Some of the best smart home tech is the stuff you don't have to think about. My lamps have been connected to smart plugs for a long time now -- my living room lights turn on at dusk, go dark around 10PM (or when I tell Alexa goodnight) and complete a similar routine each morning. I haven't manually twisted a switch-knob or stumbled in the dark for over a year. And if I weren't continually thinking about smart plugs for this guide, I'd have forgotten about them completely. But not every plug offers seamless connectivity, and which plug works with which home ecosystem varies, too. Right now, the best plug for just about everyone is the Kasa Mini EP25, but there are other winners, depending on your needs. Based on our testing of around 15 options, these are the best smart plugs you can buy. All of the plugs eventually did what they said they would, but each had a quirk or two that gave me pause – except TP-Link's Kasa EP25. From installation to implementation, it was fuss-free and reliable.

Matter is finally taking off. The new smart standard has long promised to make it easier for smart home manufacturers to build devices that work across smart home ecosystems, while simultaneously making it easier for customers (like you) to find devices that work with their other devices, and are easy to set up. With Matter, compatible smart home devices will work with Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, and yes, Alexa. Amazon recently switched on Matter support for millions of Echo devices, as well as the ability for many of those Echo devices to work as Thread border routers--basically meaning that they'll integrate with a modern smart home's mesh network. With all this commotion around Matter and Alexa, you might be wondering how to connect Matter devices to your own Alexa-based smart home.

As companies unveil their new smart home devices at the 2022 CES tech show, underway now in Las Vegas, much of the hype involves Matter, an open-source connectivity standard built around a shared belief that smart home devices should seamlessly integrate with other systems and be secure and reliable. If you like devices, you are probably among the 66% of households that have smart home devices, according to Deloitte. We also know you don't just stick with one company or brand, but probably have purchased from at least half a dozen different companies. That's why for any company launching a smart home device this year, having Matter support will be helpful. Not only is the protocol being developed by some of the biggest tech companies -- think Apple, Amazon and Google -- and smart home device makers, it is designed to finally fix the issues around fragmented smart home systems so that all of your devices can be easily set up and routed from one place.