Your Symbio^™ questions, answered.

• What is Symbio™?

  Symbio^™ is an all-new Smart Home solution from Toshiba—the world’s first IoT device to combine six smart home functions into a single device, eliminating the need to buy and manage more products than you need. It combines:

  1. A motion-activated Wi-Fi^® security camera, providing wireless security.

  2. A smart speaker designed by our partner Onkyo to sound better than speakers twice its size. This speaker can connect to your Bluetooth^® or wirelessly stream from many popular streaming services.

  3. Amazon^® Alexa to give power to your voice. Play music, ask about the weather, control your smart home, and more.

  4. Smart sound detection to listen for loud sounds like a crying baby and can recognize and alert you to the sound of legacy smoke detectors.

  5. A smart home hub, providing master control over all connected devices through a single app, with full expandability to add and automate new smart home functions over time.

  6. Intercom for two-way communication between Symbio^™ and your smart device.

  The features and functions of Symbio^™ are controlled by your smart phone via the Toshiba Smart Home app.

• How do I get the Toshiba Smart Home app?

  Go to Apple^® iTunes^® or the Google Play Store and search for “Toshiba Smart Home”.

• What is a Smart Home Hub?

  A Smart Home Hub is a device that’s necessary to connect and control multiple smart home devices, such as smart sensors, plugs, switches, lights, locks, speakers, sprinklers, alarms and more.

• What kind of smart home devices can connect to Symbio™?

  The Symbio^™ hub is able to connect and control potentially hundreds of smart home devices that use either ZigBee^® or Z-Wave^® wireless communication (the leading industry standards for wireless home control technology). We’re continuously working to add more devices. Click here to see our latest compatibility list.

• Where can I buy smart home devices?

  You can purchase a wide variety of smart home devices online or at any large home improvement or electronics retailer.

• What about smart home devices that connect directly to Wi-Fi^®?

  There are some popular smart home devices that connect directly to Wi-Fi^® instead of requiring a hub. In most cases, there are Alexa “Smart Home Skills” that will allow Symbio^™ to control these devices by voice.

• What are some things I can do with Symbio™?

  Home Security: While you’re at the store, the camera on Symbio^™ detects motion and sends an alert to your phone. Checking the recorded video on your Toshiba Smart Home app, you see that it was your son, home from practice early.

  When traveling on business, you change the mode to “Travel.” If Symbio^™ detects motion, it will send you an alert and sound an alarm. In addition, your customized rules direct Symbio^™ to turn on a lamp and the porch light when the light sensor detects it’s getting dark.

  Family Communication: While checking live video through the Toshiba Smart Home app, you see your daughter sitting on the couch watching TV. You press the “talk back” button to tell your daughter that you’ll be home in 30 minutes.

  Home Control: When you get home from work, you use the Toshiba Smart Home app to change the mode to “Home”. Thanks to preset rules that you’ve created, Symbio^™ knows to turn on your kitchen and living room lights and sets your thermostat to 72˚.

  Home Safety: While at work, you get an alert from Symbio^™ that the device has detected a “siren sound” in your home. After checking the live video through the Toshiba Smart Home app, you see what might be smoke. Turning up the volume, you can hear the sound of your legacy smoke detector, so you immediately call the fire department.

  Baby Monitoring: You’ve decided to do some gardening while your baby takes a nap. You get an alert on your phone that Symbio^™ detected a noise in the nursery. Through the Toshiba Smart Home app, you check live video and see that your daughter is awake and crying. You push the Alexa icon and ask it to play your lullaby playlist, while you wash your hands and get to the nursery.

  Pet Monitoring: You leave your dog at home today, and decide to check on him using the live video feature within the Toshiba Smart Home app. You see him curled up on the couch, and he appears to be having a dream and looks particularly funny. You decide to push the record button to capture a quick video. You realize it will be dark before you get home, so you ask Symbio^™ to turn on the lamp (connected to a smart plug).

• What is Amazon^® Alexa?

  Alexa is Amazon’s cloud-based voice service. Amazon^® Alexa is built in the cloud, so it is always getting smarter. The more you use Alexa, the more it adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary and personal preferences. Ask Alexa to play music, hear the news, check weather, control your smart home, and more. For more ideas, check out Things to Try.

• What are Alexa “Smart Home Skills”?

  Amazon developed several “Smart Home Skills” to allow Alexa to provide voice control to many popular Wi-Fi^® based smart home devices.

• What are Toshiba Smart Home Skills?

  Toshiba developed Alexa skills to allow voice control of the smart home devices connected directly to Symbio^™. Now with Symbio^™, you can use your voice to control smart home devices connected to our built-in hub in addition to other Wi-Fi^® based smart home devices that use Alexa.

• Does Symbio™ have any custom Alexa skills?

  Yes, Toshiba has developed additional “custom” skills that allow you to use your voice to control some of Symbio’s unique functions, such as starting the video recorder or changing modes.

• What do I need to set up my Symbio™?

  You will need a Wi-Fi^® internet connection and login information to your Amazon^® account. If you don’t have an Amazon^® account, you can create one during the Symbio^™ setup process.

• How do I update my Symbio™?

  Symbio^™ will update its firmware automatically. You will receive a notification from the Toshiba Cloud Services informing you that it is time for an update. While Symbio^™ is updating, some functions will not be accessible.