Living Without Keys: 90 Days With August

The August Wi-Fi Smart Lock Pro installs over your existing deadbolt in about fifteen minutes, keeps your original key working, and adds auto-lock, auto-unlock, and full remote access. The pitch is elegant. The execution, across ninety days of daily use, has been mostly as good as the pitch.

Installation uses your existing deadbolt's hardware. The August replaces the interior thumb turn and sits between two and three inches off the wall depending on your door thickness. The keyway on the outside is untouched. If you move out, you take the August with you and leave the deadbolt behind. There is no commitment here.

Auto-unlock uses geofencing. When your phone crosses the boundary you set — roughly 200 meters by default — the lock prepares to open. It does not open until it detects your Bluetooth signal at the door. The result is a lock that opens as you approach without any deliberate action. After a week, reaching for a key feels like a regression.

The DoorSense feature — a sensor that tells the app whether the door is physically open or closed, distinct from whether it's locked — proved more useful than expected. Twice in ninety days it caught what would have been an unlocked door I'd already forgotten about. Peace of mind is not nothing.

Integration with HomeKit means I can ask Siri to lock the door from anywhere. More practically, the August appears in the Home app alongside my lights and thermostat — one dashboard, one permission structure, consistent behavior. That coherence is worth something in a fragmented market.

Three things I'd improve: battery life is around three months with heavy use — quarterly replacements of four AA batteries. The motors are audible through a quiet hallway. And the iOS widget refreshes slowly. None of these would make me switch. All are worth knowing before you buy.