Two become one: TP-Link’s two smart home brands finally use one app

Wi-Fi router manufacturer TP-Link is finally uniting its two smart home brands under one app, Tapo. The company has made smart gadgets since 2019, but confoundingly under two separate brands: Tapo and Kasa.

After a recent update (Tapo 3.0), TP-Link is now letting users port their Kasa devices into the Tapo app. This allows you to control all your devices from one app and integrate them into any routines or automations you have in the Tapo app.

TP-Link does note that some devices can’t be migrated yet, and the migration only works one way, Kasa to Tapo, not vice versa. It’s also not clear if, once moved, you can still access devices in the Kasa app. I’ve reached out to TP-Link for clarification.

TP-Link has published a guide to porting your devices, which indicates that any groups and smart actions you have set up in Kasa will come over to the Tapo app. However, any Kasa subscriptions you have, such as Kasa Care for cloud storage of camera footage, will only remain active in the Kasa app, which TP-Link confirms is not going away.

You will also need to relink devices to third-party services like Google Home and Amazon Alexa once they’re in the Tapo app.

“The Tapo app now serves as the unified platform for managing both Kasa and Tapo devices, leveraging its comprehensive ecosystem that spans across more categories than Kasa and eliminating the need for users to switch back and forth between separate applications,” TP-Link spokesperson Elin Zhao said in a statement to The Verge. “It’s important to clarify that, despite this integration, Kasa and Tapo will remain as distinct and independent brands.”

Even if the Kasa brand is still sticking around, with this change, it appears TP-Link is focusing its energies on the Tapo brand. There have been a number of Tapo launches this year, including some new categories (robot vacuums) and several new outdoor cameras. All of this has made the Tapo brand the more robust of the two in terms of compatible device types.

Whatever the corporate strategy may be, having to use only one app to control gadgets from the same company is definitely an improvement and really should have been an option since day one.