The Google Home app now supports Nest and Yale smart locks, meaning you can add these locks to your Google-powered smart home setup and control them from your iPhone. Home automation is certainly convenient, but are smart locks, which provide the core security for where you live, really a good idea?
The smart lock for people who hate the look of smart locks! – Level Lock Bolt
Smart locks, when paired with smart doorbell cameras, automatically unlock your front door when you arrive home, let you check if you left the door unlocked (and relock it if you did), and even let you check who just rang the doorbell. But they can be hacked, and there are all sorts of unintended consequences, like alerting homeowners to impending FBI raids. Yes, you read that right.
"The biggest risk, I think," John Brownlee, editor of health magazine Folks, told Lifewire via Twitter, "is not hackers or thieves — there are easier ways to break in. It's law enforcement taking advantage of loopholes to circumvent due process rights."
Smart locks, like all smart home gadgets, let you control and automate your devices remotely. With an app on your phone, you can activate and dim lights, turn on your heating, play music, and more. Because these devices are controlled by apps, they can be automated and then activated by talking to your Google Home, Alexa, or HomePod smart speakers, for example. Automations can also be grouped into “scenes.”
