Out of curiosity, do most Americans you know have smart homes? Have Alexa's, Echoes, Ring doorbells, and control their heat and lights through their phones? Or is the number minimal?
45 comments
All this stuff is very common, but not standard.
I have a nest thermostat and google home speakers, but I only use the google home speakers for music and they’re pieces of shit that don’t work about 25% of the time which is extremely frustrating.
most americans I know don’t have them except for maybe Ring doorbells.
the few that do usually complain that it’s more of a hassle then it’s worth most of the time.
Yes, my mom recently went out a bought an Alexa and an echo (Alexa for kitchen, echo for my bedroom)
There are variations of everything from nothing to fully smart/automated and everything in between.
I would say all of my family and friends here in the states has some but not all of these. Usually it’s one or two of these items.
Our dogs are the smartest things in our house.
We have a Blink doorbell but mainly to catch package thieves. Nothing else is smart. Husband works in cybersecurity and doesn’t trust any of it.
I have Alexa, cameras, and a ring doorbell. The Alexa controls our lighting, it’s nice to just be like “ALEXA turn the lights on”, and our doorbell is a motion activated camera which pings our phones – handy for when we let the dogs out and they want back in, or we have someone come up to the door
most people we know have some devices but not all of them. We have an Alexa, mostly use it for a shopping list. But it’s also connected to our living room lights. We don’t have a ring door bell or things like fridges or washing machines that are connected to our phones. We don’t use Nest or anything similar, we both wfh so not much reason to need it.
My son rented a new apartment last spring, and his entire apartment is set up this way. Smart entry, smart locks, everything is done through his phone. Security, HVAC, all payments, everything. He loves it.
Most people I know have some kind of smart device in their home like a video doorbell or an Alexa. They’re cheap and convenient.
I have google assistant, and use it to control about 20% of the lights in my house, my thermostat, my TVs, and a few other things.
I’m the only person I know who has this kind of setup.
Part of the issue is that installing these features requires a level of handyman knowledge that most people don’t have. So I can control my family room ceiling fan because I can replace a light switch. But I also need to buy and install enough switches to cover my whole house, which is expensive and takes time.
None at all. I need my privacy.
I have a nest thermostat and most of my lights are controlled by voice or timers through Alexa. I have 6 or 8 Alexa devices scattered about. I have camera’s set up inside and outside to keep an eye on my property. I have water sensors to monitor water leaks in the kitchen, bathrooms, laundry and sump pumps in the basement. I also have phone controlled door locks so I can let maintenance people in when I’m not around. I do this for two reasons. (1) I’m an engineer and like the technology. (2) I have two residences, one in the Midwest during the nice months and one in SW Florida in the winter. I’m age 74 and am captivated by all the remote access I have to my residences.
Ring doorbells are common, I know several people with them, but I don’t know anyone who has smart heat/lights/fans connected through their phone. Personally I find them a little intrusive.
No.
I think they’re mostly annoying and intrusive, but I do have cameras (exterior and baby monitors) for security. I don’t like app-controlled appliances and I would never bring something voice-activated into my home (I have as much of that disabled on my phone as possible).
Everyone I know has SOMETHING smart in their home. Whether it’s a ring doorbell or some smart display or maybe a set of wireless LED lights with an app or an Alexa somewhere that they use to check the weather or play music.
Almost nobody I know has a FULL smart home with a whole bunch of that stuff. Lots of houses with 1-3 “smart” items and almost none with 10+.
I know one person with a fully smart home. Lights, door locks, personalized shower settings, cameras in every room, etc. This guy is a quadraplegic who owns some sort of security company and received a large settlement from the car wreck that caused his paralysis.
Most other people I know don’t have more than maybe 1 or 2 things. My brother has outdoor cameras, he put some up at my parents house too. My neighbors have a washer that can connect to your phone, but she never used it. Ring doorbells are pretty common, I think. I saw several of them while I was trick or treating with my kids. We don’t have anything unless you wanna count the wifi itself, or a smartphone.
Its pretty hard to find a dumb TV at this point.
I got rid of my Google Home and Amazon Echo due to increased privacy concerns.
I reluctantly have a Nest Thermostat and “smart” washer/dryer, though they came with the house.
Most people do not have smart homes. They are pointless cause in just a few years smart stuff will not be compatible with the new stuff anyways. Personally I’ll be perfectly happy with a home built from 1880s to1920s home with a some modern stuff that was never built into the home. Seriously a 1920’s home is perfect. Its solid, it has everything you need and it has character. Any smart home garbage isn’t needed. If you really want a smart home feature. You can always add it in but again I find it utterly pointless.
