Lidl sells numerous products through its own Silvercrest brand – from toasters and coffee machines to the Thermomix alternative. The discounter also has many smart home devices in its range. However, the appropriate Silvercrest app will be discontinued soon. Users have to switch to a replacement.
The Silvercrest devices are particularly popular in the smart home sector due to their low price. In addition to the gateway, Lidl also offers suitable smart lamps, sockets, thermostats and other sensors. To manage them, users need the “Silvercrest Smart Home” app. It is offered as an alternative to the Lidl Home app. But the development of the Silvercrest app has now been discontinued. At the beginning of July 2023, it will even disappear completely from the market. By then at the latest, users will have to change.
Homematic instead of Silvercrest – the app replacement
Silvercrest provides information about the forthcoming end of the app both in the app stores and on its own website. Users should switch to the “Homematic IP” app by July 1 at the latest in order to “benefit from updates and continue to use the system” in the future. The Homematic app can be used free of charge and has even better ratings than the Silvercrest app, where users mainly complained about the poor menu navigation and lack of administrator rights after an update in summer 2022.
The Homematic IP app comes from the smart home provider eQ-3. Founded in 2007, the company is based in Germany. Homematic also designates the smart home standard with which the devices communicate with each other. Since it is manufacturer-independent, products from Bosch, Philips Hue, TP-Link and more can be connected in addition to Silvercrest devices. Homematic gives a short impression of the app in a video:
Users do not have to set up their smart home system from scratch to use the new Homematic IP app. According to the provider, it is sufficient to scan the access point again and confirm by pressing a button. All individual settings, routines and scenarios in the smart home are then automatically adopted.
Smart home increasingly popular
More and more people are switching to connected devices at home. According to a survey by the industry association Bitkom (via extra) in Germany in 2022, smart lighting, surveillance cameras and other devices for securing your own four walls were particularly popular. But more and more users are also using smart thermostats and sockets to save electricity and heating costs. Most users grab it for controlling either back to an app or use voice commands. A well-functioning and above all clear app is immensely important for many of them. The abolition of the Silvercrest app should therefore not be a wrong step, since Homematic IP is a well-known alternative that can be used more widely and was developed primarily in Germany.