Tuya Smart VS Smart Life – Which app is better? Before we dive for an in-depth review of both apps, let’s first learn the origins:
Tuya Smart is a global IoT platform that facilitates brands and manufacturers to bring smart home products to life.
IoT companies such as Tuya focus on upgrading regular day-to-day items with sensors, software, and other technologies to create a larger system of interrelated objects that can communicate via a wireless network such as the internet without the need for constant human intervention.
Tuya, in particular, offers many similar products and services, including smartphone applications, Cloud, SaaS solutions, data analytics, and a lot more.
From the very inception of the company, the Tuya Smart platform helped put smart device developers on a faster and easier route to the competitive market.
Apart from offering smartphone apps and innovative smart devices to enhance the day-to-day life of people, Tuya also offers consultations of getting smart products built for up-and-coming developers.
There are many successful developer stories that beginners can read on their website. From 2014 up until 2021, Tuya IoT Development Platform has empowered over 262,000 developers from all over the world, according to their website.
Among many products and services Tuya offers, Tuya Smart and Smart Life are perhaps the most popular among users. These applications help you easily connect with your smart home appliances, depending on the manufacturers of those products.
Tuya Smart is a lifestyle app that promotes smart living, allowing you to remote control your home appliances no matter where you are.
Smart Life is a more advanced version of the Tuya Smart App, with IFTTT support that gives the users more flexibility and customizability.
Here is a basic comparison to help you understand the difference between these two apps. Compare the main features of both apps, and you will be able to understand the final verdict on which app suits best with your lifestyle at the end of this article.
Tuya Smart Vs Smart Life
At A Glance:
| Differences | Tuya Smart | Smart Life |
|---|---|---|
| Branding | Tuya Inc. | Volcano Technology Ltd. |
| Tuya Logo in Branding | Present | - |
| Features for Internet of Things (IoT) | Basic | Advanced |
| Supports Alexa and Google Home | Available | Available |
| Supports IFTTT Platform | - | Available |
| HealthKit Integration | - | Available |
| Customizable Features | Limited | Available |
Tuya Smart – In Depth Review
- Branding
Tuya company was founded back in 2014, and Tuya Smart was their flagship product. They launched it under their branding as a part of a broader marketing campaign for the company in their quest to get into the IoT industry as a pioneer.
Smart is the basic application that is offered by Tuya with its own branding. Since close to ten years have passed since the initial launch of the app, Tuya Smart can be quite outdated right now, although it functions pretty well still.
- Main Features
If you are going for a basic or starter smart home system and need an app without any complicated features, this app might be for you.
Tuya Smart app is marketed under the slogan, “Smart Life, Smart Living.” The main feature of the app is able to control all of your smart home appliances from anywhere remotely.
With a few clicks, you can easily add and control multiple smart devices at once in this one simple app. Some of the smart devices you can add to Tuya Smart app include all your smart security devices, switches, light bulbs, ceiling fans, smart humidifiers that can be operated with an app, and more.
Before you purchase your smart home device, you can check and see if the manufacturer supports the Tuya Smart App.
- Centralized Cloud Remote Control
Perhaps the most attractive feature in Turya Smart App is the interworking of multiple smart devices and help you automate most of the functions that happen in your smart products, such as being able to start or stop operating due to certain conditions such as the temperature of the environment, location or the time of the day. This can take away the burden of many small daily chores that you have to do around the house.
You can also share the app easily among your family members, allowing them to control the devices for their best convenience as well. When these changes happen, or the devices start operating due to the command of one person, it can be set up that everyone gets an alert as a safety measure.
With the help of Tuya Smart, you need to have appliances that will be compatible with the application. You need to check the compatibility with your system, install the application, and optimize it to have a smart home system. It is compatible with hundreds of OEMs, and that would not be essentially a problem for you.
Tuya Smart supports voice control via Amazon Echo and Google Home, which means controlling the smart devices in your home does not require physically handling the smartphone application at all. It has real-time alerts to ensure safety, especially if you have small children at home.
Smart Life – In Depth Review
- Branding
Smart Life–or Smart Life – Smart Living app–as it is branded in Google Play and Apple App Store is a more advanced version of the Tuya Smart application.
While the Tuya Smart app was promoted with visible Tuya branding, the Smart Life app was promoted under Volcano Technology Ltd, with updated branding and a different logo.
Smart Life app is one of the best smart device management apps out there that help you manage your smart home products easier and live smarter and safer.
The rebranding is a way to announce to their consumers the universalization of the application. Under the Volcano Technology umbrella, they have extended their compatibility with a wide range of appliance manufacturers out there, and you can have a more enhanced and better experience by using the Smart Life application.
- Supports IFTTT Feature
The main difference between both applications is that Smart Life supports IFTTT. IFTTT stands for If This Then That. It is basically a freebase service that allows you to have a chain of conditional statements.
Smart Life is an advanced and sophisticated way to give you more exclusive control over all the devices that you might have. The conditional statements will be enabling you to have preset for different conditions for your home appliances that will be activating the appropriate settings without you having to worry about that.
The problem with having an IFTTT system is that your appliances need to be compliant with IFTTT as well. Otherwise, you can face recurrent issues with connectivity, compatibility, and optimization of these appliances that you are using on your smart home design.
- Supports HealthKit Integration
One of the latest upgrades to the Smart Life app is its integration with HealthKit. As a part of the new trend from mobile phone manufacturers in improving the health of their users, HealthKit is a special central repository for health and fitness data on iPhone and Apple Watch.
With the user’s permission, apps can communicate with HealthKit data to improve their performance especially customized to the user. Smart Life and HealthKit integration help you seamlessly connect your health records with the rest of your devices and get a personalized user experience. Smart Life iOS app also got a recent update for a better optimized Bluetooth device experience.
- Targets Advanced Users
In addition, there are major changes under the hood to improve the application in all aspects. With a better and latest version, you will get to enjoy a whole new experience with bugs fixed, errors cleared, and a better user experience overall.
They have dramatically enhanced the overall performance, accuracy, and optimization of the app. You will also get to see a better interface allowing you more control over the appliances and with tons of extra features that were not present in Tuya Smart App before.
Final Verdict: Tuya Smart vs Smart Life
In conclusion, Tuya IoT products focus on speeding up and streamlining your smart device experience, helping the world reach a futuristic existence with smart devices that are intuitive and intelligent, helping you live your best life.
The company provides technology and the know-how of faster cloud connectivity and smart home systems for the innovators trying to expand the IoT industry, making it accessible and affordable for everyone.
Tuya Smart app and Smart Life apps are two of the most coveted products by this company, helping the users make their smart home dreams come true.
So, to sum up, Tuya Smart is a simple and hassle-free smart device control system that does not have many features but works well. However, Smart Life is an upgraded and advanced next-gen app, giving you a sleeker, snappier, faster, more accurate, and more efficient user experience, with a more aesthetically appealing user interface.
Therefore, it is a must-have upgrade for you to add convenience, stability, and security to your life and enjoy a better smart home experience.
Hi. I have two questions from a non expert :
– When several devices are installed in TUYA Smart, can they be also installed – at the same time- in Smart-Life (so that both apps can be used at user option) ?
– When several devices have been configured in TUYA Smart, is it possible (and easy) to migrate them to Smart Life app ?
Thank you for your answers.