Shelly’s most advanced smart plug is here – its compatibility and price is hard to beat

Smart home brand, Shelly has just launched its most advanced smart plug yet – and its price and compatibility puts it way ahead of the competition. The new Shelly Plug Gen4 is a US-standard plug that comes with multi-protocol connectivity and real-time power tracking.

The humble smart plug is one of the most underrated smart home products on the market. Simply put, they turn your non-smart devices into smart gadgets, so you can turn things on and off, and keep an eye on energy usage using your phone. It makes a world of difference to your home – and means you can turn your lights off if you’ve forgotten to before going to bed which is always a perk!

Shelly has a full range of smart plugs, but it’s recently introduced the Shelly Plug Gen4 for its US customers. This versatile plug supports Matter, Wi-Fi, Zigbee and local control connectivity, so it’s compatible with all major smart home ecosystems, including Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings and more.

Aside from being the most connected plug on the market, the Shelly Plug Gen4 supports up to 1800W so it can be used for lighting, office equipment, appliances and other home electronics. It does so much more than just turn things on and off, too, as it comes with tons of automation options.

With the Shelly Plug Gen4, users can create their own personalised schedules for each device, and even trigger automations. Using the Shelly app, you can get the Shelly Plug Gen4 to turn lights off after a certain time, boil the kettle as part of your morning routine, and take things off standby overnight.

Beginners and more experienced smart home users can enjoy customising the Shelly Plug Gen4, but the latter will enjoy its scripting feature. Shelly now has a built-in script editor and library where users can select pre-configured scripts to use on their different devices, and even create their own.

The Shelly Plug Gen4 looks like your standard US plug, but it also has a backlit LED ring that lights up in different colours to indicate when it's on or off. It can also be used as a nightlight if needed.

In terms of energy usage, the Shelly Plug Gen4 offers real-time power tracking so you can better optimise your home, plus it has tons of safety features that tells you if the plug is over wattage, current, voltage and temperature.

The Shelly Plug Gen4 is available to buy now in black or white for $19.99 at Shelly. UK customers will have to wait a little longer for it but the Shelly UK website still has tons of smart plug options.