Smart Digital Door Locks
Smart digital door locks are an increasingly popular option for homeowners looking to upgrade their home security. They can offer remote access, geofencing, and more.
They’re also easier to use than traditional locks, with features like proximity unlocking and voice commands. They’re great for removing the need for spare keys and ensuring that your home is always secure.
Keyless Entry
A smart digital door lock is a connected device that replaces or augments your home’s traditional lock, letting you control access to the home using a smartphone app. These locks offer a range of features, including keyless entry, and are becoming more and more popular for homeowners, renters, and businesses looking to add an extra layer of security to their homes.
Convenience: Many people find it hard to remember to unlock the door at night when they have an armload of groceries or are letting in a dog walker, and smart locks can make that chore easier by allowing you to set up a virtual code for each person to use on their phone. You can also create custom alerts when someone enters the house and set up a reminder to lock it when you’re away.
Security: Some smart locks come with a small alarm system built in that sounds when they’re tampered with or forced open. Some even let you set up a timer so the door automatically locks after a certain amount of time has passed, keeping it safe for your family and pets.
If you’re shopping for a smart lock with keyless entry, you have a few options to choose from: Bluetooth, NFC, and a key fob. Most come with a smartphone app that lets smart digital door lock you manage access, set up alerts, and control who can access your home.
Our pick for the best smart digital door lock is the August Wi-Fi, a compact and easy-to-install model that works with a wide range of smart devices (including Alexa and Apple’s HomeKit) and is backed by a lifetime warranty. The August Wi-Fi is available with or without a Wi-Fi bridge, so you can link it to your smart home hubs to get the most out of your device.
Remote Access
The best smart digital door lock models offer remote access, allowing homeowners to control their locks from anywhere. Some of these models also come with geofencing features, which use your phone’s location to automatically lock/unlock doors when you leave the house.
With this kind of technology, it’s easier to let employees, contractors, and family members in without having to provide them with a key. You can also track who has entered the property.
Some of the best smart digital door locks have built-in alarms, so you can set them to sound if someone tries to open them. These alarms aren’t as robust as those in a physical security system, but they can help deter people who might have an interest in breaking into your home or business.
Another cool feature on some smart locks is the ability to hide your code in a stream of numbers, so it’s harder for someone to memorize and open your doors. It’s also possible to create multiple codes, making it easy to assign one for a specific person or group of people.
You can control these locks remotely via a smartphone app or by using the smart keypad that’s attached to the lock. These locks are a great way to ensure that only your trusted friends and family can gain entry into the house or business.
Many businesses rely on remote access for employees to perform a variety of tasks, including conducting meetings, conducting presentations, and storing data. It can help lower costs and improve cybersecurity, but it’s important to make sure that you follow your company’s policy when enabling remote access for work devices.
Geofencing
Geofencing allows you to define a virtual perimeter that surrounds areas of interest. When a user enters that boundary, your app will get a notification that enables you to provide a relevant experience for that user.
For example, a retail store might set up a geofence around a mall so it can send push notifications to shoppers about a sale or a new store opening. Or a coffee shop might use it to notify customers of special discounts as they walk by.
The biggest benefit of geofencing is that it enables businesses to target consumers at scale and serve relevant, timely messages. It’s a great way to boost brand engagement, increase sales, and improve customer service.
While it’s not a new concept, it’s quickly becoming one of the most popular ways to market your business. Consumers are increasingly comfortable sharing personal data with brands, and they’re responding well to location-based messaging.
To do this effectively, you need to choose a high-quality geofencing solution that delivers accurate geolocation data. Without it, you’re risking revoked location permissions or worse, app churn.
Some apps can provide up to 100 meters of accuracy. However, most use cases require at least 200 meters of accuracy.
Fortunately, there are a variety of tools available to help your business achieve the high-levels of geofencing accuracy required for marketing purposes. The most popular options are in-app notifications, SMS and social media ads.
In addition to marketing, there are a number of other uses for geofencing in the workplace and at home. For example, some human resources software like Quickbooks uses it to track employees’ time on-site and in the field. It’s a great way to automate employee time cards, and it also ensures you’re paid for every second that an employee is on-site.
Alarms
A smart digital door lock can be an excellent security upgrade for your home, especially if you have frequent guests or rent out your property. They can provide unique access codes that give visitors a specific time to enter, and they can also send push notifications when someone arrives at the door.
Many smart locks can also be integrated with a number of different smart-home systems to make them even more convenient. They’re compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, and other voice assistants.
They can connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, so you can open and close the door from anywhere you have internet access. Some also smart digital door lock feature a bridge that can be connected to a smart hub to allow remote unlocking from a smartphone or other device.
One of the most popular smart-home platforms is Z-Wave, and a number of the locks we tested support it. These include Schlage Connect, August Pro + Connect, and the Wyze Lock.
Some of them even support a wide range of smart-home hubs, including Ring alarm systems. They’ll automatically lock and unlock the door when you arm or disarm your system.
Depending on the manufacturer, you’ll be able to choose how long to delay the auto-lock function when it detects that you’ve left the house. This can be helpful for people who are forgetful and leave the house for longer than they should.
Some of these models have open-door detection as well, so you can be sure the door is locked when it’s ajar. This can be useful for kids who are known to leave doors ajar, or for pets that need to go outside.
Entry Logs
When using a smart digital door lock, it’s important to be able to track entry and exit activities. This can help businesses optimize their security based on visitation patterns and respond to security breaches with ease. It also allows teams to see who’s coming and going, and to ensure that team members aren’t entering restricted areas without permission.
For example, if you have a storage room that needs to be secured, you can use a keyless lock with an audit trail to record who enters and leaves the room, and at what time. The information is sent to a cloud service, which you can access remotely from anywhere with an internet connection. This is particularly useful for tracking the identity of staff who have regular access to a secure room.
In addition, smart locks can be combined with a door sensor that will record activity log entries. This helps you see who comes and goes from your home or office, so you can be sure that only authorized people have access to the area. This is especially helpful when combined with a smart keypad, which makes it easier to monitor who has unlocked the door from afar. The best smart locks will automatically save historic entries in the activity log, so you can always be sure who locked and unlocked the door from where.
