August, the San Francisco-based smart-home products startup, wants you to trust it to open up your doors to strangers.
At an event in San Francisco Wednesday, the company is announcing a new service it calls August Access that will connect owners of its smart door locks to appliance repair companies, dog walkers, food delivery services and other service providers. Users can connect to the providers through August s app and then use it to open their door to the providers representatives.
We re solving the problem of bringing trusted services into the home in a secure and convenient way, August CEO Jason Johnson said in a statement.
The company is launching August Access as a beta product with some 13 partners, including Sears appliance repair service; Handy, a house cleaning and home repair service; and floral delivery service BloomNation. August plans to add more providers in the future.
With the new service, August door lock owners can grant a company access to their home at particular times. Companies can send different representatives to the house without requiring homeowners to grant access to different representatives every time a new one arrives at their doorstep. That can be helpful if the homeowner is using a dog walking service or housecleaning service that comes to the house frequently but may send a different employee each time.
Homeowners will have to pay the service providers, of course, but they won t have to pay anything extra for the Access service. However, August is being paid by the service providers to promote their services, Johnson said.
In addition to Access, August is introducing three new products: a doorbell camera, a keypad and a second-generation connected door lock.
The doorbell camera, which will cost $200, can replace a standard doorbell, using the same wiring. Triggered by a built-in motion detector, it can alert users when someone is approaching their door and stream high-definition video to their phones. The device can also act as a bridge between August s door locks and users home WiFi networks, allowing users to remotely monitor or unlock their doors.
The keypad, $80, is designed to allow visitors who don t have a smartphone to open an August door lock. Users can set one-time use or time-limited codes to grant access.
The key feature of August s new door lock is that, unlike the original model, it works with HomeKit, Apple s home automation technology. Users can control their August locks by simply telling Siri, the voice assistant built into the iPhone, to lock or unlock their doors. They can also use Apple s technology to activate multiple smart home products at once, not only locking their doors but turning off the thermostat when they leave the house, for example.
With the release of the new lock, August is cutting its prices. It will charge $230 for the new lock and has reduced the price of its original model to $200. The company previously charged $250 for that lock.
August s smart lock is designed to be opened with a smartphone. Users can lock and and unlock it by pressing a button in August s app. Alternatively, they can set it to open or lock automatically as they approach or leave the house. The lock uses Bluetooth Low Energy to communicate with users smartphones.
August is competing against established lock makers like Schlage and Kwikset, which have their own connected door locks. It s tried to distinguish itself in part by designing its device to be easy to install and to be compatible with existing deadbolt locks. Instead of having to replace an entire deadbolt, users only have to replace the thumb latch that s used to secure the lock from inside their house.
The company got a boost recently when Comcast announced that August s locks are among the first third-party home automation products that will work with its Xfinity Home smart home service.
But the company is one of many that are trying to get traction in what is still a nascent and fragmented industry. With multiple companies competing to be the primary means through which users communicate with their home automation gadgets, the industry is beset by numerous often incompatible communications technologies, services and standards.
Photo: August s app, showing its new Access feature (courtesy of August).
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