The Average Person Has No Chance With the Smart Home ⇥ techcrunch.com

Owen Williams, TechCrunch:

I researched devices for weeks to avoid as much pain as possible when setting up our new home, ultimately settling on a set of brands that I’d stick to throughout the home because I knew they worked with Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple’s HomeKit platform. For smart lights, I replaced all of my light switches with Lutron Caseta, which are widely regarded as “rock solid,” and I refused to introduce any other brand of smart switch. Since we were moving into a new home with no blinds, we also invested in Lutron’s Serena Shades smart blinds, which allow automation of your blinds and connect to the same system. In any lamps or for accent lighting, Philips Hue is my go-to, and so on.

I’m not immune to the pitfalls I described, ironically: I already owned a few Kasa smart plugs before moving into our new home, which aren’t compatible with HomeKit, and would have meant I would be unable to automate them in the Apple Home app to work with my other devices, and our house came with a Samsung smart fridge and oven that also aren’t compatible.

Sounds like living in a nightmare, and exactly like every smart home story I have read. I have no desire to be a part of this chaotic world. But while it is a luxurious choice for me, there are plenty of people who would like to depend on products like these because they have disabilities. Figuring this stuff out should be better for anyone who is interested, but especially because of those whose lives would be radically improved by its success.