Here’s How to Make Your Home Smarter Without Buying a Hub or Smart Speaker

When people ask me what smart home device they should buy first, I usually suggest smart speaker. Its convenience is undeniable, especially when setting timers, listening to music and making quick conversions of measurements in kitchenYou can also find smart speakers at every price point.

But the killer feature is the huge ecosystem of compatible devices that work easily with Alexa and Google. Smart speakers are great smart hubs. Or is something else in play?

Alexa and Google Home are more than just smart speakers

Smart speakers are the public face of Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Home, but they’re surprisingly small parts of their smart home ecosystems. They may seem like smart hubs, but they’re voice-command input devices, more like keyboards than processors.

In fact, many major smart home platforms rely heavily on the cloud – aside from a few local integrations like Bluetooth, Matter, Thread, Zigbee, and Z-Wave – including smart hubs like Smart things and Ezlo. It all comes down to Wi-Fi popularity and ease of use.

If your smart device uses Wifithere is a high probability that almost every action, schedule, procedure, notification, and setting relies on a central server, not on your phone.

Vocal advocates of the local smart home, like the Home Assistant crowd, would rightly point out that cloud-based smart home integrations are useless without an internet connection. However, the ubiquity of the internet means that you can use the cloud to create a smart home without smart speakers or smart hubs.

With that explanation out of the way, here’s the recipe for a smart home without speakers:

• Smart home devices with access to an internet connection (directly via Wi-Fi or indirectly via a smart hub)
• Login details for two compatible smart home platforms
• An application that acts as a virtual smart hub: Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, SmartThings, IFTTT, etc.

Experience Alexa without the noise by connecting your online accounts

I’ll limit my examples to Alexa, but a similar process can be applied to other smart home platforms.

1. Download Amazon Alexa app and log in with your Amazon account.
2. Answer “no” when asked if you want to set up your device.
3. Follow the instructions to complete app setup.
4. If you haven’t done so already, set up the smart home device you want to connect to Alexa.
5. You can connect accounts from the Alexa app or another device’s app. (If you’re using Alexa, search for your device’s brand, such as Govee or Hubspace. If you use another app, there’s often an “integrations” or “smart home” menu where you can select Alexa from a list.)
6. Sometimes the account connection screen will ask you a few questions before proceeding to authorize the connection. You don’t need to enter any login information, as long as you’ve already signed in to Alexa and the target app, but it may still ask for your password.
7. Once authorized, connected products will appear on the Alexa devices tab, where you can set up groups, rooms, and automation routines in your smart home system.
8. Repeat steps 4 through 7 for additional smart home accounts.

Regardless of whether you use a smart speaker, you shouldn’t expect the full functionality of another device’s app to transfer over to Alexa. That depends on how deeply the manufacturer decides to integrate with Alexa.

For example, when I connect the Hubspace light strip to Alexa, I get basic control over color and brightness, but no scenes or lighting modes. Alexa, on the other hand, controls almost every feature and mode on my Govee Light BarWhile Alexa doesn’t give you the ability to create custom lighting scenes, she can see the custom scenes I’ve created using the Govee app.

Either way, you can now control your connected devices from the Alexa app instead of having to switch between multiple apps.

What do you lose by giving up a smart speaker?

The obvious downside to relying on a server to connect your smart home devices is that you lose control of your mobile app and automation if your internet goes down. While it’s true that a smart speaker (or smart hub) also has this weakness, it can provide more features than a mobile app. Likewise, if a brand discontinues support for your smart home app, you may need to revert back to their app.

At first glance, a smart speaker may seem like the only way to use voice control in a smart home, but to compensate, Alexa and Google Assistant are easily installed on modern smartphones. (Apple is an exception, as Siri and Apple Home are exclusive to Apple devices.) Still, using a voice assistant on your phone isn’t as convenient as using a dedicated smart speaker.

Another benefit you give up is the ability for a smart speaker to automatically detect new devices. An Echo Dot or Nest Mini can check for compatible devices on the same Wi-Fi network and suggest adding them to your smart home system. This cuts down on setup time and simplifies building a smart home.

Smart speakers with built-in smart hub technology still have their place

Despite the optional nature of smart speakers in smart home control, models with built-in smart home radios are still practical. Amazon Echo (4th generation) supports Zigbee and Thread devices that otherwise require a smart hub. The same goes for the latest Apple HomePod and Google Nest Hub models, which use Thread technology to connect to compatible devices.

The built-in Thread radios also mean these speakers can act as Thread Border Routers and Matter controllers. In theory, Matter and Thread don’t require an internet connection, so you could control your smart home over your local Wi-Fi connection if your hub supports it. In practice, this functionality isn’t ready for prime time, but I’m glad it’s on the horizon.

Ultimately, you’ll need to decide whether the Alexa or Google Home app is enough for your smart home needs. While a smart home app can be a good way to test out the ecosystem before purchasing an additional device, the convenience and affordability of smart speakers make them useful tools.