Why would someone want a smartphone-enabled garage door opener?

It’s better because you already have the phone, and don’t need a remote. It’s one less thing.

A use case might be leaving your house to jog, or walk your kids around the neighborhood. You don’t have to take keys, you just take your smartphone, that you’re taking anyway, and get out and in via the garage.

It’s one less thing to carry and to lose. In a world where I can wave my smartphone at the gas pump and pay, this doesn’t seem any more prone to abuse or hacking. It may be less secure, but there’s no obvious reason this would seem less secure than online banking or “the cloud”...

The remote is built into my car to open the garage so I don’t need my smartphone for that. I also have a key pad on the outside of my garage door to get inside. This keeps me from being a slave to my I phone.

My neighbors have a one car garage with one remote. They also store a lot of stuff in the garage, that the other person needs access to from time to time. The smart phone app takes care of that.
As far as it being hacked goes, yeah, I guess it’s possible, but I don’t imagine it’s a huge concern for most people. If there are seriously valuable things in the garage, there would likely be more sophisticated security in place.

Hey! That would be great! For the guy who has everything but can’t communicate with the wife, he could talk to the garage!

@canidmajor Couldn’t they buy an extra remote for ~$20? Wouldn’t that be easier than relying upon a smart[hone, apps, and wifi?

When I travel for an extended trip I shut off power to my garage door motor. I try to make it a little more difficult for someone to open. I just don’t need to open my door when I am not near it. (I must live a simple life.)
This system seems dangerous to me. Am I sounding like a Luddite?

Suppose the smartphone battery is dead. That’s the real problem.

Same with the smartphone based front door locks.

@LuckyGuy The smartphone garage door app let’s you know the status of the garage door 24/7. At least once a month I have to turn around to see if I remembered to close the garage door. The app would save me the trouble. My new car has a remote starter app for my cell phone, I can start my car anywhere in the world. It also tells me where the car is at too.

I also bought a thermostat that has a cell phone app for my lake house and can change the temp or check the temp of the cabin 24/7. I got it because 2 winters ago my neighbor called me and told me he is not seeing any “smoke” coming out of our furnace stack. It was mins 4 and would just be a matter of time before the pipes freeze and burst. I hopped in my car and when I got there everything was fine as he did know I have a HE Furnace with a heat pump that is out the side of the house too. Now when I leave to go up to the lake, I turn up the heat and it is toasty warm by the time I get there.

I had one for a while and disabled the open/close contact but retained the open/close sensor and notifications. I had used it to let the cleaning lady in without having to give her a code or key. Before I disconnected the contact it phantom opened on my wife. I think one of us butt actuated it but that was enough for me to put it offline. The notifications were super handy though. It let me know exactly when people came and left. My new house has dumb doors and I have no plans to add a sensor.

@LuckyGuy: he already had the smartphone. And like I said, I really don’t see a big deal if it’s hacked for most of us, but for those that have high value items in the garage, probably more and different security would be appropriate.
I think you may be overthinking this.

How completely unnecessary, we manage perfectly fine with our garage opener…his name is Bill & he’s paid well

The one and only time I’ve ever had a garage remote, mine also opened a house three doors down if I pushed it too soon.

No, I’m not concerned about hackers spending time and energy trying to get into my piles of craft supplies and leftover hardwood flooring.

^^I remember those dipswitch setable remotes.

My garage door opener is a key and my two hands.

You’s one tuffy lil penguin!!!