I’d estimate that roughly a third to half of households have at least one smart device, most commonly a doorbell or thermostat. Fully integrated, voice-controlled smart homes, however, are still relatively rare and kind of a texh/nerd thing.
I used to run an Alexa and then a Google home. In reality, it ended up being a glorified kitchen timer/light switch. Google was a bitch to use because they made it learn your voice, so even though my ex wife paid for youtube music, if I asked for a song it would realize I’m not her and force ads into the music, or just refuse to play at all because I didn’t have a subscription.
Even when I turned off voice recognition, it still did that. And annoyingly every time a new Google product was released my old ones got stupid slow. My speakers would be working fine, and then a new speaker would drop. And suddenly my speakers acted like they couldn’t hear me anymore and would double their loading time.
The best smart home product I ever got was the Phillips hue bulbs. I had those bulbs in my basement and living room. It was super nice to be able to turn on my basement lights from my phone, and the kids loved the color changing bulbs in the living room.
But I wouldn’t get a smart home hub again. I just didn’t get enough utility out of it to justify the annoyance and the hassle. I’d get the Phillips bulbs again, it was super convenient.
I dont use it, but I have friends who do.
Seems when it functions it is a good time, like when cooking, or entertaining…but it trains your kids to not know how anything works.
My kids can put a vinyl record on and drop the needle, or hook their laptop to the television to watch YT, but their peers with Alexa homes can barely use a dimmer switch for the lights.
That’s going to vary by income level, age, etc.
I am no Luddite, but I don’t find most “smart” home devices particularly useful or desirable. However, I do appreciate using Google hands free to play songs, navigate, or make calls while driving.
I have a couple lights that are connected, as well as an automated litter box, but that’s it. I guess the Chromecast counts too. But no doorbell, refrigerator, nothing I talk to other than the remote for the TV, and that’s pretty rare
“*Most* Americans” (93%) have at least one smart device in their home. But that’s a very misleading number, because if you simply exclude smart TVs, that number drops to just 47%. And if you’re looking at 6 or more devices indicating the actual bare minimum “smart home”, you’re really only looking at only 18%.
It’s not unusual to see someone with lots of these devices and it’s also not unusual to see someone with none. My parents for example don’t have any “smart” devices in their household but do have security cameras hooked up. I have 2 Google homes, 2 Blink cameras, and Hue lights that I can control from the Google homes or my phone.
We now have a “smart” dishwasher. I have no understanding of why this is a good option, but it had the other things we wanted so here we are. Lol. It’s quicker and easier to push the buttons on the door than to open the app.
depends on the neighborhood. Middle class suburbs, yes, those things are very common along with security systems
Only our phone and our TV. We have an electronic fingerprint lock for our front door but it’s not like connected to the internet or anything. Sometimes people say “what if someone cuts off your finger and uses it to break in?” To which I say, if that happened I would have much bigger issues than them breaking in.
Most people don’t have more than a doorbell camera and maybe one of those home assistant things, if that. A full “smart” setup is expensive.
Personally, I want my home and every fixture and appliance in it to be completely brainless anyway. They don’t need to know anything except how to do their jobs. I don’t want my fridge tracking what food I buy, and I don’t want my TV serving me personalized ads by listening in on my conversations. No thank you!
I would say its fairly common to have one or more of those items, but I would not call that a “smart home” unless it had several, especially lights and thermostat control. Despite being pretty tech savvy myself we have only one of those things (Ring camera). We have a programmable set-back thermostat but its not on the internet (smart enough for us without the risk of someone hacking our house and messing with it). Recently we got some new appliances that are wifi enabled, but we really don’t see much need for those features.
Most people I know do have smart devices, especially smart lights and doorbells. Most houses in my neighborhood have some form of smart doorbell. My house has all lightbulbs swapped for smart lights with smart switches to control without the phone if I want. It also has a smart doorbell and a camera for my backyard for security. I used to have Alexa devices but never used them so got rid of them.
It really just depends on the environment you live in. I imagine there’s a wide spectrum of smart device usage across the country.
I know a few people with Ring Doorbells, or Smartlocks. No one else I know uses any sort of smart home stuff. Especially smart speakers. I have never met anyone who actually uses one.
Hue lights for one room and some smart plugs are as far as I’ve gone with it.
A former coworker did smart lights for his entire house which created funny situations when the power went out. As soon as it came back on they’d all turn on at full brightness, but he’d need to wait for his network to come back online before he could do anything about it.
