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Reading an old trade magazine from 1992 said the average home alarm had just 3 sensors.
Found it in a box of my dad's stuff, and it's wild to think about now when a basic package has like 10 points of contact, so what's the biggest jump in system complexity you've seen in your time?
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johnson.willow2mo ago
Yeah, @singh.jessica is right about the app being the real game changer. It went from a simple beep at the door to feeling like you're running a tiny mission control center from your couch.
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avery_foster312mo ago
Honestly, the jump that broke my brain was when my smoke alarm started talking to my thermostat. Like, a fire starts in the kitchen and suddenly the air conditioning shuts off to stop feeding it oxygen. My old system just made a horrible beeping sound and maybe called a guy. Now it's making tactical decisions. I feel like my house is smarter than I am sometimes, which is a low bar but still.
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And now it's all about the app. The biggest jump wasn't just more sensors, it was putting the whole system on your phone. You used to have a keypad on the wall, now you can watch a live feed from your doorbell camera while you're at the store. The complexity went from just guarding doors and windows to giving you a full remote control panel for your house.
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