Why you should choose a smart lock with the best app experience
In the past decade, smart locks have gone from being a luxury to a practical necessity – especially in multifamily housing. But it’s important to remember, a smart lock is only as good as the app that controls it.
Whether you manage 12 apartments or 1,200, you’ve probably faced the same headaches – lost keys, late-night lockouts, complex access management, and residents who expect everything to be mobile-first. The good news is that the right smart lock app can ease those headaches.
This article takes a look at what makes an app stand out and what features deliver the best experience – for both you and your tenants.
Why the app matters more than you think
Most property managers focus on hardware first: “Is the lock reliable?” “Can it survive a hard winter?” These are important questions, but if the app doesn’t work well, your staff will waste time, your residents will complain, and worst of all, your investment won’t feel like an upgrade.
A good smart lock app should:
- Be quick and easy to use for both staff and residents
- Work reliably
- Offer flexible access control (temporary accesses, remote unlocking)
- Integrate with your existing property management software
What makes a great smart lock app?
When evaluating a smart lock solution, these are the app-specific features to look out for.
- Intuitive interface
A clean, user-friendly design is everything. If the average tenant can’t figure out how to share a phone key with family members, it’s a problem. Your property managers also need to quickly grant or revoke access without scrolling through menus.
Apps that use icons and plain language and avoid technical jargon are best. - Real-time access control
Whether you’re granting access to a new tenant moving in or revoking it when their lease is up, you should be able to do this immediately and remotely on the app. No need to drive to the property and no need for hard resets.
Many of today’s best apps allow you to:
- Share accesses on the fly
- Create temporary or one-time accesses
- Assign access to 3rd-party service providers
- Activity tracking and alerts
Want to know if a maintenance person actually entered the apartment to do their job? Good apps offer activity logs, so you’re not left guessing.
Some even let tenants view their own logs, which builds trust and reduces customer-service calls. - Stability and speed
This one seems obvious, but all smart locks are not the same. You need consistent connectivity and fast access. No spinning wheels and no timeouts. - Integration with property management tools
The best apps now support integrations that automatically deactivate access when a lease ends and activate it when a new one begins.
Smart and simple app experience with iLOQ
If you’re managing multiple doors, tenants, and expectations, the smartest move isn’t just picking a smart lock – it’s picking one with the smartest app; one that won’t confuse or frustrate non-tech-savvy tenants.
iLOQ has been a pioneer of mobile smart-locking solutions for nearly a decade. Our tenant-friendly app with a clear and easy-to-use user interface supports smart living in residential, multifamily and student housing properties. It is ideal for different user levels – not only the tenants, but also in-house maintenance teams, 3rd-party service providers and visitors.
With iLOQ, accesses are remotely sent to the app running on the resident’s Android or iPhone device. To keep security levels high, the accesses can be updated remotely and in real time and immediately cancelled when a resident moves out.
One of the best things about iLOQ’s solution is that it is entirely battery-free. The app harvests electricity from the NFC induction of the resident’s smartphone to recognize accesses and open the battery-free locks.
Taking the app into use
iLOQ’s app is incredibly easy for residents to use. The locking system administrator sends an invitation so that residents can register their personal iLOQ account and keep their information safe. Easy-to-understand instructions, how-to-videos and Q&As on how to use the app to open locks are provided in the app itself.
Many people do not know where the NFC antenna is in their phone model. To make openings smooth and successful, the NFC finder animation in the app shows the exact location of the antenna on the resident’s device.
If you decide to change your phone, you can ‘release’ your phone keys from the old phone, log in to iLOQ’s app on your new phone and simply ‘fetch’ your keys again. And, if you lose your phone, just log in to the app on your new phone. After a maximum of two hours, your keys will be available and ready to use.
Easy-to-share access
With iLOQ’s solution, residents can easily share access with their family and friends through the app. There is no need to drive back and forth to let someone in or install PIN code readers on every door. The visitors receive an email invitation and can access an apartment after downloading and signing up to iLOQ’s app. 15 shareable keys are available for all apartment owners. They can be easily shared and revoked as they wish.
Want to find out more?
Smart locks have come a long way, but what sets the best apart is the app that powers them. Whether it’s the seamless tenant onboarding, the time-saving access tools for your staff, or the reduced support headaches, the right app turns a good lock into a great investment. iLOQ’s app will continue to develop and expand with more features and functionality being added all the time.
If you would like to hear more about iLOQ’s app and our smart-locking solutions in general, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
