Nest

Nest

Our world is becoming more connected at every turn. Access to real-time social and news updates on your mobile phone is now the norm. A growing trend is being able to control or access your home remotely from any location on their mobile device. In this three-part series on connected apps, we'll look at a few of the top mobile products that connect with your PRIV. The Android-powered PRIV by BlackBerry features a slide-out physical keyboard, 5.4-inch dual-curved screen and 3410 mAh battery, allowing you to stay connected to everything that matters in your life.

Looking for home automation products available on the PRIV? Here are three of our top picks for thermostat control apps.

Whether it's Nest, Honeywell Total Connect Comfort or ecobee3, these awesome apps and automation products allow you to control your home's thermostat remotely from your PRIV. Although each offer many of the same (and some differentiating) features, these products' main intention is to reduce your heating and cooling costs within your home or business by automatically changing your settings when you are home or away.

Honeywell Total Connect Comfort

Honeywell Total Connect Comfort

Nest, for instance, integrates with many other products including Nest Cam, Nest's Wi-Fi security camera, as well as the Nest smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector. The Nest app allows you to control all of these smart home devices from one central app. You can manage up to two profiles, for example your home and cottage, so you can continuously monitor all of your thermostats. Nest is also working with various other smart home products, including the Phillips Hue smart light. Keep an eye out for the "Works with Nest" logo to find products that integrate with Nest.

The Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Voice Control offers similar features to Nest, allowing you to control your home heating and cooling system settings, and it also allows you to manage multiple locations if you have more than one system registered. If you need to manage two or more locations, or are interested in voice control or a customizable colour touch screen, Honeywell may have a solution for you. The Honeywell Lyric, for instance, has a water leak and freeze detector that can be an important early warning if you have a water leak.

ecobee3

ecobee3

Another great solution is the ecobee3 home thermostat. The ecobee3 has a smart and simple user interface, but one of the awesome differentiating features of the ecobee3 is that it has additional room sensors you can connect to your thermostat so that you can manage temperatures in various rooms. Unlike Nest and the Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat, you don't need to buy additional thermostats to manage different rooms; you can purchase additional room sensors at a fraction of the cost of buying additional thermostats.

The great news is, no matter which of these products you decide is right for you, they all work extremely well on the PRIV. With almost 2 million applications on the Google Play store, you can find all of the above connected apps – and more – on the most secure Android device, BlackBerry's PRIV. For information on other types of connected apps, look for part two of our connected apps for PRIV series next week.