Will AI Large Models Be the S-Class Variable for Smart Homes?
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Smart home companies originally existed independently and competitively. Each company aims to build its own IoT kingdom, with none willing to adhere to others' standards. As a result, every company becomes a standard creator.
In terms of communication protocols, major manufacturers have their own preferences. For example, Mi Home primarily uses Bluetooth Mesh, Apple prefers Zigbee, and Huawei opts for wired PLC protocols.
Communication protocols can be simply understood as the language for data exchange between devices. Theoretically, smart devices can only communicate smoothly if they follow the same protocol.
However, reality is more complicated. Some products do not support direct Wi-Fi connections, while others only support specific connection methods like Bluetooth. In other words, when these products 'speak different languages,' additional 'gateways' are needed to translate and enable interconnectivity.
But this is far from sufficient. Take Mi Home as an example—there are three types of gateways: central gateways, secondary gateways, and blind gateways. Those capable of translating both Bluetooth Mesh and Zigbee are called multi-mode gateways.
Beyond Mi Home, companies like Aqara, Xiaoyan at Home, and Tuya Smart also produce gateway products with their own language systems. This creates communication barriers, forcing users to make an either-or choice or risk being unable to use their preferred products.
Achieving whole-home smart connectivity requires a high level of professional expertise. Overall, interoperability issues are difficult to resolve due to incompatible technical systems, excessive and non-unified standards, conflicting commercial interests, and insufficient data commercialization.
Although the Matter protocol emerged in the second half of 2022 as a new solution, the number of smart home products currently compatible with it remains limited.
Consumer demands vary widely, making it nearly impossible to meet all needs with a single product. Particularly in lower-tier markets, many consumers are willing to purchase alternative products. Even if manufacturers' ecosystems are open to integrating products from other brands, numerous new variables still arise.
Breaking down ecosystem barriers and improving the compatibility of central control platforms remain key challenges in the trend toward whole-home smart systems.
Under the same industry standards, further opening ecosystems is widely recognized as crucial for achieving interoperability. However, in practice, significant differences persist among major industry players.
· Xiaomi
After companies like Yunmi Technology actively distanced themselves from Xiaomi, the stability of Xiaomi's supply chain has been questioned. Nonetheless, it is undeniable that Xiaomi initially fostered an ecosystem of partner companies to build a smart home ecosystem, largely to address interoperability issues between products.
In recent years, Xiaomi has been actively promoting interconnectivity. For example, its Mijia Connect enables the seamless transfer of music, visuals, and network information. Now, Xiaomi seems to recognize the formidable power of Huawei's fully self-developed HarmonyOS and has revisited its plans for its own "MiOS" system.
· Huawei
The operating system serves as the foundational layer for interconnectivity, providing unified interfaces and connectivity capabilities for system services and applications. Each company aims to create a universal foundation for smart homes. Unlike Xiaomi's strategy of investment and incubation, Huawei has consistently built its whole-house smart ecosystem based on HarmonyOS.
The current HarmonyOS for smart homes is developed from Huawei's self-developed LiteOS. To address the issue of unstable whole-house connectivity, Huawei has introduced a "one-device, two-networks" solution. Beyond the operating system, Huawei has also researched connection protocols and developed its own "distributed" soft bus to facilitate smoother product communication.
· Apple
Compared to XiaoAI, Siri has almost no advantages, but the real strength of HomeKit lies in the Shortcuts functionality on iOS devices.
Thanks to the rapid automation features of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, and other devices, combined with the integration of smart home systems, the consumer experience has been elevated to a new level.
· Haier
Haier's strong appliance expertise and supply chain are the most distinctive features of its whole-house smart solutions.
In fact, as early as 2017, Haier launched the UHomeOS to address the interoperability issues among smart appliances of different categories and brands.
Nowadays, Haier no longer focuses on the "entry point" but returns to the "infrastructure" of underlying technical systems, introducing the "1+3+5+N" whole-house smart scenario solution. The "1" in this solution refers to the "Smart Home Brain," which endows the home with four major capabilities: perception, understanding, decision-making, and vitality.
For example, based on multi-modal sensing technology, it can adjust the temperature, humidity, cleanliness, and oxygen levels in the home in real-time. When it detects that the outdoor PM2.5 concentration exceeds the standard, it automatically activates the fresh air system. Additionally, it can prevent the air conditioner from blowing directly on elderly people or children who are prone to catching colds.
