How Are IoT & Mobile Apps Bringing the Smart Home Concept to Life?

The concept of smart homes in the past few years has garnered a lot of interest and adoption from people around the world. People can control the parameters of their houses through dedicated mobile apps from anywhere. 

With the rise in home automation, mobile app development as an interface to control smart homes has also risen, pushing home automation service companies towards hiring trusted mobile app developers to build home automation apps. 

The smart home market is growing exponentially as people worldwide have started investing in them owing to the convenience they bring into their daily lives. It is anticipated that the smart home market volume will reach USD 222.90 billion by 2027, registering an annual growth rate of 12.47% in the period of 2022-2027, up from the projected volume of USD 117.60 billion in 2022. 

In this post, we will discuss one of the most important technologies that power home automation. We'll be discussing IoT, one of the most revolutionary technologies of this decade. We'll shed more light on IoT app development and how it transforms our traditional homes into smart homes. 

So, let's move ahead and start by getting an overview of the IoT technology.

A Brief Overview of IoT

"The Internet of Things represents the next big wave of technological change, and it will revolutionize the way we live, work, and play."

Mark Zuckerberg - CEO of Facebook

IoT, aka the Internet of Things, is one of the most celebrated and groundbreaking technologies powering automation in industries and homes around the world. It is almost impossible for a techie these days not to be aware of the Internet of Things. 

The Internet of Things refers to smart objects embedded with sensors, software, and hardware that enable them to connect to the Internet and the common cloud. Internet connectivity allows them to share and receive data, or you can say communicate with other devices that are part of the cloud.

According to Statista, the global Internet of Things market is anticipated to reach USD 621 billion by 2030, almost tripling from the USD 182 billion reported in 2020. This shows how the Internet of Things is becoming a vast market.

The infographic below highlights the key components of IoT. The components that power up the Internet of Things technology.

Suggested Reading: Internet of Things Is Paving the Way for Smart Cities

A Brief Overview Home Automation

Smart homes are the product of home automation. Home automation is a system that powers smart homes and allows monitoring and controlling various processes or attributes inside them, such as light control, temperature controls, security checks, and much more.

The primary thing every home requires for home automation is for most of its appliances and objects to be smart. Smart appliances are wifi ready and contain sensors allowing owners to control them remotely. Other than smart appliances, smart things such as lights, thermostats, doors & windows, and security cameras are all made wifi-ready and integrated with sensors that together make them smart. 

Smart ones replace all traditional objects and appliances in a smart home connected to a shared cloud.

IoT & Mobile App Development 

Mobile apps are necessary for IoT to work correctly and allow smart homeowners to control parameters in their smart homes from anywhere. Mobile apps act as a medium or, say, an interface for people to control the smart home powered by IoT from anywhere at any time. There can be other options as well, such as a dedicated website, but the convenience and reliability that mobile apps bring are incomparable,

Hence, the demand for mobile app development has been rising with the rise in IoT adoption for various applications across industries. We can also categorize it as IoT app development. 

Businesses looking forward to building IoT-powered mobile apps can go through the list of Goodtal’s top Android app developers and iOS app developers to find the best people to outsource their app development tasks.

How IoT in Mobile App Development Is Powering Building & Home Automation?

The Internet of Things, in combination with mobile apps, is making controlling various things and parameters in the home more convenient for users. Let's discuss in detail how IoT app development empowers home automation and the concept of smart homes.

#1 Tighter Security 

Internet of Things powered security cameras and doors are becoming more common as the smart home concept is gradually becoming more economical for larger demography worldwide. IoT-powered security systems are highly reliable.

IoT-powered security systems are so popular that they have a different market. According to reports, the IoT security market is set to reach a worldwide valuation of USD 6.68 billion by the end of 2023 and USD 20.24 billion by 2027. Looking at the stats, we can see how the market is set to boom threefold in the coming years. 

Let's try to understand the functioning of these IoT-powered security systems. IoT-enabled security systems are responsible for multiple functions inside a smart home. 

The first thing that an IoT-enabled security system needs to do is secure the router. A router is the central component of this system, as it connects all the other sensors through the internet. If anyone gets access to the router, everything in the house and, most importantly, your sensitive information stored in the cloud can be accessed.

Hence, the things lying inside the house, such as the router and safes, can be secured once the doors and windows are secured. The IoT-powered doors and windows can be locked and unlocked from anywhere. Therefore, even if you leave your doors open, the system will send you an alert; hence, you can lock them anywhere using dedicated mobile apps.

Smart security cameras are often part of IoT-enabled security systems. These cameras not only monitor the movement around the house but also, when something abnormal or suspicious happens, they alert house owners through the mobile app.

IoT-powered security systems do a lot more than the tasks I mentioned above, which makes the smart home impeccable security. 

#2 Easier Controls 

"The Internet of Things is about creating a smarter, more connected world, where devices can communicate with each other to make our lives easier and more efficient."

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Alphabet (Google)

That's right. The Internet of Things is all about connecting every smart object in your house with your mobile app. This way, IoT enables you to control your appliances from anywhere. Imagine you left your home without turning off your cooktop, leaving food to burn. But in your IoT-powered smart home, you need not worry about it. 

You can just turn your cooktop off from your smartphone using the dedicated mobile app. It is as simple as that. To remove any ambiguity for the readers, we assume that as the home is smart, all the appliances, including the cooktop, are smart. 

This way, IoT-enabled devices make the concept of home automation come to life, thus making what was impossible a reality today.

#3 Prescheduling Tasks 

Using your IoT-powered mobile app, you can effortlessly preschedule tasks in a go. Assume you want your robotic cleaner to start dusting your house once you are off to the office. You can preset when you want the robotic cleaner to begin its operation. 

This way, when you are at home, you can preschedule your room heater to start heating the room or your favorite playlist to start streaming before entering your bedroom. Similarly, you can preschedule every task using your IoT-powered smart home app. 

#4 Monitor Pets

Pet monitoring is an essential task and more important when one is not home. But in an IoT-powered smart home, you need not worry about your pets; you can monitor them and their surroundings in real-time using the dedicated smart home app. 

Using cameras to monitor the movement of pets is possible with traditional cameras, too, but the network security that a smart camera provides is unmatchable. Smart cameras can not only read humans' facial expressions but can also detect any strange behavior of pets. And in case of anomalies or seeming unhealthy behavior of pets, it can alert the owner via the app. 

Besides smart cameras, you can also monitor the thermostat for environmental conditions around the room. Owners can control the smart home's temperature based on the thermostat's values and other aspects to ensure that their pets are comfortable even in their absence. 

Wrapping Up

The Internet of Things is a compelling technology and the core of home automation systems. As this technology is becoming more economical with every passing day, its adoption is on the rise worldwide. Each day the number of IoT-connected devices is rising threefold.

In this post, we discussed how IoT in mobile app development bolsters the smart home concept. We briefly discussed the smart home concept and how IoT is making the idea come to action in houses across the globe. We listed how IoT through mobile apps is making controlling homes remotely more accessible for their owners. IoT and mobile app development are two essential tools playing a huge role in home automation.