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The Nexx Garage is one of the best smart garage door openers because it provides useful features baked into a clear, easy-to-use app with a well-organized menu that uses simple icons and titles. This allows you to control myriad functions, including numerous notifications and reminders — most of them changed via intuitive sliders. And with Alexa and Google Assistant integration, control of your garage door is just a spoken phrase away.
Unfortunately, to get all that, you've got to first set up Nexx Garage. And setting up the app and connection to my home Wi-Fi network was nowhere close to an enjoyable process.
What's Hot
Setup issues aside, the Nexx Garage has plenty going for it as a smart garage door opener.
Simple app and hardware design: Before attaching the Nexx Garage hardware to my garage door opener, I paired the Nexx Garage app on my phone. While the app setup was frustrating (more on this below), once installed and functioning, I appreciated the app user experience — simple and organized.
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The Nexx Garage hardware installation proved fairly simple, consisting only of a small controller and a set of sensors. I mounted the controller near the garage door opener, attached the garage door sensors by the garage door, and strung the controller and sensor wires along my garage door and along the garage ceiling. The Nexx controller has one light and one reset button — again, simple.
Loaded with customizable functionality: Once the hardware and the app were talking to each other, the Nexx Garage app offered 10 options in its menu: Door Control, Share, History, Settings, Registered Devices, Support Questions, Contact Us, Help, About Device and Logout.
You can opt to receive notifications and reminders for when the door is opened or closed, as well as set the door to automatically open when your phone "arrives" within 50 to 100 feet of your home). In addition, you can set an Active Time Period (with the ability to set Start and End times for the Auto Open feature), so that your garage door doesn't open in the middle of the night by accident. I also found on/off slider controls for Voice Assistants — Alexa and Google Assistant. Finally, for Security I could enable Finger Print Access and Auto Update the firmware.
Multi-user management: If a family member or friend has the Nexx app installed on their smartphone, you can give them access to your garage door. The app allows you share any combination of access, auto door open, and view activity history, although there's no way to set specific access times. But revoking someone's access is just one click away.
MORE: 9 Google Home Gadgets to Start Your Smart Home
Voice control via Alexa and Google Assistant: Nexx users can use both Alexa and Google Assistant to control their garage doors by voice command. This includes checking whether the garage door is open or closed. The Chamberlain MyQ only supports Google Assistant and charges a monthly fee for the privilege, something you won't have to pay with Nexx.
What's Not
The Nexx Garage doesn't have many flaws, but the few it has are noteworthy.
Frustrating setup: The process of merely pairing the app to the controller took multiple attempts marked by a password reset, a few app resets, several controller resets and a healthy dose of patience as I plowed through error messages that only offered "OK" as the next click and then immediately repeated itself. Thankfully, after several minutes of clicking and resetting it eventually worked, although I could not explain why.
Inconsistent instruction guide: The parts that came in my Nexx Garage box didn't match what was in the instruction guide or on the Nexx website. On the website and in the instruction guide, the controller — a key part of this system — is a white unit. In the box, it's black. The garage door sensors in the instruction manual are gray; in the box, they’re dark brown. Even the mounting screws were different colors in real life. Granted, these are not insurmountable problems, but they added to my frustration during the setup process.
Bottom Line
For $99.99, the Nexx Garage offers reliable, smart control of your garage door with many customizable notifications and features. The biggest issue I had was with the setup process, which was an exercise in frustration.
Fortunately, once the Nexx Garage is up and running, it faithfully opens and closes your garage door with just the push of a button — or the command of your voice via Alexa or Google Assistant. If you have some patience, the Nexx smart garage door opener is worth a look, especially if you want to use it with Alexa.
Credit: Tom's Guide
