All the smart home news, reviews, and gadgets you need to know about

Google is opening up its smart home to AI agents, letting tools like Claude and Open Claw access and control your connected devices and analyze your home’s data using the standardized Model Context Protocol.

Google Home MCP is a new integration that lets third-party AI agents control and monitor your smart home and act on your behalf. It “allows any AI agents that support MCP, including Google Antigravity, Claude, Hermes or Open Claw, to securely work with all of the devices and event history in your Google Home ecosystem,” Taylor Lehman, group product manager at Google Home & Nest, said in a blog post.

DIY home security company SimpliSafe is bringing its AI-powered proactive security feature to the front door. The new SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Series 2 launches today for $199.99 and works with the company’s Active Guard Outdoor Protection (starting at $49.99 a month). This combines AI analysis with live agents to detect potential threats and respond proactively.

When the camera detects suspicious activity — using a combination of on-device AI, cloud-based computer vision, and facial recognition — a SimpliSafe monitoring agent can drop in on the camera to “see, speak to, and attempt to deter potential intruders and package thieves,” according to the company.

John Ternus didn’t mention Apple Home once during his first keynote as Apple CEO. But he did open by describing an “intelligent personal hub” that prioritizes local processing, protects your privacy, and integrates with all your other devices, apps, and services. While Ternus was talking about the iPhone — not a new smart home device — what he spelled out is exactly what I want to see Apple make: an intelligent home hub, a computer for your home.

Rumors suggest Apple’s first smart home hub with a screen is imminent. While that’s long overdue, it’s likely to be more interface than infrastructure, a device that can run your home locally but still uses the cloud. What the smart home needs is a computer to run it — one that controls and processes data from connected devices locally, improving speed, reliability, and privacy while securely storing your digital life, from photos and files to music and movies. Crucially, it would do all this inside your home.

Ring has a new way to protect your videos. It’s developed an encryption method called TAKE, short for Throw Away the Key Encryption, that the Amazon-owned company says will protect your videos without traditional end-to-end encryption. TAKE limits when and why Amazon’s cloud can access those videos, while still providing features like smart alerts for people and packages, AI-powered video search, and video descriptions.

The feature is rolling out gradually starting in September, regardless of whether you have a subscription, and will become the default encryption for all Ring customers.

Comcast announced a new platform this week called Xfinity Shield that includes the option to let customers turn their routers into motion sensors. Many people reacted with fear and anger.

“I am not enabling this. I am also seriously considering replacing my leased gateway with my own equipment, because a device I do not control sitting in my living room measuring the motion of my family is not a feature I asked for,” wrote one customer on the r/Comcast subreddit

Robot vacuums are great at keeping your floors clean, but there are a few areas they fall down on the job — stairs being one. Another is chairs and stools.

You know the scenario: You have a row of stools at a kitchen table, or chairs tucked under a dining table, and the robovac just can’t get in and around them, leaving a dust bunny bonanza. Plus, as these are generally areas where you eat, crumbs and food debris can quickly accumulate.

Comcast is bringing Wi-Fi motion sensing to millions of routers that are already in customers’ homes, turning the devices into activity monitors. A new update to the Xfinity Internet app, arriving today, August 18th, enables the feature on compatible Xfinity routers at no extra cost.

Announced as part of its new Xfinity Shield service, WiFi Motion can monitor activity in your home and send you notifications, similar to a standalone motion sensor. It works by detecting disruptions in the Wi-Fi signal between the Xfinity gateway and any Wi-Fi-connected device, giving you some insight into what’s happening in your home without buying additional hardware. Xfinity Shield is free for all customers and includes a new advanced security feature that protects devices from online threats, including malware and phishing attacks, and improved parental controls.

The greatest invention in pet tech in recent years is the litter robot. A machine that scoops your kitties’ poop so you don’t have to — what else could a cat owner possibly want? How about insights into your kitty’s litter box usage that could flag health issues? Sign me up. But I have two feline friends… No worries, kitty facial recognition can handle that.

At least, that is the idea behind the Litter-Robot 5 Pro, the highest-end model from the OG robotic pooper scooper company Whisker. Boasting a dual camera system and an array of sensors to literally sniff out your cat’s deposits, all wrapped up with AI algorithms and machine learning, the 5 Pro promises to not only deal with my boys’ bathroom habits but also accurately monitor and track them. It failed.

Robot lawnmowers are finally good enough to take a lot of work out of maintaining a yard, but they’re still not set-it-and-forget-it machines. If you don’t want these autonomous cutting machines to tear up your lawn or go roaming in your neighbors’ yard, you’re still going to need to keep an eye on them. But with some oversight, they can take a big chore off your hands.

This summer I tested five bots on my flat, three-quarter-acre, coastal South Carolina property with sandy soil, centipede grass, and lots of trees. Things went much better than last year’s trials and tribulations, thanks to huge improvements in navigation and maneuverability. Basically, they stopped getting stuck. My lawn has never looked better, and my spouse — who had sworn off robot lawnmowers after a user-error injury — is now a convert. His riding lawnmower has been idle for over a month.

Matic, my current favorite robot vacuum, just got a big upgrade. The company has launched Matic Cues, which brings voice and gesture control to the robot. Now, you can talk directly to your vacuum to tell it what you want it to do, or just point at a mess to have it spot-clean.

The feature launches today, August 13 at 2 pm ET, and will show as an option in the Matic app under Settings > Matic Cues. The update arrives just ahead of a planned price hike on September 9, which will see the WALL-E-style robot’s price go from $1,245 to $1,495.

No other gadget knows as much about your home as a robot vacuum. They map your space, learn your routines, and many now carry a camera and microphone into every room in your house. As AI gives them a better understanding of what they see, the privacy and security risks these autonomous robots pose are only growing.

That’s why greater scrutiny makes sense, but the ban on foreign-made mobile robots issued by the Federal Communications Commission earlier this week — implemented to address “unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of United States persons” — doesn’t actually judge products by how secure they are, just where they’re built. It effectively means no new robot vacuums from major companies can enter the US market unless they are built here. And spoiler alert: none are.

Hands-free unlocking is the future of smart locks. The best smart home tech removes friction, and having your door unlock for you as you walk up is as frictionless as it gets — no passcodes to remember, no need to have a free hand to wave, press, or poke at the lock. One way to achieve this nirvana is through facial recognition. You already unlock your phone with your face; why not your home?

Hands-free unlocking using geofencing has been around for a while, but it can be slow and unreliable, and requires an app running in the background on your phone. Newer innovations — facial recognition and unlocking using an ultrawideband (UWB) radio — are much better. In my testing, UWB is the best experience. All it needs is your phone or watch somewhere on you to identify you as you approach, and it’s fast and reliable. But today, locks with UWB antennas are expensive, and very few are available.

The Schlage Sense Pro is a beautiful smart lock. Sleek, discreet, and simple to use, it’s Schlage’s smartest lock to date. Thanks to ultra-wideband (UWB), it unlocks as I walk up to my front door; I don’t need to enter a code or tap my phone or press my finger against it. I’ve tested several hands-free unlocking systems that rely on geofencing and other radio technologies, and UWB is faster and more reliable. It’s the first one I actually trust.

The $399 Sense Pro is Schlage’s first smart lock with ultra-wideband auto-unlock, its first to support Matter-over-Thread, and its first without a physical keyhole. It works with Apple Home Key for both hands-free and tap-to-unlock access with an iPhone or Apple Watch. There’s no visible hardware on the front, just a barely perceptible Schlage logo and a keypad that only appears when you tap the lock. It looks high-tech enough to be at home on the USS Enterprise without looking out of place on my front door.