Smarthings_MotionSensorWithPhone

SquareHub, the app that offers families a secure way to communicate, now gives families the ability to keep tabs on their homes inside the app.

A new update to SquareHub announced today has brought users the ability to connect to home sensors from SmartThings, so they can discuss what’s going on at home inside the app. The new functionality means that it’s possible for families to easily figure out who left the back door open, or who left the light on in the garage.

The update is also good for people who worry about security. If nobody left the back door open at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, that might be a sign to get law enforcement involved.

The new functionality streamlines the process of dealing with notifications from SmartThings sensors, rather than requiring users to flip back and forth between several different apps to figure out what’s going on and then talk about what to do.

bucketlist-amazon-and-yelpIn addition to the home automation functionality, SquareHub also announced upcoming integration with Amazon, IMDB, eBay and Yelp, so users can easily find information from those popular sources and add it to the app’s “Bucket List.” Once in the list, family members can discuss whether they want to buy an item on eBay, or go visit that restaurant they found on Yelp.

What’s more, SquareHub CEO Dave Cotter said that the company could do more with the underlying tech powering these updates. He said that all of the new information sources are being run through an “abstraction layer” designed to make it easy to pull in outside information to SquareHub.

“At any given point, we can pull in all this information, filter it out, make it relevant to the user on the client side, and then push it back up,” he said in an interview with GeekWire.

Users of SquareHub can take advantage of the SmartThings integration right now. Integration with other websites is currently in beta testing on Android and Kindle devices, and will be coming to iOS soon.

People interested in downloading SquareHub can find it on the iOS App Store, Google Play Store and Amazon AppStore.

SquareHub is led by former Amazon general manager Cotter and backed by angel investors such as Sujal Patel, founder of Isilon Systems; Geoff Entress; Jeff Wilke, senior vice president, Amazon; Cole Brodman, former chief marketing officer, T-Mobile USA; Rick Dalzell, AOL board member; Mike Galgon, co- founder of aQuantive; and Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle.

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