The top Smart Home trends from IFA 2022
Europe's biggest annual technology show IFA took place from the 2nd to the 6th of September at the Messe Berlin exhibition centre in Germany, and we had a front-row seat to all the action, showcasing our best-selling and exciting upcoming products alike!
From our spot in the heart of the lively exhibition floor, we couldn’t help but notice a few trends in the many presentations and product announcements from leading smart home brands. Missed out on all the fun but still want to be up to date on what to expect from the top tech brands over the next year? Well, fear not! We have identified the top Smart Home trends that we can expect to see filling our homes soon.
Connected smart home tech is the way of the future
As the smart home market continues to boom, customers are looking for products that are smarter, easier to use, and more secure. Interoperability between their devices is becoming not just a need but a want for the average user, as they look to easily manage and control their entire home.
Interoperability was the biggest theme highlighted by us at IFA 2022, and it has always been at the heart of what we aim to do as a brand. Our flagship product, the Linus® Smart Lock, seamlessly integrates with Yale Smart Alarms. Meaning that when your door is unlocked with Linus®, your alarm is automatically deactivated, avoiding the risk of any loud false alarms being triggered. Yale Smart Alarms can also be connected with our Smart Camera range, so you can create a more comprehensive and customised security system. But how does this benefit you? Well, the moment your alarm is deactivated, your indoor Pan & Tilt Camera is switched to privacy mode. Giving you one less thing to remember about once you return home!
Joining Linus® as part of our Yale Access Range is the new Smart Storage Line. The Smart Safe can be used to store away a wide variety of valuable items, while the Smart Cabinet Lock is the ultimate childproofing solution, helping parents to lock away dangerous medicines and cleaning products.
And if you ever have your hands full but need access to your Smart Cabinet Lock or Smart Safe then don't worry! Both products can be opened or locked using voice commands, thanks to integrations with leading voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, HomeKit and Google Assistant. The new smart storage range and Linus® are easily controlled from a single app, the Yale Access App. Providing you with an even greater level of interoperability and convenience.
In our ambition to create a single-user experience for all our customers, we have placed a major emphasis on strategic partnerships. We boast a wide portfolio of top brand partners like Philips Hue, Homey, Bosch, and now Somfy - the specialist in connected equipment for the home, to offer our customers a more connected and seamless user experience.
Sustainability is key for brands and consumers
If there was only one thing to be taken from IFA 2022 it would be this. Sustainability was the keyword at the tradeshow. The biggest brands within the industry are placing a heavy emphasis on sustainability within their products. And it’s not just brands that are taking note. Sustainability has quickly become one of the most important factors buyers consider while deciding which products and devices to invest in for their homes.
Consumers are no longer just taking issues like safety, performance, and price into account before they purchase. Now, they are also keen to invest their money in products and companies that value sustainability. And from what we saw at IFA 2022, companies are paying attention to these customers’ concerns. Doing their best to create new products that are not just innovative, but also help protect the planet's future by placing sustainability at the forefront of all their design decisions.
The smart home in particular has been identified as a big step toward helping households lower their carbon emissions. Our partnerships with brands like Zipato or Homey can help you to make your home more sustainable, thanks to full home and energy control, available to you at the touch of a button.
Zipato® will turn off your lights, arm your alarm, and switch off your heating to save you energy as soon as Linus® locks your door once you leave the house. Allowing you to reduce your carbon footprint, while also placing complete control of your entire home in your hands! Integrating our smart security devices into your automated set-up also puts a key focus on safety when it comes to the topic of sustainability, as a quick and simple way to ensure the security of your home at all times.
Efficiency is desired to combat the rising cost of living
We’ve all felt the effects that rising gas and electricity prices have had on our wallets. With people struggling to keep up with this ever-increasing cost, consumers are looking to upgrade to solutions that will help them run their homes at a lower cost, while also making their lives run more smoothly.
Our latest partnership with Somfy brings both interoperability and efficacy to the forefront! By adding our Yale Linus® Smart Lock into the Somfy ecosystem of connected products, you will be able to avail of a large range of additional features and functionalities. Most notably, you will be given the ability to create specific personalised scenarios that can all be created and controlled using the Somfy TaHoma app.
Custom scenarios sound great but can they really make your daily routine simpler? The answer is yes! For example, if you choose to create a ‘’Leaving’’ scenario when you head out for the day, the scenario will switch off your lights, close the shutters, and lock your front door using your Linus® Smart Lock. Saving you time and money, while also making your home much safer.
Matter will play a huge role in future tech solutions
Something that might seem troublesome when owning various smart home solutions from different brands is that they don’t always integrate with each other. Well, the industry has been working hard to come up with a solution to this problem and it made quite the splash at IFA 2022.
Matter is a new smart home connectivity standard that’s been in the works for a few years now. It has the backing of some major players in the industry, including big tech companies like Apple, Samsung, Google and Amazon. Under Matter, these companies are working to establish a single standard that allows products from different companies to coexist in the same ecosystem (tearing down the technical silos).
When launched, this impressive technology will promise customers a much simpler way of getting their various devices to work together. Making their homes smarter, more secure, and easier to run. As a global leader in smart locks, we embrace initiatives that improve interoperability in any way and are aligning ourselves and our partners to develop Matter-capable access solutions for the future.
Lots of exciting announcements were made at IFA 2022, both by Yale and the other exhibitors present. We are excited to see what next year’s event brings and to play a part in helping to shape the future of smart home technology with each of our upcoming product releases.