The world has embraced smart technology to make managing our homes and lives more smoothly and conveniently. Recently, smart tech has entered the security realm, with smart locks becoming a must-have accessory for the front door.
What is a smart lock
If you’re new to smart home technology, you might not have considered a smart lock yet. However, smart door locks are an excellent entry point into connected products, letting you control your door remotely.
In essence, a smart lock allows homeowners to oversee and manage who enters and exits their home via a smartphone, providing comprehensive control over home security.
In addition to keyless entry, high-quality smart locks, like those from Yale, enable homeowners to issue virtual keys to family, friends, and trusted service providers. This feature allows homeowners to manage access through a smartphone app, making it easy to grant and revoke access as needed.
As we’ll discuss further in this smart lock guide, choosing a smart lock from a reputable security brand ensures it offers the same level of security as a traditional cylinder lock. Not only do smart locks enhance the appearance and convenience of your door, but many top-tier models also come with security certifications to protect against various physical and cyber threats.
These security assurances provide homeowners with peace of mind, ensuring their home is secure and accessible for monitoring anytime, anywhere through their smartphone.
What do smart locks do?
As outlined in this guide, smart locks offer numerous benefits that make everyday life a bit more convenient. Our experts identify three primary advantages of smart door locks: convenience, peace of mind, and enhanced security.
However, smart locks provide even more than these core benefits. They are designed to give homeowners complete control over their door security, allowing them to track exactly who is entering and leaving their home, and at what times.
1. Create virtual keys
One of the most popular features of smart locks is the ability to create and revoke virtual keys for guests, providing temporary or long-term access to selected individuals. This is especially useful for busy families or professionals who are frequently away from home, as it allows them to manage access remotely.
Whether it’s for a trusted friend, relative, tradesperson, or dog walker, homeowners can easily issue a virtual key using their smartphone from anywhere, at any time. Similarly, these keys can be quickly revoked, offering temporary access for things like service visits without leaving permanent access. This level of control surpasses what traditional locks can offer, enhancing safety and convenience.
This functionality is also beneficial for homeowners who travel frequently for work or leisure. Leaving a home unattended for extended periods can increase vulnerability to burglary, so having a trusted person check on the property can provide additional security.
By using virtual keys, homeowners can remotely grant access via an app, eliminating the need for physical keys and offering greater flexibility and security.
2. Monitoring your door security
With physical keys, you can’t track who enters your home or when. In contrast, smart locks offer the ability to monitor entry and exit through the app’s audit trail.
Understanding who comes and goes is vital for home security. While traditional keys provide physical protection, they don’t offer the added peace of mind that smart locks do.
This is especially important when moving into a new home. You might not know who had access to the property previously, whether it’s former owners’ friends and family or spare keys they kept.
By upgrading to a smart lock, you can easily address this concern and manage access effectively. Many high-quality smart locks come with intuitive smartphone apps that clearly show who has accessed your door and at what times. This feature ensures that homeowners stay informed about their door security, offering peace of mind and complete control.
3. Being notified
Being able to monitor who enters and exits your home is crucial, and receiving real-time notifications is essential for complete control over your door security.
Most smart locks provide instant alerts through a smartphone app, allowing homeowners to see who is accessing their home and when. For busy parents, these notifications can confirm that their child has arrived home safely from school. For working professionals, it can inform them when the dog walker arrives to take their pet out.
This level of monitoring is something that traditional locks cannot offer, ensuring homeowners are always updated about who is entering their home, thus providing ultimate peace of mind.
4. Remote locking and unlocking
Peace of mind is a crucial benefit of investing in smart home products, and smart locks offer this in abundance.
We’ve all experienced the anxiety of wondering, “Did I lock the door?” especially when heading off to work or going on a week-long vacation. Smart locks alleviate this concern with just a tap on an app. High-quality smart locks, such as those from Yale, not only allow you to check if your door is locked but also enable you to lock or unlock it remotely, giving you full control anytime and anywhere.
Being able to remotely verify and manage the status of your door provides homeowners with comprehensive control over their home’s security. The reassurance that comes from being able to secure your front door with a simple app tap is invaluable, making smart locks an essential gadget for smart home enthusiasts worldwide.
5. Lost keys are a thing of the past
An age-old security concern with traditional mechanical keys is the risk of losing them. Losing a key can cause significant anxiety, as you can never be sure where it might end up or who might find it.
Smart locks address this issue by offering complete flexibility with temporary access granted at the touch of a button, giving you full control over your home’s security.
High-quality smart locks allow you to manage and view the list of authorized users, making it easy to revoke access if needed. Unlike physical keys, which once handed over are in someone else’s possession and difficult to retrieve, smart locks let you quickly disable any access credentials, such as apps, key fobs, or key cards. This means that if an access credential is lost, it can be deactivated immediately, ensuring no unauthorized access occurs and eliminating the worry of misplaced keys.
This level of control is a key security benefit of smart locks, particularly when it comes to lost keys. With a smart lock, losing a key is not a concern, as access credentials like apps, key fobs, key cards, or phone tags can be swiftly deactivated. This ensures that if any credential is lost, it can be promptly rendered invalid, preventing unauthorized access and ensuring that no ‘keys’ end up in the wrong hands.
6. No need to change the locks
When moving into a new house, security experts frequently emphasize the importance of changing or upgrading the locks. This is crucial because you can never be completely certain who might have had access to your home before, so updating the locks ensures that only you and your family can enter the property.
The same principle applies to lost keys—homeowners often choose to change the locks if keys are misplaced to maintain security. However, with a smart lock, there’s no need to worry about changing the locks again.
Types of smart locks
The best type of lock for you will depend on the features you need and how you plan to use it. Read this article to explore the main types of smart locks available on the market today.
Advantages of smart locks
Home technology has greatly enhanced convenience and security in our lives.
Indeed, many of us can’t imagine our daily routines without smart devices such as voice-controlled speakers, home security systems, and smart appliances.
Smart locks are certainly among the top innovations, and with good reason. They enable you to remotely lock and unlock your door using a smartphone or central hub, offering keyless entry and improved security.
Read this article to explore more about advantages of smart locks.
How does smart locks works
A smart lock connects to your home’s WiFi network, enabling it to receive commands or codes from your smartphone to lock or unlock the door.
Some smart locks require you to replace your entire lock system, while others can be fitted over your existing lock or need only minor adjustments.
When part of a fully integrated smart home, smart locks can work with other devices, such as smart speakers or security systems. To ensure all devices function together, they must be connected to a smart home hub.
Read the full article here.
Conclusion
As noted earlier in this guide, one of the benefits of smart locks is that access can be quickly revoked through an intuitive app if keys are lost or misplaced. This makes changing the locks unnecessary, as you won’t need to switch to a different locking system.
Smart locks also provide enhanced security and protection, giving homeowners confidence that their property is secured with the latest security features.