Smart Life App - a Comprehensive Guide - Everything You Need to Know

In this review guide we cover what Smart life can do. Smart Life features, device compatibility, IFTTT, how to set up and more
Smart Life App Devices
Updated: 3rd Sep 2020
Published: 8th Feb 2020
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By Rohan Tandon

Rohan is a passionate tech journalist with a degree in English literature. He's worked as a commissi Read More...

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IFTTT Update May 2020:

There has been a recent change in SmartLife’s compatibility. As of 26th May 2020, SmartLife has discontinued access to IFTTT. You can no longer access automation features through IFTTT with your SmartLife app.

UPDATE June 2020

IFTTT and Smart life are back in business. We can now use our smart life app and IFTTT recipes once again. 

In recent years, the smart technology market has grown by leaps and bounds. You can now find smart and automated devices for most household appliances, including smart lights, smart plugs, smart thermostats, smart speakers, and so much more.

 

All of these smart devices can be controlled remotely using a smartphone app or voice commands via Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Microsoft Cortana integration. But the abundance of smart home devices also comes with one complication — an abundance of smartphone applications.

That’s where the Smart Life app comes in!

Smart Life is a single integrated solution to your smart home applications problem. It’s a centralized smartphone app (App Store or Google Play) that was designed by Tuya, one of the world’s leading IoT platforms.

Instead of controlling your smart devices with several individual smartphone apps, you can now program all of them into the Smart Life app. Consequently, you can control all of your smart devices from a single, central app.

Furthermore, since all of your smart home devices are connected to the Smart Life app, you can also build complex automation and commands through IFTTT. For example, you can set up a routine that turns on the lights and air conditioner as soon as you get back home. Or you can set up a program that turns on the coffee maker as soon as your alarm clock goes off.

Smart Life simplifies your life by giving you complete streamlined control over all your smart devices. In this article, we give you a comprehensive overview of the Smart Life App, its features, and how to use it.

Some of the leading smart plugs include:

 

How to Add a Device to the Smart Life App

How to set up device in smart life app

  • Launch the Smart Life app and tap the ‘+’ icon on the top right corner.
  • Connect your smart device to a power source and make sure it’s activated.
  • You’ll find a list of different types of devices in the app, including Electrical Outlet, Lighting Devices, Air Conditioner, Robot Vacuum, and various others. Select the relevant device type.
  • You now have two options to detect your smart device — Quick Connection and AP Mode.
    • -  If you want an automatic quick connection, tap ‘Confirm Indicator Rapidly Blink’. If your smart device is activated and connected to the right wireless network, the Smart Life app will detect it and you’ll be taken to the next step.
    • -  Alternatively, you can tap the ‘AP Mode’ button on the top right corner of the screen.
  • You’ll have to enter your wireless network password. Some smart devices only support 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks while some also support 5GHz networks. Please connect to a wireless network that your device supports. Tap ‘Confirm’.
  • Confirm your home network and tap ‘Connect Now’. Choose the Smart Life app network in your phone settings — labeled ‘SmartLife-XXXX’ — and go back to the Smart Life app.
  • Wait a moment for the system to connect.
  • Your device is now connected to the Smart Life app and you can control it remotely.

Smart Life App Voice Commands

Most smart devices can be controlled through voice commands as well, which is far more convenient than having to always access your Smart Life app. To control the devices through voice commands, you’ll need to configure your Smart Life app voice commands, be it through Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or any other device.

The following is an overview of the steps involved in the Smart Life app voice command configuration process.

Amazon Alexa Smart Life App Configuration

  • Complete the Smart Life app configuration on your phone.
  • Access the Amazon Alexa app and go to ‘Menu’ > ‘Skills’.
  • Enter ‘Smart Life’ in the search bar on top.
  • Select Smart Life and tap ‘Enable’.
  • Select your country and enter your Smart Life app account credentials. Tap ‘Link Now’ > ‘Authorise’.
  • Your Smart Life app and Alexa app are now officially linked. Tap ‘Done’.
  • Tap ‘Discover Devices’ to import your Smart Life app devices to your Alexa account.
  • You’ll now see all of your Smart Life app devices on your Alexa homepage.
  • Tap ‘Groups’ to organize the apps into groups of functionality, location, etc.
  • You can now control your smart devices through Alexa voice commands.

