Last December, about a thousand home professionals gathered in Austin, Texas for the launch of the Resideo Home app, one whole-home monitor to control HVAC, water, air quality and security.

“Managing the smart home is only going to get more complex,” said Mike Nefkens, CEO of Resideo Technologies Inc., during the Resideo LIVE event that was also live-streamed on the internet. “People are buying multiple products from multiple companies that don’t ‘talk’ to each other.”

Nefkens’ remarks at the Resideo LIVE event underscored the frustration many consumers have within this current fragmented smart home market.

“Each product has its own app,” Nefkens added, “and some are better than others. But then, you wind up with an app for door locks, an app for security, an app for your lights and an app for your thermostat. This isn’t the way you run your home. People are starting to believe that ‘gadgets’ make homes smart. They don’t. At its core, a home is an interconnected system of networks.”

With its single app, Nefkins explained, Resideo wants to connect and monitor critical systems that operate throughout the home, thereby creating more recurring revenue and subscription services for contractors. What’s more, homeowners will easily connect with professionals who can help ensure home networks are operating efficiently and can intervene to help prevent costly damages, like water leaks and major appliance failures.

In a move that its large network of professionals and partners will likely appreciate, Resideo also announced that a “professional” iteration of the app (dubbed Resideo Pro) will assist professionals with installation tools, help provide superior customer service and create an avenue to new business opportunities. The company also announced a loyalty and training program called Resideo Pro PERKS that will launch this year.

“At Resideo, we’re committed to helping homeowners make sense of their homes, and in the process, help professionals modernize and expand their businesses while giving a better experience to customers,” Nefkens explained “We do not believe that the critical systems of the home should be a do-it-yourself adventure. Through the new Resideo Home app, we’re going to bring the world of proactive, professional monitoring to the entire home, helping better protect the people inside and mitigating problems before they arise.”

Honeywell spinoff

If anything, Resideo has legacy scale in the smart home that few other companies do. Resideo is a $4.8 billion security, home automation, HVAC and building-controls group that spun off from Honeywell in late 2018. Free from its $40 billion parent company, Resideo quickly added it to its home security and HVAC controls heritage and acquired three niche businesses that further integrate residential operations.

The three acquisitions were LifeWhere, one division of Whisker Labs and Buoy Labs. LifeWhere measures the performance of home appliances and warns of potential breakdowns. The division acquired from Whisker Labs learns the heating and cooling patterns of a home, combines it with outdoor weather data, and automatically adjusts the indoor temperature for energy management and comfort. Meanwhile, Resideo enters the crowded water management business with Buoy, which tracks the flow of water in a home, issues alerts and/or automatically shuts off the water supply if problems are detected.

Resideo believes that its new smart app will ultimately be a unified platform that brings together the company’s 6.5 million connected customers that currently use multiple existing apps to manage functions like security, air and water monitoring, as well as routine home automation capabilities. Resideo’s goal is to completely integrate all of its existing apps into the Resideo Home app by the end of 2020.

Starting last December, for example, users of Resideo’s recently
launched Buoy Whole Home Water Controller and Buoy Water Leak Detectors can begin using the new app and access its free features, or upgrade to premium services like advanced automatic water shutoff and leak alerts. In the coming months, Resideo will integrate air products, such as the T Series line of smart thermostats, into the app. By the end of 2020, the app will support Resideo whole-home security systems as well. 

“We have an enormous advantage to deliver whole-home monitoring because of our presence in 150 million homes and decades of experience,” Nefkens added. “Our professional network of suppliers, dealers, contractors and installers ensures the job is done right, that dedicated support is always within reach, and will lay the groundwork to bring the next era of the connected home to life.”