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The development of modern technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data, and others have a huge impact on people’s lives and their activities. The latest tech trends are used in many different areas to lighten various workloads and processes – private life, business life, and other possible settings and environments where automating and integrating contemporary software solutions can be applied.
In this article, we will immerse you into the world of smart home technology and discuss its practical use and likely benefits for your business.
Developing Design Solutions for Smart Homes
These days security systems are in high demand in any sphere of our lives – home, work, business. New technologies being introduced into contemporary security systems provide advanced functionality that lets users manage their smart devices from their smartphones and get the convenience of remote access to all optionality. Thus, we have researched how your business can benefit from using smart home technology and if it is worth investing and implementing it into your organization.
Multiple layers of security
Smart home technology provides the highest level of protection for your office and all items placed there. It is more reliable than a simple security system as you can independently check up on your office from your smartphone via security cameras, regulate the lights, temperature, locks, water pressure, and so on.
Moreover, it is advisable to connect your system with the local governmental (enforcement agencies) or private (security) control center, depending on where you are and your preferences, so that they could react quickly if any problems arise with your offices or the security system and fix them asap.
Remote access
The access control system for your smart home tech from your smartphone allows you to not only monitor the building but also reminds you to activate the system in case you forget. You can easily lock all doors and windows within your office after having already left the building, or you can, from a distance, unlock and then lock the office space to let someone in, like cleaning and maintenance staff, repair people, employees, etc.
Types of smart home systems
There are three main types of smart home applications that largely differ in terms of their aims and functionality. The choice mostly depends on the size of your organization and the range of features you need.
Features for smart home development
Here are the common features being used in smart home applications for their effective use at home, at the office, or any other type of setting.
Onboarding and set-up
Onboarding is one of the vital options for smart home apps. It allows new users to create and set up new accounts with particular access levels to the smart home device(s) within your organization.
User roles
User roles are just an option that lets you easily set different access levels for your employees. It can mean detailing the access level to the building, particular room in the office as well as database, documents, and other vital business information.
System admins can set up these access levels so that when a new user starts in a position, he or she automatically gets the appropriate access level. Thus, there is no need to check and double-check this for each new user as you can be sure that no one will be breaking the rules.
Notifications
Notifications are the most important feature for smart home technologies as they show the operability of the system, alerts about the violations and attacks to your office or databases. A different type of notification is also responsible for alerting the relevant party about the user’s activities.
Remote control and automation
Due to the automation of some processes via smart devices, you can easily run these devices remotely. Functions such as checking the security cameras, accessing business data, regulating the office temperature, checking if the doors are locked, and other things which you will typically opt to do during the weekend or vacation.
Monitoring and reports
A custom smart home app can facilitate reporting based on the analyzed data that was processed by your smart home system. The main aim here is to show the efficacy of the application and the potential improvements that your system may need.
Popular smart home apps
Smart home apps are already in wide use all over the world. This technology has been adopted by the most popular brands known and used in many countries. Here are the top popular smart home tools that are in high demand today.
Amazon’s Alexa
Alexa is a scalable smart home automation system widely used all over the world. It is a kind of personal assistant that executes a multitude of user’s requests or tasks via voice recognition of verbal commands via built-in Alexa microphones; these devices can be positioned anywhere within your house or space and activated anytime with a simple “hey Alexa” after which it will start picking up your voice and you can simply proceed with your question or inquiry.
And if you are familiar with Alexa, then you definitely know about the Alexa app ecosystem, whereby it controls all of the Alexa devices and has the capability to control many other smart home devices as well. The application is able to connect all Alexa and other smart devices for convenient remote control and management from your smartphone.
SmartThings by Samsung
SmartThings is a contemporary home automation system based on IoT technology. It is able to provide an IoT-enabled environment within your home by connecting and remotely managing different devices like fridges, air conditioners, washers, etc. This app allows the registering of several users simultaneously, which is convenient since you can include all family members.
The “SmartThings” application sends notifications about all your connected devices and their states but in case of an outage, the system won’t be able to alert you about any news or updates on your smart home devices.
Apple Home
Apple HomeKit system is considered to be one of the best smart home development platforms available on the modern market. It is applicable for all Apple devices as well as devices of other brands. The app has a different version so you can easily manage your smart devices from iPhone, iMac, or iPad.
Apple Homekit differs from other smart home solutions by its high level of security and ability to connect practically any device. Among the core functions, we would like to highlight that you can adjust the thermostat, also turn the lights onoff, lock the door, windows, close the curtains, and so on.
Google Home
Google Home is an extended smart home application that connects all devices within your home that is compatible with the app. We would like to highlight that the most popular of its commands among its users are things like checking the weather, turning the lights onoff in your house, and many other voice commands.