I have a bunch of things- cameras, lights, locks, thermostat. But I work at a security company, I get all devices at cost, and I am part of the lead tech support team for them. It’s not unusual for anyone who works at my company and is fairly standard for many of our customers. That said lots of people have none of this.
I’m watching the houses get built here, they are nice homes but I’m noticing they no longer install wiring a doorbell.
There’s no button at all, no bell no wiring. There’s buyer adds Ring or a wireless doorbell from the hardware store
Things like custom curtains and shades may be standard on a luxurious home but mostly it’s something buyers add themselves.
Same with security
A little bit embarrassing, I love my privacy, and smart stuff too but my husband loves ring and scenes. So we got Ring doorbell, 9 camera outside and in garage, ring alarm system. smart Central AC system. Matter lights or switches for all lights. MYQ for garage. Tesla panels and powerwalls. Smart fridge, washer and dryer. Smart TVs, Sonos for sound. All smart locks. Smart shades. Computer UPSs. A few google screens and apple HomePods to control. Etc etc etc If you can make it smart, we probably done it. The idea was to go all HomeKit, and that didn’t work some using google as well.
In my home office tho I used Home Assistant just for my lights and my UPS and that is it. Nothing else
in there lol
Full blown smart homes no never
A mishmash of a few smart devices sure
Most people I know don’t own their homes and therefore don’t have the ability to “upgrade” to smart appliances or heating systems. It seems Ike the few that do own don’t really feel the need to upgrade if the home didn’t come with smart features already.
Most people I know either have nothing smart, or they have a like a ring doorbell and that’s it. For some of them it’s because they’re techie and know the risks of it, for the rest…they don’t trust the tech because they don’t understand it (tbc, they’re smart – this set is mostly the seniors in my life).
My house is *sooooooooo DUMB*! My fridge is connected insofar as checking on filter quality and temperature settings but it doesn’t have video cameras or ordering capabilities. My whole-house speakers are app controlled but no lights, no doorbell, no thermostat, no nothing else.
Even my 2007 vehicle is blissfully dumb.
I have a bunch of friends who either work in IT, have security clearances, or both. None of them have smart home stuff for security reasons. Therefore, neither do I. (My dishwasher is smart home capable, but I have not connected it. I disabled access to our tv, etc.)
Our house was built in 1977 and we can’t afford all that shit, so no.
Only thing we have are two window a/c units that can be controlled remotely from the phone. It helps when coming home from an extended time away to cool the house before we arrive.
45 comments
All this stuff is very common, but not standard.
I have a nest thermostat and google home speakers, but I only use the google home speakers for music and they’re pieces of shit that don’t work about 25% of the time which is extremely frustrating.
most americans I know don’t have them except for maybe Ring doorbells.
the few that do usually complain that it’s more of a hassle then it’s worth most of the time.
Yes, my mom recently went out a bought an Alexa and an echo (Alexa for kitchen, echo for my bedroom)
There are variations of everything from nothing to fully smart/automated and everything in between.
I would say all of my family and friends here in the states has some but not all of these. Usually it’s one or two of these items.
Our dogs are the smartest things in our house.
We have a Blink doorbell but mainly to catch package thieves. Nothing else is smart. Husband works in cybersecurity and doesn’t trust any of it.
I have Alexa, cameras, and a ring doorbell. The Alexa controls our lighting, it’s nice to just be like “ALEXA turn the lights on”, and our doorbell is a motion activated camera which pings our phones – handy for when we let the dogs out and they want back in, or we have someone come up to the door
most people we know have some devices but not all of them. We have an Alexa, mostly use it for a shopping list. But it’s also connected to our living room lights. We don’t have a ring door bell or things like fridges or washing machines that are connected to our phones. We don’t use Nest or anything similar, we both wfh so not much reason to need it.
My son rented a new apartment last spring, and his entire apartment is set up this way. Smart entry, smart locks, everything is done through his phone. Security, HVAC, all payments, everything. He loves it.
Most people I know have some kind of smart device in their home like a video doorbell or an Alexa. They’re cheap and convenient.
I have google assistant, and use it to control about 20% of the lights in my house, my thermostat, my TVs, and a few other things.
I’m the only person I know who has this kind of setup.
Part of the issue is that installing these features requires a level of handyman knowledge that most people don’t have. So I can control my family room ceiling fan because I can replace a light switch. But I also need to buy and install enough switches to cover my whole house, which is expensive and takes time.
None at all. I need my privacy.
