5 great smart devices to use with the Android ecosystem

If your Android phone can give your home a high degree of appreciation, it will. Android has the power to transform any ordinary home into a Star Trek-like technological marvel. Although we complain about many of the shortcomings inherent in today's smart home market, there is still plenty to brag about. Here are five of our favorite smart home devices that you can integrate into your Android ecosystem right now.

1 Philips Hue smart bulbs

These are our best-selling smart bulbs for a reason

There are many smart light bulbs on the market, but Philips Hue is arguably the best. These lamps are more than just sources of light. They are the engineers of the atmosphere. Atmospheric designers. Mood composers. You found the idea.

You can choose from an endless array of colors and brightness levels. It has a long lasting life of up to 25,000 hours, which will give you years of use. It's also easy to install and set up using Google Home. You can easily control it with Google Assistant by simply linking your Google account to the Philips Hue app. There's something satisfying about playing a movie and then yelling “Hey Google, turn my living room blue!”

2 Sonos Era 300 smart speaker

Google Assistant plus exceptional sound with spatial audio

We reviewed the Sonos Era 300 smart speaker. The TLDR is that this is a great smart speaker and takes over where both Google and Amazon dropped the ball with their own devices. Sonos' laser-focused dedication to audio has been rocking our world for a while, and the Era 300 is the latest piece of the puzzle. It has amazing room-filling sound mixed with the smarts of Google Home or Amazon Alexa.

Link your Google account to the Sonos app, and you can summon Google Assistant or Alexa using the speaker. He is a personal DJ who is also your personal assistant and can control your thermostat and lights.

3 Ring 4 doorbell camera

Security at your fingertips, no subscription required

Ring doorbell 4

$128 $160 Save $32

The Google Nest doorbell camera isn't bad per se, but it's not as good as Amazon's Ring doorbell camera. For starters, you don't need a subscription to use a Ring camera (although Amazon does offer upgraded services with a subscription plan). The Ring packs a punch, too. Motion detection will alert you the moment there is movement at your front door. Two-way audio can welcome your Amazon delivery driver or scare away potential porch pirates.

The device integrates with your Android phone through the Amazon Alexa app. You can install an Alexa skill to sync it with your Google Home. While it's not entirely frictionless, thanks to Amazon's hostile take on “Amazon-only” software, it's not impossible to do. Once you have everything set up, you'll be able to monitor your front porch like an eagle's eye.

4 Wi-Fi Smart Lock on August 4th

Get rid of keys with this easy-to-install smart lock

Generation August 4

$172 $230 Save $58

The August 4th Generation Home Wi-Fi Smart Lock remains our favorite smart lock for another year. This smart device turns your existing lock into a super smart castle guard. You can lock or unlock your door with just a few taps on your Android phone and shout, “Open the gates!” As you do so. Best of all is the ability to give temporary keys to friends and house cleaners while keeping a record of everyone who enters your mighty castle.

The August app is easy to install and set up, and you can link your Google account to give your Google Assistant control over the lock. This is very useful when setting up Make Room for the King! As a custom unlock command.

5 Ecobee enhanced smart thermostat

More reliable than Nest

Ecobee enhanced smart thermostat

The Ecobee Enhanced smart thermostat is the center of home comfort, controlling your furnace and air conditioner, and helping maintain air quality. The device is very smart. It can learn your temperature preferences and adjust accordingly, making sure you never get too hot or too cold. It has geolocation capabilities, so you don't waste your energy when you're not home.

The Ecobee app is where a lot of the magic happens. Once you link your Google Account to the app, you can start using your thermostat with Google Home and Google Assistant. You can then change the temperature by complaining. Yelling “Hey Google, it's too hot in here!” It will turn down the heat or turn on the air conditioner. How cool is that?

5 smart devices to save the smart home using Android

These five smart devices prove that Android is good enough to be the brains behind your smart home. They all integrate seamlessly with your Android phone, and most of them can be controlled using Google Assistant.

We've heard all the rumblings about the state of Android smartphones in 2024. But these five devices show that there is hope for the ecosystem. We have deliberately moved away from smart TV streaming devices. A smooth, easy-to-use smart TV experience remains frustratingly elusive here on the Android side of things. The Apple TV 4K remains our recommendation for those who need a dedicated streaming device.

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