From TVs to speakers, kettles to heating systems, more and more of the devices we use every day are now ‘smart’. This means they connect to the internet, can be controlled using a smartphone and talk to each other, giving you more control over how you use them and saving time and money.

More and more people are use smart devices to turn their houses into smart homes - a fifth of UK households own a voice-assisted smart appliance.

At the heart of a connected home is your broadband, which your devices use to go online and communicate with you and each other.

If your broadband is the heart of your network, your smartphone is the control. Connected devices come with apps you can use to control them from remotely anywhere - as long as you have an internet connection.

Central to the smart home is a smart speaker. There are two choices, Google’s Home range which has a voice assistant called Google Assistant, and Amazon’s Echo range, which uses a voice assistant named Alexa.

Ask Google or Alexa a question and you’ll get an answer. Want to know what the weather is like and whether you should take an umbrella? Say ‘OK Alexa’ or ‘OK Google’ and 'what's the weather like today?' to find out. Turn on & off your smart devices by voice.

• Connected Home TCP