What Will Smart Homes Look Like 10 Years From Now?
Smart home future development is expected to become “smarter”. Currently, many smart security systems offer common basic options like the aforementioned lights and temperature regulation, locking the doors and windows, access to security cameras footage, voice control, etc. Smart home devices are expected to become even more integrated with IoT through the expansion of built-in AI capability.
By 2023, smart home technology in American homes will be 53.9%.
The future of smart home technology lies in continued development, meaning that it will not just connect all smart devices but also collect data about the owners of these devices, analyze them and adjust performance to the owners’ particular needs. For example, Amazon’s Alexa never stops listening to you. The number of people with smart homes is expected to rise to 63 million and that’s only counting in the U.S.
How much does it cost to build a custom Smart Home solution?
Well, if we talk about the implementation of smart home technologies for your personal needs, it is quite enough to choose one of the ready-made smart home development systems and set it up within your house to protect your home from the various potential threats posed by the outside world.
But on the other hand, if you are looking to equip your business with smart home technology, we would strongly recommend that you consider having a custom system developed. Let us explain why. For one, you can include the features that your company definitely needs based on industry specifics and company requirements.
Home automation development is quite a complex and challenging process that will take several months and thousands of dollars to develop. The final cost of the development will depend on the scope of your system, the needed technologies, and appropriate developers to build these technologies with the necessary programs and languages. The average rates of developers depend on their level of skill and start from $50 for one specialist, per hour.
Custom smart home system development may seem like an unjustified expense. However, imagine how many benefits you get with your own unique and innovative smart home tool for your business – you get the needed features, latest tech trends, the highest level of protection as only your organization will use this app. Additionally, you receive constant support and app maintenance from your development team in order to scale the app, integrate with new technologies, fix any errors, and perform other improvements to enhance your business capacity.
Outsourcing tech partner: tips on how to choose
Security is one of the most vital aspects to consider for businesses in the modern world. There are so many different types of potential risks, threats, frauds, hackers, and so on that are ready to do a lot to break your security system leading to data leakage.
Choosing the right technical partner for building a security system for your organization is a key to the quality protection of your office, workflows, and business information. But that isn’t all, we have created a compilation of top reasons why you should choose to outsource your development to a partner and how not to make a mistake.
Meeting your expectations
Before you start looking for a trusted software development outsourcing partner, you need to clearly define what it is that you are looking to develop, how it will be used within your business, and therefore what skills and experience the software developers need to have in order to execute on all of those tasks.
Prototype development
MVP development is a great option to test the solution as well as your technical partner. The option of prototype development is an obvious stage of the software development life cycle in order to test the functionality of the core feature set of the future solution, check its effectiveness, and find out what direction needs to be taken on the further development of the solution.
At Altamira, we insist on first developing an MVP solution to test the prototype and take in and reflect on feedback from first users.
Focus on your project
The Altamira development team follows the Scrum Agile methodology in building software solutions. This development approach is suitable for projects of all types with less clearly defined scope and variable specifications during the process. It means that our team is able to adjust to your needs and make amendments along the way even if the development process has already started.
Long-term partnership
Building custom software from scratch is not a one-day process. You need to choose a reliable tech partner that is interested in building long-term and productive partnerships. A dedicated development team model would be a perfect approach for this type of software project.
The dedicated development team approach means that developers will be entirely engaged and committed to your project and its specifics, focused on fruitful cooperation and successful final results of this cooperation. This team model is suitable for large-scale projects that imply a long-term development process.
How can Altamira help?
On our account, we have built plenty of web and mobile software solutions of different types, scopes, complexities, and for various industries. We focus on delivering high-grade services to our clients including building custom software from scratch, and also optimizing or integrating existing systems with the newest used technology and practices.
Have a look at the technical expertise our specialists are proficient in:
| Databases | MySQL, Firebase, PostgreSQL, Mongo DB |
| HTML | SASS, HTML5, Bootstrap, Ant Design, Material-UI |
| Front-end | PHP, Node.js, Python, Apache, Nginx |
| Back-end | JavaScript, Angular, React, Webpack |
| iOS development | Swift, SQLite |
| Android development | Java, Android SDK, Kotlin |
| API integration | PayPal, Google Analytics, Stripe, Google Cloud Messaging, and others |
One of our latest projects related to smart home technology is named Kontaq – a QR code-based solution that will serve as the video doorbell, identifying users at a reasonable cost for the app owners. So let’s schedule a consultation to discuss the capacity of implementing smart home technology into your organization or improving existing internal security systems.