I have a nest thermostat and most of my lights are controlled by voice or timers through Alexa. I have 6 or 8 Alexa devices scattered about. I have camera’s set up inside and outside to keep an eye on my property. I have water sensors to monitor water leaks in the kitchen, bathrooms, laundry and sump pumps in the basement. I also have phone controlled door locks so I can let maintenance people in when I’m not around. I do this for two reasons. (1) I’m an engineer and like the technology. (2) I have two residences, one in the Midwest during the nice months and one in SW Florida in the winter. I’m age 74 and am captivated by all the remote access I have to my residences.
Ring doorbells are common, I know several people with them, but I don’t know anyone who has smart heat/lights/fans connected through their phone. Personally I find them a little intrusive.
No.
I think they’re mostly annoying and intrusive, but I do have cameras (exterior and baby monitors) for security. I don’t like app-controlled appliances and I would never bring something voice-activated into my home (I have as much of that disabled on my phone as possible).
Everyone I know has SOMETHING smart in their home. Whether it’s a ring doorbell or some smart display or maybe a set of wireless LED lights with an app or an Alexa somewhere that they use to check the weather or play music.
Almost nobody I know has a FULL smart home with a whole bunch of that stuff. Lots of houses with 1-3 “smart” items and almost none with 10+.
I know one person with a fully smart home. Lights, door locks, personalized shower settings, cameras in every room, etc. This guy is a quadraplegic who owns some sort of security company and received a large settlement from the car wreck that caused his paralysis.
Most other people I know don’t have more than maybe 1 or 2 things. My brother has outdoor cameras, he put some up at my parents house too. My neighbors have a washer that can connect to your phone, but she never used it. Ring doorbells are pretty common, I think. I saw several of them while I was trick or treating with my kids. We don’t have anything unless you wanna count the wifi itself, or a smartphone.
Its pretty hard to find a dumb TV at this point.
I got rid of my Google Home and Amazon Echo due to increased privacy concerns.
I reluctantly have a Nest Thermostat and “smart” washer/dryer, though they came with the house.
Most people do not have smart homes. They are pointless cause in just a few years smart stuff will not be compatible with the new stuff anyways. Personally I’ll be perfectly happy with a home built from 1880s to1920s home with a some modern stuff that was never built into the home. Seriously a 1920’s home is perfect. Its solid, it has everything you need and it has character. Any smart home garbage isn’t needed. If you really want a smart home feature. You can always add it in but again I find it utterly pointless.
I’d estimate that roughly a third to half of households have at least one smart device, most commonly a doorbell or thermostat. Fully integrated, voice-controlled smart homes, however, are still relatively rare and kind of a texh/nerd thing.
I used to run an Alexa and then a Google home. In reality, it ended up being a glorified kitchen timer/light switch. Google was a bitch to use because they made it learn your voice, so even though my ex wife paid for youtube music, if I asked for a song it would realize I’m not her and force ads into the music, or just refuse to play at all because I didn’t have a subscription.
Even when I turned off voice recognition, it still did that. And annoyingly every time a new Google product was released my old ones got stupid slow. My speakers would be working fine, and then a new speaker would drop. And suddenly my speakers acted like they couldn’t hear me anymore and would double their loading time.
The best smart home product I ever got was the Phillips hue bulbs. I had those bulbs in my basement and living room. It was super nice to be able to turn on my basement lights from my phone, and the kids loved the color changing bulbs in the living room.
But I wouldn’t get a smart home hub again. I just didn’t get enough utility out of it to justify the annoyance and the hassle. I’d get the Phillips bulbs again, it was super convenient.
I dont use it, but I have friends who do.
Seems when it functions it is a good time, like when cooking, or entertaining…but it trains your kids to not know how anything works.
My kids can put a vinyl record on and drop the needle, or hook their laptop to the television to watch YT, but their peers with Alexa homes can barely use a dimmer switch for the lights.
That’s going to vary by income level, age, etc.
I am no Luddite, but I don’t find most “smart” home devices particularly useful or desirable. However, I do appreciate using Google hands free to play songs, navigate, or make calls while driving.
I have a couple lights that are connected, as well as an automated litter box, but that’s it. I guess the Chromecast counts too. But no doorbell, refrigerator, nothing I talk to other than the remote for the TV, and that’s pretty rare
“*Most* Americans” (93%) have at least one smart device in their home. But that’s a very misleading number, because if you simply exclude smart TVs, that number drops to just 47%. And if you’re looking at 6 or more devices indicating the actual bare minimum “smart home”, you’re really only looking at only 18%.
It’s not unusual to see someone with lots of these devices and it’s also not unusual to see someone with none. My parents for example don’t have any “smart” devices in their household but do have security cameras hooked up. I have 2 Google homes, 2 Blink cameras, and Hue lights that I can control from the Google homes or my phone.