Google Assistant Smart Life App Configuration

  • Complete the Smart Life app configuration on your phone.
  • Access the Google Home app and go to ‘Menu’ > ‘Home Control’.
  • Tap the ‘+’ icon to add new devices or apps.
  • From the list of devices and apps, select Smart Life.
  • Choose your country and enter your Smart Life app account credentials.
  • Tap ‘Link Now’.
  • Google Home will detect your Smart Life app devices and ask you to ‘Assign Rooms’. This is a feature to create groups for your Smart Life devices for better management.
  • Your smart devices will now appear in your Home Control page.
  • Now you can control your smart devices using Google Assistant voice commands.

Microsoft Cortana Smart Life App Configuration

  • Complete the Smart Life app configuration on your phone.
  • Access the Microsoft Cortana app and go to ‘Menu’ > ‘Notebook’ > ‘Connected Home’.
  • Toggle the ‘Enable Connected Home’ option.
  • Enter your Microsoft account credentials to sign in.
  • Look for ‘Smart Life’ in the search bar.
  • Select Smart Life and enter your Smart Life app account credentials.
  • Microsoft Cortana will detect all your Smart Life app devices and import them.
  • You can now control your smart devices with Cortana voice commands.

Smart Life App Features

Smart Life is one of the most exhaustive centralized apps for smart device management. With Smart Life, you can control your smart devices remotely and set up a complex chain of commands and automation.

Let’s have a look at some of Smart Life’s most prominent features. But please note that the following list of features is by no means comprehensive — the features are as vast as the number of smart devices you own because most smart devices also come with their own unique set of features.

Remote Control

With Smart Life, you can control all of your smart devices remotely from your smartphone app. Whether you’re in a different room, at work, or halfway across the world, you can control your smart devices using just a wireless connection and your smartphone app.

This can be incredibly useful in several situations. At night, you don’t have to go around your entire house making sure all the lights are off — simply turn them off remotely. If you remember that you left the air conditioner on when you left the house, you don’t have to fret or hurry back home, you can simply turn it off remotely.

Control Multiple Devices

The Smart Life app is compatible with a wide range of smart devices across all categories. You can configure all of them in a single smartphone app and control them together.

Voice Control

You can configure the Smart Life app using voice commands through Amazon Alexa,  Google Assistant, and CortanaThis means that you can control all of your devices using voice commands, so you don’t even need to manually access your Smart Life app.

Family Sharing

You can share the management controls with different family members. You can also control how much control and management power different family members have so they don’t play around with devices they’re not supposed to.

Real-Time Alerts

The Smart Life app can also give you real-time alerts and push notifications if your motion sensor is triggered if your smoke alarm goes off, or in other such situations. As such, no matter where you are, you can rest assured that your home is safe.

Away Mode

You can trigger the Away Mode so the Smart Life app will automatically and randomly turn your lights on and off. This can deter burglaries because it will make it seem like your home is occupied even if you’re on a holiday halfway across the world.

Automation

With Smart Life, you can build several complicated and useful automation tasks through IFTTT. You can set up automation to turn all your devices off when you leave home, turn off some devices when you go to bed, change the color of the light according to the weather, and more.

Groups

You can group your smart devices into different categories based on functionality, geography, or other categories. For example, you can connect all the lights in your home to a single group called ‘Lights’ or you can connect all the devices in your kitchen to a single group called ‘Kitchen’. This allows you to control several devices with a single tap.

Schedules

You can establish schedules for when certain devices should turn on or off. For example, you can schedule all of your lights to automatically turn off at 10 PM or for all the lights to turn on at 5 PM. Setting schedules also help you make sure that no device is left turned on when it’s not supposed to be on.

Smart Life app Schedule timer

Timers

You can set timers for different smart devices so they automatically turn off after a specific period. This is especially useful for kitchen appliances like the microwave or toaster. Instead of keeping an eye on the clock, you can rest assured the device will automatically turn off after a specified period.

