
You shouldn’t rely on Away Mode to lock your house for you. While I love Away Mode (and it’s HUGE if you forget to lock your house), Nest doesn’t go into Away Mode until at least an hour passes. If Nest detects you’re not home, it puts itself in Away Mode and locks if it’s not already.
#Nest deadbolt software#
Nest has one unique feature software feature called Away Mode. Nest lets you control the system when you’re not home, see a history of who’s opened the door, and give people recurring scheduled access (houseguests, babysitters, nannies, house cleaners), give one-time temporary access (Airbnb guests), or give permanent access to the people in your household. It’s the most convenient feature of any smart home product that I’ve ever tested. When Auto Unlock works correctly, it’s like your door doesn’t even have a lock.

Auto Unlock works perfectly about 95% of the time, while the other times it still works, it’s just slow.Īuto-Unlock is a magical experience when you come home from the grocery store with five bags on each arm. The second unique feature is called “Auto Unlock,” which puts the system in “away mode” after you leave your house, then unlocks your August when you come back home.Īugust is the only smart lock platform that I’ve ever tested with an auto-unlock feature. When your door isn’t shut fully, the Auto-Lock feature is disabled. August always knows the status of your door and warns you in the app when the door isn’t shut fully. But what if someone didn’t shut the door all the way? The door may be locked, but your home is not secure.Īugust’s DoorSense fixes this. With most smart locks, the app assumes that your house is locked and secured as long as the lock is in the lock position. Features AugustĪugust lets you control the system when you’re not home, see a history of who’s opened the door, and give people recurring scheduled access, temporary access, or permanent access.Īugust has two unique features that aren’t found on other smart locks:

Want to learn how I reached this conclusion? Read on to see the detailed breakdown of software, user-friendliness, and design that informed my overall impression. The August 4th Gen (hockey puck-shaped) may be preferred for those who live in apartments, which I’ll cover in the design section. Almost everything I write in this post about Yale Assure applies to all of the August locks as well. For this post, I’ll focus on the Yale Assure (comes with the August Module) because it’s the best August lock on the market. More than five smart locks are controlled with the August app. Nest x Yale features great-looking hardware, but it doesn’t offer any unique software features compared to August. After a new month of testing, I determined August is still the best smart lock platform because of its auto-unlock feature and smart home compatibility. Both of these apps are quite easy to use, but unless you already use Google Assistant or other Nest products, you’ll want a Yale Assure lock for Amazon Alexa or HomeKit.Over the last few years, I’ve tested more than 10 different smart locks. Unlike the modular Yale Assure locks, the Nest x Yale requires the Nest app or Google Home app. In this case, you can expect to use the app from whichever hub you have, which may or may not be a good thing depending on the app.
#Nest deadbolt plus#
If you choose either the Z-Wave or Zigbee module, you’ll need a smart home hub like Samsung SmartThings (Z-Wave and Zigbee) or Amazon Echo Plus (Zigbee) to control the lock.

While the HomeKit controls aren’t as full-featured as the August app, it’s a great way to control all of your HomeKit compatible devices from the same app instead of jumping between different apps across your smart home.

If you have the HomeKit module, you’ll control the lock using Siri and the Apple Home app on a variety of Apple products. If you have the Connected by August module, you’ll use the August app, which is one of our favorite smart lock apps because it’s very easy to use. Depending on the module you use in your Yale Assure lock, there are a variety of mobile app experiences.