We now have a “smart” dishwasher. I have no understanding of why this is a good option, but it had the other things we wanted so here we are. Lol. It’s quicker and easier to push the buttons on the door than to open the app.
depends on the neighborhood. Middle class suburbs, yes, those things are very common along with security systems
Only our phone and our TV. We have an electronic fingerprint lock for our front door but it’s not like connected to the internet or anything. Sometimes people say “what if someone cuts off your finger and uses it to break in?” To which I say, if that happened I would have much bigger issues than them breaking in.
Most people don’t have more than a doorbell camera and maybe one of those home assistant things, if that. A full “smart” setup is expensive.
Personally, I want my home and every fixture and appliance in it to be completely brainless anyway. They don’t need to know anything except how to do their jobs. I don’t want my fridge tracking what food I buy, and I don’t want my TV serving me personalized ads by listening in on my conversations. No thank you!
I would say its fairly common to have one or more of those items, but I would not call that a “smart home” unless it had several, especially lights and thermostat control. Despite being pretty tech savvy myself we have only one of those things (Ring camera). We have a programmable set-back thermostat but its not on the internet (smart enough for us without the risk of someone hacking our house and messing with it). Recently we got some new appliances that are wifi enabled, but we really don’t see much need for those features.
Most people I know do have smart devices, especially smart lights and doorbells. Most houses in my neighborhood have some form of smart doorbell. My house has all lightbulbs swapped for smart lights with smart switches to control without the phone if I want. It also has a smart doorbell and a camera for my backyard for security. I used to have Alexa devices but never used them so got rid of them.
It really just depends on the environment you live in. I imagine there’s a wide spectrum of smart device usage across the country.
I know a few people with Ring Doorbells, or Smartlocks. No one else I know uses any sort of smart home stuff. Especially smart speakers. I have never met anyone who actually uses one.
Hue lights for one room and some smart plugs are as far as I’ve gone with it.
A former coworker did smart lights for his entire house which created funny situations when the power went out. As soon as it came back on they’d all turn on at full brightness, but he’d need to wait for his network to come back online before he could do anything about it.
I have a bunch of things- cameras, lights, locks, thermostat. But I work at a security company, I get all devices at cost, and I am part of the lead tech support team for them. It’s not unusual for anyone who works at my company and is fairly standard for many of our customers. That said lots of people have none of this.
I’m watching the houses get built here, they are nice homes but I’m noticing they no longer install wiring a doorbell.
There’s no button at all, no bell no wiring. There’s buyer adds Ring or a wireless doorbell from the hardware store
Things like custom curtains and shades may be standard on a luxurious home but mostly it’s something buyers add themselves.
Same with security
A little bit embarrassing, I love my privacy, and smart stuff too but my husband loves ring and scenes. So we got Ring doorbell, 9 camera outside and in garage, ring alarm system. smart Central AC system. Matter lights or switches for all lights. MYQ for garage. Tesla panels and powerwalls. Smart fridge, washer and dryer. Smart TVs, Sonos for sound. All smart locks. Smart shades. Computer UPSs. A few google screens and apple HomePods to control. Etc etc etc If you can make it smart, we probably done it. The idea was to go all HomeKit, and that didn’t work some using google as well.
In my home office tho I used Home Assistant just for my lights and my UPS and that is it. Nothing else
in there lol
Full blown smart homes no never
A mishmash of a few smart devices sure
Most people I know don’t own their homes and therefore don’t have the ability to “upgrade” to smart appliances or heating systems. It seems Ike the few that do own don’t really feel the need to upgrade if the home didn’t come with smart features already.
Most people I know either have nothing smart, or they have a like a ring doorbell and that’s it. For some of them it’s because they’re techie and know the risks of it, for the rest…they don’t trust the tech because they don’t understand it (tbc, they’re smart – this set is mostly the seniors in my life).
My house is *sooooooooo DUMB*! My fridge is connected insofar as checking on filter quality and temperature settings but it doesn’t have video cameras or ordering capabilities. My whole-house speakers are app controlled but no lights, no doorbell, no thermostat, no nothing else.
Even my 2007 vehicle is blissfully dumb.
I have a bunch of friends who either work in IT, have security clearances, or both. None of them have smart home stuff for security reasons. Therefore, neither do I. (My dishwasher is smart home capable, but I have not connected it. I disabled access to our tv, etc.)
Our house was built in 1977 and we can’t afford all that shit, so no.
Only thing we have are two window a/c units that can be controlled remotely from the phone. It helps when coming home from an extended time away to cool the house before we arrive.