Smart home from Telekom in the test: unrivaled bad With the new Magenta home app, Telekom wants to get even more users excited about its smart home solution. But installation is anything but easy. 08/02/2022 8:00 p.m. tech stage

Telekom presented a new smart home app in February. Magenta at home can not only connect smart devices to the in-house smart home center Home Base 2 , but also control WLAN components without a gateway. The app also allows you to create shopping and to-do lists and share them with people in the household.

When expanding their smart home, smart home users must ensure that new products match the smart home system used. So if you use Apple Homekit , you need Homekit-compatible products. The same applies to Homematic IP , Bosch , Smart Life (Tuya) , Elesion (Pearl) and Devolo Home Control , as well as to the wired solutions KNX, Loxone and SPS , to name just a few. That limits the choice considerably.

As a rule, the respective smart home systems cover many application scenarios. With the help of a motion detector, you can switch on the light or the television, for example. More complex automations are also possible, provided the necessary sensors and actuators are supported. But if you want to control a new air purifier (adviser) more efficiently with the help of a powerful room air measuring device (adviser) like the Air-Q , you will find that there are many devices outside of these systems that cannot be easily integrated. The problem does not only affect exotic application scenarios, but almost all smart devices such as sockets , switches and dimmers, lighting , thermostats for radiators and underfloor heating and surveillance cameras .

The smart home center Home Base 2 supports WLAN, Homematic, Homematic IP (test) , DECT-ULE and Zigbee (guide) . The connection to the home router required for operation is made either via the supplied Ethernet cable or via WLAN.

So far, the smart home center has been controlled via the Magenta Smart Home app. The quick start guide also refers to this app via a QR code. However, setting up the headquarters fails because you need a so-called pro account, which is not available for new customers. Instead, the app provides the information that you can’t continue at this point and that you should use the new Magenta Home app.

For both apps you need a Telekom login in any case . Registration takes place from the app via the Internet. However, the app does not use the standard browser for this, but Google Chrome on an Android phone. To register , you must provide your title, name, address, date of birth and telephone number. Collecting so much data for a registration has not yet been required by a single smart home system that we have tested.

After logging in to the new Magenta Home app with the Telekom login, a message appears that you can import data (control panel, devices, rooms) from the old Magenta Smarthome app. However, this notice only appears if you have previously registered with the old app.

The Magenta Home app finds the Telekom Home Base 2 hub by default if you have previously connected it to the router with the network cable that you also use with your smartphone. However, Magenta Home does not inform the user about this. There is also no wizard to help connect the Home Base 2. A search on the internet didn’t yield any results either. Instead, we learn that Telekom also offers tariffs under Magenta Home, which of course is of little help when setting up a smart home center.

By chance, however, we found the Home Base 2 in the Magenta Home app under More – Settings – Connections . There SmartHomeZentrale appears under device connections with the addition ACTIVATIONon. However, the app gives no indication of how long activation will take. You also notice that the control panel is not yet ready for use when you try to add a new device if it is not based on WLAN. Components based on other radio technologies such as DECT, Zigbee or Homematic IP can only be integrated via the Home Base 2. Alternatively, you can also use the Telekom routers Speedport Smart 1,2,3 or 4 or Speedport Port, which can be retrofitted with the wireless technologies mentioned using USB sticks. The Home Base 2 manufactured by Qivicon for Telekom already has these radio technologies.

After a good half hour , the status of the Home Base 2 changes from ACTIVATED to CONNECTED without the user being informed.

With the status change, the Home Base 2 is finally ready for use. Devices such as the components used for the test, such as adapter plugs and E27 bulbs from Wiz (WLAN) as well as door/window contacts, motion detectors and switches from Telekom, all of which transmit via DECT-ULE, can now be connected. The DCS-8302LH surveillance camera from Dlink also connects easily to the app. The coupling of the devices is different. Telekom’s own components are integrated directly, while other devices such as Wiz are connected to Magenta at home via an activation code or an existing user account from the respective manufacturer. Sometimes the integration doesn’t work on the first try.

In addition to Telekom, there are 20 other device manufacturers that support Magenta at home. Sometimes many devices are listed under the respective manufacturers, other times only one or two. Magenta at home can only address Tradfri lamps from Ikea via the Philips Hue Bridge. Otherwise, almost all well-known brands such as Philips Hue, Osram Lightify, Ledvance, Paul Neuhaus and Tint are represented by the lamp manufacturers. However, other brands such as Innr and Govee are missing. However, Magenta Home does not support high- performance motion detectors (guides) such as those from Aeotec and Fibaro, which also record temperatures, brightness and vibration in addition to movement.

Magenta Home enables home automation via if-then rules under the Routines menu item . Beginners will be delighted with the pre-defined routines for security, notification, heating & energy, light & music and time of use. This makes implementation easier, especially since the app also indicates the devices required for this if they are not available. This gives users a good overview of what the platform is capable of if the necessary components are available.

Experienced users, on the other hand, will create routines according to their own preferences using the + sign. Buttons, time, movement, temperature, windows/doors, members of the household and roller shutters can be selected as triggers. Here, too, the app provides information if the appropriate devices for the functioning of the routine are not available. Users are forwarded to the Telekom shop via a link. That’s a good idea. But it would be even better if you were forwarded to the corresponding product group and not just to the shop homepage.

Once devices and routines are set up, operating a smart home system should be secondary. Ideally, the automations ensure smooth operation of the smart technology. In the test, it worked perfectly with Magenta Home and the Home Base 2 central unit. The lighting was switched on automatically when motion was detected depending on the time and brightness, including the selection of a specific color tone and intensity. Of course, it is also important that the lighting switches itself off again as soon as no movement is registered. That worked too. The Telekom solution also easily managed to switch off certain sockets in the test, for example to minimize energy wastage in standby mode.

Activating the Magenta skill for Amazon Alexa works, but Alexa does not recognize any Magenta home devices in the test, because the skill is only intended for the older Magenta Smarthome app. If you use this skill, you should deactivate it and then activate the new Magenta Home skill. This also works with the integration of Amazon Alexa. This allows lamps to be dimmed, switched on or off and the heating to be adjusted. However, the Dlink surveillance camera connected in Magenta Home is not supported by Alexa. It is therefore not possible to output the live stream on an Echo Show.

The app is currently not compatible with Google Assistant. However, users can also use their smartphone to send spoken instructions to Magenta at home.

Unlike the previous Magenta Smart Home app, Magenta Home no longer supports local execution. The app therefore requires a working internet connection.

Magenta Home is currently free. This should remain the case for the integration of WLAN components. Later, however, users will pay EUR 2.95 per month if they want to use components from other radio technologies such as DECT-ULE, Zigbee, Homematic IP and Schallenberg (roller shutters). The Home Base 2 center costs about 50 euros from Telekom. It is available from other retailers for around 20 euros. The individual components such as motion detectors and door/window sensors are relatively expensive at prices of 30 to 40 euros. There are comparable sensors from Aqara (test report) for 12 to 16 euros.

Updated 8/3/2022

As Telekom announced after the article was published, Magenta at home will be subject to a fee from August 8th. The integration of WLAN components remains free of charge. If you want to use smart home devices based on Dect, Zigbee or Homematic IP with the service, you have to pay 2.95 euros per month. In the end device service package (router rental) it remains at EUR 0.00.