Every time you add a new smart home device to your home, it becomes smarter. Add a smart sprinkler, and it will automatically water the plants when it’s time. Your smart lights will turn on or off when you tell them to or when you enter or exit the room. Then, your smart thermostat adjusts the temperature so you’ll always feel comfortable.
You may think of adding more smart devices to turn your home into a paradise where all you do is relax. But here’s one thing you never thought to give your home: an email address.
You may be thinking: why would my smart home need an email address? It does not need to contact anybody. Well, it’s not actually for your smart home to use. It does not have anything to do with automation. However, it still offers a lot of value.
Here are 6 reasons why you should give your smart home an email address. After reading this, you’ll surely make one immediately.
Privacy Issues
In the past, people rarely cared about their data privacy. But thanks to how popular social media sites are now, the world has realized how important it is to keep personal information private.
Many smart home devices are constantly listening or watching. That caused homeowners also to have primacy concerns. While you can trust many of them, there are some rotten apples.
Now, when you set up a new smart home device, you often have to provide your personal information. That includes your name, address, and email address. Your email address likely contains more information about you – your contacts, for example.
You may not want the device manufacturer to have access to that. That said, making a dedicated email address for your smart home is best. It will contain only information about your home and not about yourself. That will make you feel safer and more comfortable.
Smart Home Subscriptions All in One Place
Some smart home devices require subscriptions. For example,
it’s common for smart security devices to be like that. And as the number of smart home devices in your home increases, keeping track of all your subscriptions becomes increasingly difficult.
Suppose you linked those subscriptions to your personal email. The messages will be mixed with emails from your colleagues and others. That adds more difficulty.
Things would be much simpler if you had a dedicated email address for your smart home. Newsletters from your favorite authors, messages from your boss, and emails from your smart home security system would be separate. Thus, finding a specific email when you need it is easier.
Admittedly, some email apps can help keep your messages organized. Still, having a separate email address for your smart home will make things easier.
Keeping Spam Out
You’ll also receive more spam emails as you get more smart home subscriptions. It’s unfortunately inevitable.
Surely, you don’t need anyone to tell you how annoying that can be. Email services even made spam filters because they know how spam affects the user’s experience. Those filters have gotten better over the years. Still, they aren’t perfect. Therefore, some spam emails still make it through.
A dedicated email for your smart home would not make your inbox free of spam. You’ll still receive some, but they’re not about smart homes. They could be about soaps, pets, or other topics that interest you.
But at least you can separate those spam messages from ones related to smart homes. That way, you don’t have to go through a lot of junk to find what you are looking for. There still is junk, but it’s more manageable.
Easier to Find Bills
A dedicated email for your smart home can also help you pay bills faster. It’s innately a pain. However, it’s worse when you have to scan so many emails in your inbox to find the right one. A dedicated email for your smart home would be less cluttered. Therefore, it’s a lot easier to find what you need.
A bill-splitting app for Android or iOS can allow you to set up bill reminders in your email inbox. You better check those out to make your life even easier.
Shared Access With Housemates
Suppose you don’t live alone. You are living with your best friend, or you have a family. Using your email address for your smart home will cause problems. For example, they need access to the email address when splitting the bills. While you can give your partner your account and password, you can’t do the same to your friend. And you highly likely also would not want your son or daughter to access your email.
That said, it’s wise to make an email for your smart home. You all will have full control of the account and can make changes when needed. Furthermore, they would not see your personal emails. Likewise, you would not see theirs.
Easier to Transfer When Selling Your Home
Perhaps you are selling your house. There will be conflicts if you set things to send emails to your email account. You can’t transfer that to the new homeowner. On the other hand, a dedicated email address for your smart home is easily transferable. That makes transferring the ownership of the home more seamless.
Additionally, prospects will be more likely to buy your house if they know about the smart home having its own email address. Moving is stressful. And easily getting full control of the smart devices in the house is much appreciated.
Summary
There you go. These are the reasons why you should set up an email address for your smart home. To recap:
- It protects your privacy.
- Smart home subscriptions are in one place.
- Keep spam out of your inbox.
- Makes it easier to find bills.
- Allows housemates to have equal access.
- Easier to transfer when you sell the house and makes prospects more likely to buy it.
Does Your Smart Home Need an Exclusive Email Address? No, but it’s wise to make one.