It’s been several months since Stringify, the cloud-based Internet of Things company, was acquired by Comcast. Now, the startup is back and making some noise with a new look and new features. When Comcast made the acquisition in September 2017, the goal was to leverage Stringify’s expertise to improve the Xfinity Home and xFi experience. And it would appear that the team is on its way to meeting that goal.
First and foremost, Stringify has reinvented itself from an aesthetic standpoint. If you log into the Stringify app, you’ll find that the “visual update brings the experience closer to other Xfinity apps, while retaining all the functionality you’ve come to enjoy.” Over the last few months, Stringify says that it has been hard at work building new automation features for Xfinity customers, and is also continuing to evolve the Stringify app. “The work we do here will help to inform and advance Comcast’s vision of the connected home,” the team notes.
Stringify has also begun integrating functionality from other Xfinity offerings, most notably the video platform X1 and the new personalized home Wi-Fi experience, xFi. If you use either of those services, you’ll now be able to display notifications on your television, automatically change the channel, or even pause and unpause devices on your home network.
For example, you could get notifications on your television if someone is at your front door, or if a sensor detects motion on your porch. Even if you don’t have another smart home device, you can display your commute time every weekday at 7:30 a.m., or set a reminder to shut the windows when rain is in the forecast. You can also schedule family television time and have the channel automatically set to the program you want to watch while simultaneously dimming the lights.
And if you want to ensure that no one is surfing the web or on their phones at dinnertime, you can pause devices at your leisure using the Stringify app.
Stringify is also beginning to work with lighting-control firm Lutron. Both Lutron Caseta dimmers and switches, as well as Serena shades, can be made part of your Stringify flow. Stringify has also been working alongside Carrier to integrate the latter’s Cor Wi-Fi thermostats into the app experience. Finally, Stringify is announcing its first watch app for Android Wear. You’ll now be able to set a Stringify scene from your wrist, making smart home control easier than ever.
“We have more fun stuff in the works as we get our legs under us in our new digs, but please keep your feedback coming,” the team noted in its blog post. “We’ve really appreciated the well-wishes and are really looking forward to hearing from you about this new functionality.”