Energy monitoring

Smart Life app does track energy usage — but only if the connected device has an energy monitoring feature, such as Teckin Smart Plugs

Smart Life app Energy managment and automation

Check out this useful and fun video for more tips on Smart Life or read our FAQ's below

Smart Life App FAQs

Tuya vs Smart Life: Which is the better app?

The Tuya app is often considered an alternative to the Smart Life app. However, both the Tuya app and the Smart Life app have been developed by the same organisation, Tuya Inc, and they’re both identical. You can use either of them but the Smart Life app is the more popular choice, so we recommend that.

Will Sonoff work with the Smart Life app?

Sonoff is a competitor to the Smart Life app with its own iPhone and Android phone apps. As such, Sonoff won’t work with the Smart Life app. You can, however, find a workaround for it via IFTTT automation.

What devices work with the Smart Life app?

The Smart Life app is one of the most popular apps for smart devices and it’s compatible with thousands of devices. Whenever you get a device, you should first check if the device’s company is available on your Smart Life app.

Does the Smart Life app track energy usage?

The Smart Life app does track energy usage — but only if the connected device has an energy monitoring feature. If the connected device has an energy monitoring feature, the Smart Life app will show you the volts and watts at the moment along with a weekly, monthly, or yearly report, complete with graphs and historical data.

How to group lights in the Smart Life app

  • From the ‘Devices’ option, select the ‘+’ icon and tap ‘Add Group’.
  • Create a new group.
  • Select the smart lights you want to add to that group.

How to remove a device from the Smart Life app

  • Select the device.
  • Tap on the edit icon on the top right corner.
  • Tap ‘Remove Device’.

Conclusion

The Smart Life app is currently one of the most streamlined smartphone apps to control many different smart devices from a single centralized source. However, please remember that Smart Life isn’t compatible with every single smart device out there. If you want all of your smart devices to be controllable from a single app, make sure the device you’re purchasing is available on Smart Life first.

I hope this article has helped you figure out how to use Smart Life and all of its features.

