How to Develop Home Automation App like Ecobee?

Launched way back in 2007, Ecobee has come a long way into becoming one of Canada’s leading Home Automation services providers. The company started its journey with its smart thermostats and has now extended its offerings to home security solutions as well. 

Embedded deeply into the world of IoT, the company’s eponymous app has now become the hot topic for its incredible functionalities and great interface. The utilitarian feel of the app doesn’t hide away its simple yet pleasing aesthetics that make the app even more engaging. Not to mention, it is the bespoke features of the app that has enabled the company to increase its user base. Eventually, this also simplified for the company to launch more home automation solutions. Add to that the fact that the smart home solutions market is looking at an unprecedented growth of up to 99.41 billion USD by the end of the present year. It all makes the prospect of the company and its app blindingly bright! 

Therefore, if you’re into a home automation business, developing an app Like Ecobee has the potential of taking your business’s bottom-line through the roof.  

Ecobee: An Overview Of The Entire Ecosystem

Ecobee started its business as the leading smart thermostat manufacturer and has even won multiple awards for its innovative solutions in saving energy. The smart thermostats would turn on or off, sensing the presence of a human in the home. The thermostat also reduced the furnace temperature to make the environment more comfortable, all the while saving more energy. 

Later, the company ventured into other home automation and security solutions. It invented smart sensors, touch sensors, and smart cameras. All these IoT home devices communicate with each other and alert the user whenever a suspicious activity is encountered.  

The app here, with its multiple but well-categorized features, play a crucial role in making the entire home automation process effortless for the users, and here is how it’s doing this- 

Ecobee App and Its Salient Features 

Embedded with advanced unsupervised machine learning algorithms, the app is adept at molding its settings based on your needs and behavior, making the entire home automation process effortless for you. It can see what your routine and comfort preferences are and then adjust the device’s functionalities as per the same. Here are, 

We’ll learn more about these features later, but for now, let’s begin with the development process. 

Steps to Develop an App Like Ecobee 

Developing an app as intricate and feature-full as Ecobee requires a sophisticated methodology. This is why, when we’re discussing the development steps for its clone app, we’ll be doing so using an Agile perspective. 

Also Read: What is Agile Development and Why Is It Ideal for Your App? 

Research the Target Market for Home Automation 

You cannot begin to build an app and its elaborate ecosystem without investing considerable time doing your market research. You should know your target audience and what kind of solutions they are looking for when seeking home automation solutions. For starters, if you’re into the thermostats’ business and looking to expand it as Ecobee did, you need to know the mobile platforms popular among your target market. You should also look up what problems users face with the existing home automation solutions and apps. For this purpose, Ecobee will remain your primary subject. But there are other apps in the niche, studying which should help you gain more perspective. These include Google Nest Smart Thermostat, Honeywell Home, Emerson Sensi, and The Simple Thermostat. 

Document The Key Features of Your Smart Home Automation App 

Once you have done thorough market research for the app, you will be better prepared to list down the major features for your app. Most of the best home automation apps of the date are packed with the following key features-

User Registration

Letting users register themselves is the foremost feature of any app that wishes to offer any kind of personalized service. Ecobee also requires its users to register before they can do anything at all on the app. You can allow users to log in or register with their social networking accounts for your app, but that is completely optional. 

Find Devices

Once the user has been registered with the app, they can set up the search and auto-locate setting for their smart devices. Ecobee does that quite simply by asking the user to add the device’s location. That way, the app can detect the device to be connected even if it is not connected through the same network.  

Add Devices

Whether the device is located in some remote place or is connected through the same Wi-Fi network, the app allows users to add devices with similar ease. To add a new device, you should allow users a simple interface like Ecobee’s that puts the icon to add more devices in the UI Dashboard itself. 

UI Dashboard

Once a user has added at least one device to the app, it will take them to the dashboard. Here, they will find a quick view of the device showing its latest status. For example, in the case of the thermostat, it will show whether the furnace is on or off and at what temperature it is set to at present. Users can use the same dashboard section to make desired changes to the device. 

Device Control

To control any device from the dashboard, users will be required to expand its features and then tweak the settings as they please. All the controls you can offer your user, if you also provide them with a similar ecosystem, will include-

Alexa Integration

The Ecobee app and all its smart devices are pre-built with Alexa. You can use Alexa commands to adjust your devices’ settings or even change the mobile-only features too. Through Alexa or other in-built AI assistants, you too can make it easy for your users to manage their smart appliances with simple voice commands. 

Eco Mode

The X-factor of the app and the entire home automation solution, the Eco mode of Ecobee, is the feature that sets it apart. The mode helps users to automatically change the temperature of the thermostat, use less energy on sensors only when the family is around and awake, etc., to save energy by itself, without any additional efforts from the users. 

