Four years ago if someone said I’d be playing with an internet connected nightlight in 2015 I would probably have thought I must be going through some tough times having reached the MySpace of blogdom, but the Leeo Smart Alert Nightlight actually has something interesting to bring to the table.
Update: Xfinity Home evidently found this to be an interesting product as it’s now integrating it with its service.
There’s no need to purchase new smart detectors as long as your Leeo can hear the dumb ones that are working and loud enough to hear. There’s a setup app, you’ll test to make sure the device hears them.
It also knows what temperature and humidity the room with it is at in case you want to remotely crank up the heat with a different connected device, or if you’re wanting to remotely check the baby’s room stats.
It’s also packed with an ambient light sensor that you can enable in the software so it’s not on when it’s light in the room.
The Leeo Smart Alert Nightlight is set up via Bluetooth, and from there it connects to your WiFi. In the event that it hears an alarm it send a notification to a server somewhere that attempts to contact you via push notification, then text notification. If it doesn’t reach you it starts going down the list of secondary contacts you’ve got until it reaches someone or it can’t.
The obvious drawbacks to this device are if the electricity fails, or the internet is down, or the alarms aren’t audible because you didn’t change their batteries for the past 11 years, there’s not going to be any notification. I also don’t see any notification from the nightlight itself that it’s not connected to WiFi – so if you change your WiFi out or your router hates it it might not be functioning when you think it should be.
The millions of colors, that’s a nice touch, but a nicer one would be to add a pass-through plug somewhere so you’re not monopolizing a power outlet.
Still, it’s a nice idea as it retrofits existing alarms and provides a little bit of insight into your house while you’re out.
You can also pair and manage your device with multiple phones, and the app allows you to manage multiple devices at different locations in case you want to monitor your neighbor’s house or some such.
The Leeo Smart Alert Nightlight is available from Amazon for $99.