Smart home hubs were red-hot five years ago, but the advent of smart speakers with built-in assistants, like Amazon Echo and Google Home, spelled their demise.
CNET covered the history of the smart home hub, a device that is plugged into a router and translates the wireless signals of smart home gadgets. Standalone hubs are no longer viable, and many manufacturers have shut down operations.
Hubs still control a particular territory in the smart home, thanks primarily to two features: they unify multiple communication protocols under one platform, and they offer more robust scheduling and automation controls than voice assistants.
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