Ever bought two "smart" devices only to discover they can't talk to each other? You're not alone. In this episode, Chelsea Miller breaks down the five major smart home protocols—Zigbee, Z-Wave, Thread, Matter, and Wi-Fi—explaining why they're not just different dialects but entirely different languages. Whether you're building your first smart home or troubleshooting a system that keeps failing at 2 AM, this episode reveals what manufacturers don't want you to know about compatibility, privacy, and which setups actually work when the marketing hype falls apart.

• Protocol choice directly impacts your privacy: Wi-Fi devices almost always require cloud accounts, while Zigbee, Z-Wave, Thread, and Matter can run entirely locally with the right controller—meaning your motion data doesn't have to leave your home.

• Zigbee  ...