Antalya, Turkey

BSH Home Appliances, the parent company of Bosch, Siemens, Neff and Gaggenau, today announced that it will be launching the new Home Connect app later this year. In addition to connecting and controlling appliances from its four major brands, the app will be open, meaning it will have the potential to connect with and control electronics and appliances from other brands.

The news of this development was revealed at the 2014 IFA Global Press Conference, a multi-brand product expo used to promote the annual IFA exhibition taking place later this year in Berlin. The Home Connect protocol will connect electronics over Wi-Fi, providing access to their functions to smartphones and tablets with a data connection. The first apps for iOS devices are expected in 2014, with Android apps scheduled for 2015.

Interestingly, BSH announced that the Home Connect app will become a “separate legal entity” in the near future, with currently unknown ownership — presumably BSH and another company — potentially making it more attractive for rival brands to use the BSH protocol to make their appliances compatible.

One criticism of connected home appliances has been that they are not ‘lean back’ experiences, making the process of cooking and cleaning easier for the user. BSH said Home Connect had been designed on the notion that consumers expect “flexibility, usability and efficiency in home appliances…” (then a pause) “…and they want connectivity”.

Exactly what users can achieve with this service and associated apps is still opaque. BSH showed slides in its presentation of recipes being pushed from a smartphone to an oven. With connected refrigerators and ovens, it’s possible that Home Connect could analyse the contents of a fridge and push it to the oven, though this would still require human interaction to move the food from the fridge to the oven.

Samsung and LG have previously unveiled mobile connectivity for selected laundry and air conditioning appliances. In these examples, users can access apps on their smartphones to start and pause washing and drying cycles and switch on and off and adjust the temperature of their coolers. If Samsung and LG, for example, were to follow the Home Connect open protocol, you could use the one app to complete all these tasks.

At the end of its short press conference, BSH was asked how it was going to monetise this app. Their spokesperson said the company had plans to make money from the Home Connect standalone company, though no information on how this would be achieved was revealed.

The 2014 IFA Consumer Electronics Show takes place in Berlin, Germany; 6-10 September 2014.