Comments

user
CWG
I have reinstalled my CC-200 camera. The motion dtecteion fuction worked before but not now. What have I missed?
user
ddugger
Does Smart Life have and Away Mode (schedule randomizer) and if so how do you access it?
user
David J
I have 8 Teckin SP20 Smart plugs, all purchased at the same time. 7 of them show statistics in the smart life app, but 1 doesn't. I have tried re-configuring the Teckin smart plug and still no statistics. dont want to try to reconfigure another working plug in case that doesnt work.
user
JurgenD
I installed a smart Wifi curtain module. everything works fine in Smart Life app. Only the (Dutch) translation of the open/close status is completely wrong. Can I change this somewhere ?
user
Rod
Can smart life check the state of a wifi device example.. if hall lamp is on?
user
MOTTE
j'ai paramétré deux maisons, mais j'ai tout installé sur une seul maison, peut on déplacer d'une maison vers l'autre sans désinstaller ?
user
pounter2002
Existe t il une appli connectée a smartlife permettant de récupérer les données mesurées par les prises connectées ? Transférer ces données vers un outil comme grafana pour afficher la conso par minute/heure/jour/mois/année... ?
user
Diveman1957
J'ai configuré des routines sur 5 volets roulant avec Smart Life, suite à une coupure de courant certains d'entre-eux ne se reconnectaient plus, j'ai été contraint de les supprimer pour refaire leur programmation, maintenant tout refonctionne correctement mais les appareils supprimés apparaissent toujours dans mes routines (en tant qu'appareils supprimés), comment les faire disparaitre ?
user
McDougal
I've had the Smart Life App for over a year now. I use it primarily to turn on an outside light controlled from a switch in my garage. It used to come up within a few seconds to function. Now it takes upwards of a minute or more to fire up and then shows an advertisement while continuing to load up. I'm pretty much to the point of dumping it for another app.
user
dclockard
I changed the schedule for a plug when the clocks changed to turn on an hour and a half later (6:00 p.m. instead of 4:30 p.m.) The lights continue to turn on at 4:30 p.m. and I can't find a way to stop it. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the plug and it still does it. Help!
user
Nerdy
Great tutorial! I wanted to point out that the IFTTT service with smartflie has been restored! I find it strange that it was not advertised, but all my applets started to work seemlessly again, I added new IR remotes and devices which all showed in IFTTT, and the app re-added the link for IFTTT linking. I hope this helps!
user
JumpinJ
How do you rename a socket in the Android App? I see how to name it when the device is first added but I can't find a way to rename it. Thanks
user
[email protected]
I have 2 new wifi light switches. I configured both through the smart life app. I can control both with the app. I then added them to my alexa. One works with alexa voice control the other doesn't. The message I get is "My light isn't responding. Please check the network connection and power supply." Since I can control both with the smart app the network connection and power supply must be OK. Since one works and one doesn't again the network connection and power supply must be OK. How do I get technical help?
user
glafollette
I am trying to set up a simple IFTTT > Smart Life process to switch a light ON at sunset and OFF at sunrise. Apparently I'm not smart enough or maybe the Smart Live / IFTTT spats are still in process. Any suggestions for a noob?
user
sergoyan
Pretty disappointed. The all important feature, the on/off option, doesn't exist with Smartlife. So you basically create a group of lights, for example, that you wish to be able to turn on and off with a click of a button. Nope. You can set up one button for off, and another button for on. Stupid.
user
John James
Bought 3 Tuya smart lights and am trying to add through smart life app. Auto doesn't work: I can add one (at random). I'm trying 'AP Mode': I can see the 3 SmarLife-XXXX hot spots, but if I connect as per the App it cannot re-connect to the router. What am I doing wrong?
user
howi42
Smart Life seems to have a serious problem : It runs fine and continues to run in the background when you close the app. But then, after a while, it disappears from the background ad notifications stop working. Start it again and everything is fine for a while again.' This is running und MIUI 12.
user
Gi
Worked great, now keeps resetting itself on & off every 2 mins. Checked settings nothing, deleted app & reset device, but still the same !!! Suggestions Please ???
user
Vinz
Is there any way to get a data export of my power consumption monitored with Smart Life? Regards
user
Bc2mc3
I accidentally deleted the smart home app. I had 13 lights (combination of light bulbs, outlets) on the app and had them all scheduled for certain times. I reloaded the app but no devices showed up, however all the lamps, lights, etc still were on timers, I guess from The cloud. But I cannot control any of them as they are not recognized on the app. Is there anything I can do?
user
Walter
Motion sensor: I am not familiar with the term "no one". Could someone explain?
user
Epic Fire App!
Can you connect devices to multiple phone apps? I and my girlfriend both want to control from our separate devices.
user
Douglas_e
não consigo logar no app smart life
user
rzurga
I remember being able to add a group and control a group of switches as one. I'm trying to create a group with the current app as of 9/12/2021 and I don't see an "add group" feature anymore. Please help.
user
maaltecenter
Devices allways offline
user
MMC
Hello, I bought the Moes Garage Door controller which uses the Smart Life app. How can I use 3 phones/devices for that 1 garage door controller? After I have paired one phone, when I go to do the same process for a 2nd phone the app requires a 5 sec press of the reset which I assume is also the pairing process but when I do that it un-pairs the first phone. I was told maybe I have to create a family group or something like that? not sure. All 3 phones now have the Smart Life app. Just want for all to have access to the garage door opener/monitor. Please advise.
user
Peter
My ios device has forgotten my login. It now has suggested a new random account name and I can't get back to the login page - any help?
user
Peter
Worked it out now!
user
renukothari
I installed Wi-Fi garage door controller and downloaded smartlife app. My device is compatible but app is only opening and closing the door. There is no chime of alarm and history is reporting only closing even when garage door is opening. Error message that the garage door did not close in time pops up, and wants me to go out and check if garage door is closed properly check. Also if I leave the garage door open more than the time assigned, I don't get a notice. Records only says closing even when it is opening. Also the picture for opening and closing always on top says closing. I searched thru internet but have not received any answers I am very frustrated I hope you can resolve the issue