Smart Home
A smart home uses connected devices - plugs, bulbs, sensors, cameras and switches - that you control from your phone or by voice. Most smart home products are easy to set up yourself: plug them in, connect them to your Wi-Fi and pair them in an app.
Smart Home or Home Automation?
With a smart home, you are in control: you switch individual devices on and off through an app or with your voice. Home automation goes a step further: connected systems work together on their own, following rules set up in advance, without anyone having to press a button.
How an automation works
Every automation is built from three parts:
- Trigger - what starts it: a time of day, a sensor, or a location (for example, arriving home).
- Condition (optional) - when it is allowed to run, for example "only when someone is home".
- Action - what happens: lights, blinds, heating and so on.
Smart Home and Home Automation at a glance
| Smart Home Device control | Home Automation Autonomous systems | |
|---|---|---|
| Control | You act: through an app or a voice command. | Runs by itself, on rules set up in advance. |
| How devices work together | Each device works on its own, often in its own brand app. | The systems talk to each other on one shared platform. |
| Example | Asking a voice assistant to turn on a smart bulb. | When you sit down to watch TV, a presence sensor dims the lights, closes the blinds and lowers the heating. |
Tuya
Tuya is a widely used smart home platform: devices from many brands work together in the same app (Tuya Smart or Smart Life) and with voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. It covers both worlds: you can control each device yourself, and link devices in automations.
Read more in About Home Automation, and see our Know-How guides for help with installation.