This was a breeze to set up and had been wishing reliably day in and out. Our bridge is about 10 feet away, through a wall; while i was worried about connectivity issues, it's been perfect

First, the good... When it's working it is absolutely amazing. When connected it does exactly what it says on the tin, I can access and receive updates from the lock from anywhere. I have found the auto-unlock works better and the ability to use voice commands to tell the door to lock via Alexa (or ask Alexa if the door is locked) is very handy. By default unlocking via Alexa is disabled, which makes sense. Someone could otherwise literally shout through the door and tell Alexa to unlock your home.

Now, minor issues; if you remotely lock your lock (or unlock it), the status doesn't change on the App for a good long while, even if the log shows it was completed successfully. There was not good feedback on if the device locked or unlocked and when you can't see or hear the lock that is a bit disconcerting. I also found the notifications don't always work but they are in the log of the app, I think this is an app issue not a service issue.

Now for the bigger issue (IMO a design flaw). I have also found that it was easy enough to get working, but it required some tinkering. This tinkering was mostly because of a serious design flaw that I can't possibly understand why August fell prey to. There's a lot of reviews about placement, indeed the manual makes notes about placement, such as putting it on the opposite wall and the like. I have found that to be a horribly idea myself, but perhaps it could work for some. The main design flaw is in the connection types, this makes use of WiFi (2.4 GHz) and Bluetooth (Also runs on 2.4 GHz), the Bluetooth connects to the lock and the WiFi connects to the router.

The issue is, and August really should know this, 2.4 GHz WiFi seriously interferes with Bluetooth reception. Those people who've tried to use Bluetooth peripherals such as a mouse and keyboard on a laptop connected to 2.4 GHz wifi know that it hiccups a lot. WiFi is a much stronger signal, and Bluetooth LE (Bluetooth Low Energy) is by necessity a low power mode and thus has range and speed limitations to make that work. So August decided, for whatever reason, to make their device use a connection method to the lock which is by its very nature weak and then uses that same frequency to connect to the home WiFi, which interferes with Bluetooth operation.

Bluetooth LE is supposed to work about 60 meters out under ideal conditions but there's a lot of problems with that, we can't really help Bluetooth and how it works, it is ubiquitous and so it's a good choice for the lock itself to communicate with a device, your phone or watch is really close to the lock and the signal can be repeated, it's just a good choice.

2.4 GHz WiFi is not, at all. 5 GHz WiFi is a much better option, which should allow the connect device to not interfere with itself. 2.4 GHz spectrum is very crowded anyway, most WiFi routers run 2.4 Ghz even if they have 5 Ghz they usually also run 2.4 as well. For some reason almost all Smart Home devices that don't use a hub of some kind use 2.4 GHz Wifi which means if you've got a lot of smart bulbs, plugs, or other devices you've got a lot of WiFi floating around that's going to make it hard for your August Connect to get a good signal. I've had to place mine literally about 18 inches away from the lock and it still shows a poor signal under Bluetooth LE. Apartment complexes also tend to have a soup of 2.4 GHz traffic that the apartment owner can do nothing about. The option to have Ethernet (it's not like it's going to move much) and 5 GHz WiFi to clear up the much needed 2.4 GHz spectrum use would have been far superior and given the cost of the thing, I have no clue why August didn't do it.

I know not everyone has 5 GHz capabilities on their router and a lot of people don't want to / can't deal with a device that connects to Ethernet. The simple truth is that we live in a world where the 2.4 GHz is really crowded even at the best of times. It doesn't go through objects very well and even water in the air can interfere with its operate. Since the lock itself must use 2.4 GHz to operate, the connect should have options to stay away from that spectrum to get out of its own way.

Works as described and stays connected.

Good value, easy to setup

Easy setup