· Midea
When Huawei launched HarmonyOS 2, home appliance manufacturers were among the most active participants. Companies like Midea, TCL, Gree, and Joyoung announced the release of home appliances equipped with the HarmonyOS system.
According to reports, in 2021, Midea introduced the industry's first IoT operating system 1.0 based on Open Harmony 2.0, designed to address issues such as multi-brand interconnectivity and autonomous coordination between devices.
However, currently, Midea's official flagship store only lists two products explicitly labeled as HarmonyOS-compatible, and the dedicated HarmonyOS page on Midea's online store is no longer functional.
· Aqara
Positioned in the mid-to-high-end market, Aqara uses the Zigbee communication protocol, with most of its products compatible with the Mi Home ecosystem.
Although its coverage is not as extensive as Mi Home, Aqara is the only company capable of supporting the construction of a full-house smart home system within the Apple HomeKit ecosystem.
Many of Aqara's products are compatible with HomeKit and feature their own Aqara Home app, which has significantly attracted Apple enthusiasts.
· ORVIBO
HomeAI OS is ORVIBO's native IoT operating system designed for whole-home smart solutions. HomeAI OS 4.0 has become the second domestically developed IoT operating system to break away from the Android ecosystem, following HarmonyOS.
ORVIBO stands out as a leader in open ecosystems. Currently, it has achieved cross-platform interoperability with ecosystems like Huawei HiLink, Midea IoT, Xiaomi, Baidu, and JD Smart.
The interconnectivity of smart homes will undoubtedly accelerate industry development and integration. However, it will also transform business models, collaboration methods, and intensify security responsibilities.
Smart home interoperability standards are evolving from paper-based specifications to a synchronized approach combining specifications with code.
The Matter protocol exemplifies this trend, adopting a standards-plus-code approach to promote the commercial implementation of interoperability.
In addition, high-quality communication networks are a necessary condition to ensure the interconnectivity of smart home terminals.
Smart home interconnectivity relies on the support of communication networks. Enhancing the capabilities of both internal home networks (such as Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Bluetooth, etc.) and external networks will effectively improve the user experience.
Especially with the increasing adoption of applications like digital twins, AR/VR, and the metaverse in households, external broadband access will provide smart home users with ultra-high bandwidth and ultra-low latency connectivity services.
China's smart home interconnectivity standard system still needs further improvement, but the application of large AI models has also brought hope.
Major home appliance giants such as Midea, Changhong, TCL, and Hisense have successively announced integration with AI models like Wenxin Yiyan. These AI models possess strong semantic understanding and content generation capabilities, enabling them to provide personalized recommendations and services based on users' preferences and habits.
Therefore, the smart home interconnectivity standards still need to further refine perception models, including environmental, personnel, and scenario models, to better support AI decision-making with data.
The smart home industry is still developing rapidly.
Automatically adjusting room lighting and temperature, independently cooking meals—a truly smart home should 'understand me better than I do myself.'
As early as May this year, the industry announced its entry into the Smart Home 3.0 era. In the ideal scenario, 3.0-era smart products not only feature higher levels and deeper intelligent interaction innovations, moving beyond passive commands to enhance proactive service capabilities and meet personalized user needs, but also address the daily monitoring and alert requirements for the elderly and children, functioning like human companions to provide emotional support.
There remains significant growth potential in younger consumer markets. However, returning to reality, the supply side is caught in intense competition, with the entire industry still investing substantial effort to resolve compatibility and interoperability issues. Even in terms of adoption rates, China's current smart home landscape largely remains in the era of single-device intelligence, where users typically rely on manual, voice, or remote control methods to operate devices.
The gap between ideal and reality is vast. Remember the news last year, right after Double 11, about best-selling products like robotic vacuum cleaners, smart refrigerators, and smart toilets quickly appearing on second-hand trading platforms? Products like dishwashers, which were invented over 90 years ago, have an adoption rate of 70% in the U.S., while in China, it's only about 2%.
Regardless, the trend toward intelligence is irreversible. The smart home industry is still in rapid development, with new products, more powerful features, and better solutions emerging almost every three days. Many current assumptions may become outdated by next month.