For the smart home, how many apps is too many?

When you decide to buy smart home tech, one of the first things you’ll notice is the number of apps. Most popular smart home devices – Nest, August door lock, SmartThings, even the Amazon Echo – they all have their own smart phone app. And the apps are great - they give you the ability to control and monitor that device and whatever it does in your house from wherever you are. That's half the selling point of having a smart home in the first place.

But once you start buying more than a few different devices, the apps start to pile up. CNET revealed their smart home today, with recommendations for best ofs in each category - lighting, thermostats, security, sensors, etc. The comprehensive and in-depth nature of their reviews, along with their honesty and no-fluff approach make their smart home project one of the most detailed and helpful to date. The CNET team reviewed hoards of smart home products to come up with recommendations in each category overall.

But what if you wanted to buy everything on their list?

What if you wanted to outfit your whole home (or build a new home complete with) a DIY smart home system? If you buy every single product on the recommended products list, you would have over 20 apps. TWENTY. Now, the whole premise of the CNET Smart Home - and what they are basically saying is the killer app in smart home right now - is the Amazon Echo and the ability to control all your devices with your voice. So theoretically, when you're in the house, voice control takes the place of your smartphone apps.  Alexa, turn the living room on and Alexa, turn the thermostat down 2 degrees almost feels like magic.

And then there's IFTTT - the If This Then That recipe app that let's you connect and automate devices that don't talk to one another. You could eliminate the need for other app usage if you had the know-how and wanted to take the time to set up recipes to control your home. But then, it's also another app.

I have exactly five apps in the "smart home" folder on my iPhone: SmartThings, Belkin WeMo, Amazon Echo, Anova Sous Vide Wi-Fi and IFTTT. I don't use the WeMo one much, because I only have one smart plug, and I have an automation set up on it that never needs to be changed. I rarely go into the Echo app, because I have an IFTTT recipe set up to email me my grocery list at the end of every week. That, coupled with native Spotify and SmartThings integration, and I only have to ask Alexa to do stuff for me. As for Anova, I only use it when I use my sous vide cooker, and I don't *have* to use the app if I don't want to, which is nice.

I use my SmartThings app the most, and that's the app that controls most of my house. SmartThings is a smart home hub, and connects the rest of the stuff in my house together, and to Echo. My Z-Wave bulbs, door/window sensors, motion sensors, door lock and thermostat are all controlled and automated through SmartThings. I like being able to make sure that the heat was shut off before we left the house (forecast is 66 today, but was a chilly 40 when I came downstairs this morning) and that everything is locked and shut off if no one is home. I think I would like my smart home less if I had to check my door lock app, my thermostat app, my lighting app and my home security app to accomplish the same task.

Right now, most regular people (read: non smart home & tech industry folks) that I know either have no smart home gear in their home, or very little. They might have an Echo, or a Nest. A few people I know have Phillips Hue bulbs in their rec rooms because their kids think the colorful bulbs are cool. But I wonder how many of them will tolerate 3, 7, or 10 apps on their phone to control all of their stuff. I've seen lots of complaints in the press about the concept of hubs - and having to have buy an extra box for everything to work and connect to your router - but I'm going to be honest: the $99 I paid for my hub far outweighs the annoyance factor of having to toggle (and keep storage space for!) 10 device apps on my phone.

If you're thinking of buying smart home gear in the future, the CNET smart home reviews are a great place to start. Their videos and photos are a helpful way to see what will work in your own home. But before you buy, you might have to delete Angry Birds, Candy Crush, Uber and a bunch of the photos and videos on your phone to make room for all those new apps. 

(Disclosure: I work with several smart home brands as well as the Z-Wave Alliance. I don't do PR for Amazon Echo, and will talk to anyone about my unabashed love for Alexa.)