka Chinese has accepted your order, it will be delivered in around 30 minutes.”
“Time for a shower” he says to himself aware that the music starts playing over the speakers again as he makes his way to the bathroom.
Showered and changed he plops himself on the sofa again just in time to see the status of his food order change to Your rider is nearby, please keep an eye out for them. Before he’s had chance to pick what show to watch a new notification pops on screen from the doorbell and the voice says “Ezra, your food is here”.
I’ve been thinking about the smart home a bit of late, and I can’t help but think what we have isn’t really that smart. The thermostats are no better than the dumb ones people have been using for decades. The smart bulbs are cool, but are they really better than a normal one with a dimmer switch? The various sensors can be useful, although when one of mine recently fell off the door frame thanks to the heat I’m not sure how helpful the notification I received was.
The devices we have in our home to make it smart, are only smart once we’ve programmed them and set them up to do what we want. That begs the question, what would make them truly smart?
At the moment everything feels segmented (this might be because I’m using HomeKit) and silo’d to certain devices. Some of the elements in the scenario above don’t feel that far away now they are because devices don’t talk to each other properly.
It feels like a situation where the pieces are already there but they haven’t been put together in a cohesive manner yet. Fore example, if music is playing on my HomePod controls appear on my iPhone, but timers don’t… if there’s a timer on my iPhone but I’m watching TV using an Apple TV nothing happens when it goes off. Why doesn’t the TV pause and a stop/repeat UI appear on the TV? Chances are I’m cooking so need to pause what’s playing anyway. I can receive notifications from my iPhone on my Mac, but not on my iPad or Apple TV. Why can’t that technology allow the live activity from a food delivery app sit discreetly in the corner of my Apple TV?
These are just small pieces of low hanging fruit that don’t feel like big asks (famous last words) and I’ve not doubt that a proper smart home could do even more. Really all I want a little quality of life enhancements that don’t cost the earth to setup and that just work out the box.