In the past decade, the smart home has been a compatibility nightmare for users hoping to select freely from the wide range of connected devices entering the market. The world’s biggest tech companies have developed products in the stubborn belief that they can outshine one another to fill homes with connected products from their brands alone. Each has created a broad portfolio of gadgets with their own ideas about how the smart home should work, leaving the consumer to choose one brand-group for all devices. Consumers, however, want choice and seamless compatibility, which they may finally get with an unprecedented new collaboration. “Whatever we hoped the smart home would become, it has not. Devices are still dependent on phones, third-party integrations, individual partnerships, and companies choosing which devices they will support. Products are too expensive, users are confused, and security is an abysmal mess. As a result, people are cautious about connected homes or, in […]