Weather Check

Since the app’s primary function was to adjust the room temperature for best comfort at home and adjust thermostat settings for power savings, adding weather-related information to it becomes the de-facto next step. The app allows you to check weather forecasts so when you’re away from home, you can make required changes to your heating or cooling devices. 

Set Schedule

Like Ecobee, you can simplify it for your users to categorize their schedules in preset categories. Ecobee uses three primary modes through which a user can set their entire month or week’s schedule. These three modes are- ‘At Home’, ‘Away from Home’, and ‘At Sleep’. Depending on their preferences, they can schedule the device adjustments through the app well in advance to not bother about it later. 

Vacation Mode

Most users have become accustomed to having their tasks managed when they are away from home for extended periods of time. So, if you want to meet such expectations of your users, you should provide them with the Vacation mode, wherein, apart from some security tweaks, you can set all the smart devices on the best-suited auto-pilot mode. 

Security Ecosystem

The home security market is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 15.9% from the year 2020 to 2027. This means if you’re planning to create a clone app like Ecobee and still haven’t ventured into security solutions, now is the time you must do it. When you already have the app used for most basic home automation solutions, you should easier time getting more users onboard for your security solutions. 

Notifications and Reminders

Since your app will be directly connected with your users’ devices, you have the option to simplify device maintenance for them. Like Ecobee, you can let your users set the HVAC, Air Handler, UV Lamp, and other part maintenance reminders so that they need not worry about it all the time. Similarly, alerts can be set for extreme temperatures so that you can control your home’s temperature even when away. 

Geofencing

To make your home automation solution more valuable, you can allow your users to set a geofence around one or more of their smart devices. So say, when a user with your app installed in their phone enter the geofence radius (set by themselves), the devices can automatically turn on or off or even adjust their settings. This way, by the time user enters their house, it is ready to offer custom comfort and convenience. 

Project Manager

Business Analyst

Mobile App Developer

IoT Developer

UI/UX Experts

Quality Assurance Engineers

With a team of such dedicated skillsets, you can easily start the development journey of your home automation app sans hassle. While hiring for developers, you can look for a technology stack as used by the Ecobee app itself. 

Also Read: IoT-based Home Automation Development: What’s in it for Businesses?

Build The MVP For Your Home Automation Mobile App 

Now since you have the list of all the features and functionalities that you want your app to offer and a team to build all that, you will have an easier time deciding which of the primary features are crucial for a deployable version of your app. The app thus built is called MVP or the Minimum Viable Product. The idea for building such a prototype is not new. In fact, other than saving time in deploying the first version of your app, building MVP beforehand will help you understand what other features can be more useful for your users. You will also get to observe, what issues the current features pose for your users, and in the next version deployment, you can add all that to your app. This way, you will end up with a full product that is far more useful for the users than your initial concept even. 

Publish Your App and Market It 

With your MVP ready, you are now all set to publish your app on the dedicated app markets. For Play Store, you will have to register with a developer‘s account by paying a one-time registration fee. Once registered, you can upload the APK file of your app on the platform and then add optimized meta details for better discovery. Once you have provided all the details from our end, the team will review whether your app is free of any malware and buggy code and publish it soon. App Store follows the same procedure; however, both the registration (here membership) amount and the time for app review here are greater than Google’s Play Store. Once launched, and even before that, you should start marketing your app through dedicated landing pages, video ads, etc. To gain momentum in acquiring a user base. 

Add More Value to Your App, and Maintain and Scale It 

Once you’ve done everything you can to release your app soon and then market it too, you’re ready to begin the second phase of the development. Take the next set of important app features and begin their development process instead. You also need to take insights from the users who are already using the first version of your app. This way, you can solve all their initial problems in the first iteration itself and prevent it from creating any snowballed dependency later. You can also ask your users what other features can make their app experience better, and then add those too in the coming Agile iterations. 

Wrap Up 

As rewarding as it can be to own a fully-functional and successful app like Ecobee, the development process can get a bit overwhelming. However, it can also be the easiest thing you’ve ever done in your life if you manage to find a reliable team of mobile and IoT app developers.  

Matellio has significant experience in both areas. Our team of highly skilled developers and matter experts have worked on some leading IoT solutions for businesses across the globe. Our team of mobile app developers also has hundreds of exciting apps under their portfolio. 

Furthermore, with a keen understanding and experience of creating IoT ecosystems, we understand all the security concerns related to them. This is why we think we can become the ideal partner for your Ecobee clone app development. 

But don’t take our word for it. Fill this form to book a free consultation with our experts today. And then discuss your ideas and concepts with them directly. They will walk you through the feasibility of the features and the timeline required to realize your dream. In the end, they’ll share a free quote, and then you can see how easy it can actually be to develop a bespoke home automation app like Ecobee with the least effort.