How do you make a smart home even smarter? Give users the power to customize.
We believe that openness is an essential part of our company. We decided early on to make the Flair API open so that users could create their own programs and integrations that work with our Smart Vents and Pucks. We firmly believe that our customers should be able to customize their hardware.
I sat down with Co-founder and CEO Dan Myers and Senior Vice President of Software Ed Paget to talk about the possibilities of our Open API.
“An Open API means that people can tailor their Puck to fit their lives,” Dan said. “They can program things as complicated as having their Puck turn on their audio system and play music when they walk into a room.”
Our team understands that many people are using smart home technology to rethink and reshape their entire living experience. Smart home users are using Internet of Things (IoT) devices to control their lights, ceiling fans, garage openers, sprinkler systems, thermostats, and climate control systems. “The more we make open APIs a standard and convention, the easier it is for the user to accomplish this kind of rethinking physically and digitally,” Dan said.
Ed agreed, adding that Flair’s Open API gives users “total customizability of their setup. It allows them to play with custom control software and data visualization. They can even build integrations with other smart home devices without having to wait for an official pathway.”
“Our Open API is an opportunity to showcase our quality,” Dan added. “Ed has built a wonderfully complete API following rigorous standards and principles. We want users to see his attention to detail.”
Some of our pilot users have already taken advantage of this openness to further the possibilities of their smart home integrations. While we have yet to officially launch our Open API and are still developing its documentation, some of our users have been excited to build integrations for the Flair Puck and Smart Vent.
One such user is Yves Racine. Yves runs Maisons Eco-MatiQ, a Montreal-based company creating Internet of Things devices and applications for the Samsung SmartThings smart home platform. Wanting to take advantage of Flair’s Open API, he contacted us to build an integration for SmartThings.
“An Open API means easy communication with the Flair Platform and devices,” Yves said in an email. He added that the process allowed him to get to know Flair better. “Building an integration gave me the opportunity to interact with the Flair team. They provided really great support through the six-month integration process.”
Part of Flair’s mission is to make its peoples’ lives easier and more comfortable. We want to support our users’ ability to tinker with our products—that's what we want to do, too. Each person at Flair is a builder and a maker. “When you are passionate about building things, it’s contagious,” Dan reflected at the end of our conversation.
What better way to improve comfort in peoples’ lives than giving them the ability to customize their smart home experience?
Check out our Open API on Github! Please note that the Open API is still a work-in-progress. Documentation will be rolled out as we begin to ship. If you would like to try out our Open API before then, head over to our forum and leave a note for Ed—he will issue credentials to try it out.
