August Home unveiled its second-generation Smart Lock with an updated industrial design and Siri control through HomeKit last October. Starting this week, August’s Bluetooth-connected deadbolt is available to purchase from Amazon and Best Buy after a lengthy pre-order period (although stock appears slim so far).
By adding HomeKit support to Smart Lock, August Home enables users to lock and unlock the device using Siri commands from iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Smart Lock already benefits from being a Bluetooth-connected device that can be controlled by its mobile app.
HomeKit support securely enhances the device for Apple product users by adding voice control, but HomeKit is a framework that various smart home accessory makes support so you can automate Smart Lock actions with other services as well. For instance, you can create a scene through HomeKit called “Good night” that turns off your Philips Hue lights, lowers the temperature on your ecobee thermostat (reviewed), and locks the front door with August Home’s Smart Lock.
Apps like Matthias Hochgatterer’s Home for iOS that I mentioned earlier this week or Hesperus which launched on iPhone last week make controlling multiple HomeKit accessories with or without Siri even easier using a single app.
The second generation Smart Lock also features an enhanced industrial design, although the change alone probably isn’t worth upgrading over like HomeKit support may be (unless you’re adding another door):
A new magnetic faceplate, micro-patterns to improve grip and rotation and an indicator at the top of the lock for easy, visual confirmation that the door is locked or unlocked.
The original August Home Smart Lock, which we reviewed favorably a year ago, can be had for under $200 in a variety of colors if you’re looking for a savings and not interested in HomeKit support.
The HomeKit-enabled August Home Smart Lock is available for $229, a $30 premium over the first-gen model, in silver or dark gray; copper and august red are coming in the future. I’ve been diving into HomeKit more and more over the last few months and Smart Lock is definitely on my wish list.
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I have two of the original smart locks that I bought a year ago. One of them stopped working, and I was able to swap it out at Best Buy because it was still within the manufacturer’s one year warranty, and Best Buy paid me $50 because the price had dropped from $250 to $200.
It’s a great product that I use everyday.
Have always been very dubious about all of these Smart Home concepts. Mostly they look like a solution of something that isn’t really a problem. I mean yes I can turn my temperature up or down or flip a light on from across town using my phone. But I never could see why I’d want to.
That said I could see a place for a Smart Lock. As long as there is a key override available it would be handy when I get to work and wonder if I remembered to lock the door. Other than that what does it accomplish? I’m just neurotic/OCD enough that when I lock up for the night I want to physically touch the lock to see that it’s latched. And BlueTooth Connected? Really? First unless it also had a WiFi connection that would eliminate the ability to latch it from across town. Also my experience with BlueTooth has been one of chronically dropped connections, re-pairings that don’t work on the first, or second…or fifth try, and dead batteries just when you really wanted to use it. It doesn’t inspire confidence.
These locks work on Bluetooth and WiFi. Bluetooth when you are up close for low latency, and WiFi when you are too far away (over your phone’s data connection and from your WiFi router to the August Connect wall plug and Bluetooth from there to the lock).
The lock attaches to the back of your standard Home Depot lock, so all your existing keys work.
I go running every day without a key and just my phone for using Runkeeper. When I start approaching the door, I hit the notification center widget button and by the time I’m at the door, it’s unlocked.
The batteries on the lock itself last about 6 months.
The main advantage is that physical keys are insecure. You give one to somebody, and even if you get your original key back, you don’t know if they made a copy. Even a well meaning person can lose a key. And anyone with a key can get in any time.
With the August, you can give access for only certain day, or certain times of day, and have it expire after a certain amount of time. And when you revoke access, you know they don’t have a secret copy of the key, and if they lose their phone, you can revoke their access in case someone finds their phone and tries to use it. And you get notifications when anyone locks or unlocks the door.
As for adjusting the temperature remotely, it’s great when you are gone for a week, and want to turn off the air conditioning to save money. Instead of coming home to a hot house, turning on the air conditioning, and waiting hours for the house to cool back down, you can hit the button when you get on the plane in Atlanta, and by the time you’re home, it’s done.
Oh so it’s an add on to your existing deadbolt. That’s very good. I’d rather have a good quality Schlage lock and this added on than a lock made by who knows who.
I can see the advantage of being able to hit the AC just before you get home. But, I live on Vancouver Island. We don’t even have AC. Heck, over half of the year we don’t have the heat turned on either. Life is so hard here :lol:
I had a Kevo lock and it suuuuucked. I preordered this one when announced last year and finally got it this week. Installation was a snap and I like being able to have my dad pop over when needed and I’m at work with no keys required. Doug’s neurosis/OCD comment is exactly why I got this lock. Being able to check that the doors are still locked just provides a touch of reassurance, especially as I’m military and gone frequently for various reasons. Being able to shut the house down (lights, temp, locks) for the night with a quick “Good night” to Siri is cool, although I noticed that now that I’ve added the lock I have to unlock the phone to do so. I guess any control over the lock must be done so that the phone knows it’s really you operating the lock, which is kinda nice.