Z-Wave's Reinvention: How Long-Range Tech and Open Source Will Shape the Future of Smart Homes

Z-Wave is reinventing itself with open-source standards and long-range capabilities.
Matilda
Z-Wave's Reinvention: How Long-Range Tech and Open Source Will Shape the Future of Smart Homes
As the smart home industry continues to grow, Z-Wave is quietly undergoing a transformation that could help it regain relevance in an increasingly crowded market. For those unfamiliar, Z-Wave is a long-established protocol for connecting Internet of Things (IoT) devices, especially in home security systems. Though often overlooked in favor of newer, more popular protocols like Matter, Z-Wave is reinventing itself to stay relevant in the future of smart homes. Image:Google Z-Wave: A Protocol in Transition Z-Wave was originally conceived in the late 1990s as a way for IoT devices to communicate using wireless signals, and it quickly became a go-to solution for home security systems. Companies like ADT, Ring, and Vivint adopted it to create reliable, secure systems with interoperability between different devices. However, Z-Wave's reliance on a hub-based system — where devices needed to connect to a central hub — has made it less appealing in a world of plug-and-play Wi-Fi and Bluetooth…