Tuya Smart is a universal Internet of Things platform that authorize products for, brands, customers, OEMs, and retail chains.
Tuya Smart does not make smart home products but provides a platform for other smart home manufacturers.
So, it supports background connection of Tuya Smart device to cloud and provides tools for service providers to create their smart home app comfortably.
Tuya Smart is the world’s leading AI + IoT platform, announced platform data for 2020 that shows the massive growth of the global IoT ecosystem that continues to provide new opportunities for developers and partner brands in the world.
At the end of October 2020, the Tuya IoT development platform was serving more than 230,000 developers globally, an increase of 28% from last year.
The IoT platform intelligently activated more than 200,000 products in almost 1,000 product categories, 122% more than last year.
Service providers can easily register their smart home devices on the Tuya platform and activate them for Tuya Smart Life, Tuya Smart or white sticker in the same app.
Since this process is relatively straightforward, small smart home appliance manufacturers should choose Tuya and focus primarily on product development, rather than building a cloud and part application to manage the device.
Tuya Smart Company
Tuya Smart is a company that has been in existence since 2014 and was founded by several former Alibaba employees.
They already have a global presence with locations in China, India, Japan, United States, Germany and India. With their IoT 4A platform, they support IoT devices regardless of product, protocol, region or vendor.
This vision has been a great success as Tuya currently has more than 180,000 customers in more than 195 countries and offers more than 90,000 “Powered by Tuya” products, covering 500 different types of products.
This makes Tuya Smart the market leader in the smart home industry, which even includes lighting, home appliance, entertainment and security solutions.
Advantages of Tuya Smart
- All Tuya Smart compatible devices work from the Tuya app.
- You can access the devices from anywhere in the world.
- It works over WiFi, and you don’t need a gateway for most devices.
- More and more service providers are joining Tuya, so more devices are available. And these appliances cover a wide range of products, including home appliances and kitchen appliances.
- It mingles well with your smart home system.
- Integration with third-party programs, such as Google Home and Amazon Alexa.
- Support touch and start and automation.
- It’s free for the consumer.
Disadvantages of Tuya Smart.
- You need an account, and your data is stored in the cloud.
- Reading sensors on a Tuya Smart network can be a bit slow, especially compared to a local Zigbee sensor.
- For some gadget, you still need a gateway (Zigbee).
- It does not work with other proprietary smart home systems such as Philips Hue of different devices; pairing a new device is not always easy.
- As of May 2020, Tuya has stopped supporting the IFTTT platform.
Your First Steps on the Tuya Platform
Getting started with Tuya Smart is pretty straightforward. Since you don’t need a device bridge or hub in most cases, you only need three things: a Tuya-enabled device, a Tuya app, and a wireless internet connection.
You need an extra knot if you want to combine Tuya Smart with a Zigbee device. So if you visit Zigbee and Tuya Smart website, you can take a look at our newly revised Alfawise Z1 smart home protection kit. This kit includes a Zigbee gateway and is compatible with Tuya Smart.
First, you need to find a device compatible with the Tuya network. The biggest buying platform for Tuya products is Aliexpress. Since many vendors develop Tuya compatible devices, you will likely find a Tuya compatible device at your local store. Just make sure the package is “Tuya Compatible” logo.
Tuya has two different apps: the Smart Life app (iOS, Android) and the Tuya Smart app (iOS, Android). As we said before, choosing the Smart Life app is the best place to start.
Because this app is IFTTT compatible and the Tuya Smart app is not. You can also select a branded version of the Smart Life app, but this is a copy of the official Tuya apps and will work the same.
So, you can download the Tuya Smart or Smart Life app, register and log in. You can now connect the device to the Tuya network.
First, put the application in discovery mode by selecting the type of device you want to add. It would be best if you put the gadget into pairing mode. In most cases, you should refer to the manual to see how to set up the device this way.
In the simplest scenario, hold down the pairing key for a few seconds. For some lights, you need to quickly turn them off and back on a few times before you start blinking and go into pairing mode.
The application will recognize the device and add it to the device list. You can then manage and control the device and add automation.
Features of Tuya Smart
- Remote control of devices from anywhere
- Control and add multiple devices at once with one app
- Voice control via Google Home and Amazon Echo
- Intelligent multi-device interoperability. Devices turn on / off automatically based on temperature, location and time.
- Easily share devices with your family members
- Receive real-time alerts to ensure safety.
- Connect the Tuya Smart app to your devices easily and quickly
Conclusion
It’s great that small businesses can make their products smart this way. This means consumers don’t have to pay for app development, and manufacturers will be faster to launch intelligent products that communicate through a standard protocol.
In the long run, this will be useful for further integration into home automation platforms, as all Tuya Smart supported devices can be managed the same.
Also, a large number of companies and customers involved makes the application stable and well-designed. The fact that your account can be used on services like Amazon Alexa and Google Home, but also Home Assistant is a nice feature.
There are also some drawbacks: since the cloud service requires an internet connection. Furthermore, the app stores your device and account data in the cloud. Some people don’t care, but they still have to be considered.
