SmartLife: Smart Living

Review by eFreeware

If you have accumulated a handful of connected devices at home and you are tired of juggling a separate app for each one, SmartLife is the kind of app that would earn a place on your home screen. It comes from Volcano Technology Limited and is pitched as an assistant for everyday life, covering device control, home monitoring, energy tracking and family organization in a single download.

The appeal is breadth. Rather than solving one problem well and stopping there, SmartLife bundles the practical jobs a household tends to repeat daily: switching things on and off, keeping an eye on the home, watching what the utility bill is doing, and keeping everyone's tasks and reminders in step. The developer's framing is that you can manage all of this with a tap or a spoken request, which sets the tone for how the app is meant to feel.

One place to run the connected home

The core of SmartLife is device control. For anyone with lights, plugs or similar hardware scattered around the house, that consolidation is the main draw.

What makes this more than a remote control is the way the other features sit alongside it. The same app handles security monitoring and energy reporting, so checking on the house and checking on consumption do not require two different pieces of software. I would expect this to matter most in homes where several people share the same devices and want a common view of them.

The scope also means the app is doing a lot at once, and breadth like this usually comes with a learning curve while you work out where each function lives. That is the trade-off of a single hub rather than a narrow utility.

Security alerts and energy reporting

On the security side, SmartLife offers real-time monitoring with smart alerts, which the developer presents as round-the-clock protection for the home. In practice that means the app is a place to check in on what is happening and to receive notifications when something needs attention, rather than a passive dashboard you only open when curious.

The energy tools take a different angle. SmartLife tracks usage and turns it into insights intended to help you save on bills, which is a more analytical job than switching a device on or off. If you have ever opened a utility statement and wondered which part of the house is responsible for the total, this is the feature that speaks to that question.

Both areas depend on the rest of your setup. Monitoring and energy figures only mean something if the relevant devices are connected and reporting, so the usefulness of these sections scales with how much of your home is already smart.

Shared lists, reminders and the everyday tools

SmartLife also handles the softer side of running a household. It keeps the whole household on the same page with reminders and to-do lists that everyone can share, so chores, errands and appointments sit in one place that more than one person can check. For a busy household, that is often the feature that gets opened most often, even though it is not the one the app is marketed around.

The app also bundles tools for fitness, nutrition, meetings, pet care and translation. These are the developer's attempt to make the app a general-purpose assistant rather than a home-control panel, and they give you a reason to keep it installed even on days when nothing needs switching or checking.

The range is wide enough that most people will find one or two of these genuinely useful and ignore the rest. That is a reasonable way to treat it. The app does not require you to use every corner of it, and the parts you skip cost you nothing but a little clutter.

What it costs you in setup and attention

SmartLife is free to download and shows no ads, which keeps the experience uncluttered. It does offer in-app purchases, so it is worth going in aware that some form of paid option exists alongside the free app. The developer's most recent update note is simply that known issues have been fixed, which suggests ongoing maintenance rather than a feature overhaul.

The bigger consideration is what the app asks of you before it becomes useful. A household with nothing connected will find far less here than one with a few devices already in place.

The breadth is also a commitment of a different sort. With this many functions under one roof, you will spend some time early on deciding which parts are worth your attention. Treating it as a toolbox rather than something to master completely is the more realistic approach.

A fit for households with devices already in place

The people most likely to get value from SmartLife are those running a connected home who want control, monitoring and energy reporting without spreading themselves across several apps. Add shared lists and reminders and it becomes a reasonable center of gravity for a family that already coordinates schedules and chores digitally.

The everyday tools broaden that audience. Someone who wants fitness and nutrition tracking, translation or meeting summaries in the same place as their home controls may find the combination convenient, even if they would not have gone looking for those features on their own.

Where the app is narrower than its marketing suggests is in what it can do without hardware behind it. The control, security and energy features are only as good as the devices feeding them, and that is a condition worth weighing before you commit to it as your main home app.

A capable hub if your home is already smart

SmartLife has been on the Play Store since May 2016 and has built a substantial following: more than 50 million installs and a 4.6 average across well over a million ratings. That kind of history suggests the app has settled into a stable, widely used product rather than an experiment.

My recommendation is straightforward. If you have connected devices at home and want a single free app to control them, keep an eye on the house, follow your energy use and share household lists, SmartLife covers that ground and throws in a set of everyday tools besides. If your home is not set up with compatible hardware, the app's strongest features have little to work with, and the assistant-style extras alone are a thinner reason to install it. For the connected household, though, this is a sensible thing to try first.

What's new in version 7.11.6

fix known issues