Apple HomeKit News

As more products are getting HomeKitfriendly, here’s how to set things up.

HomeKit is, doubtlessly, a good thing. But it’s not yet a great thing: I can close my eyes and imagine a world where all smart kit works in harmony without the need for rickety unifying platforms. An impossible tech utopia, surrounded by RGB-illuminated flowers and smiling children with smartphones, making cameras work with lights without a care.

We’re a little way away from that dream. No manufacturer wants to prop up another company’s hardware sales when they’re looking to shift their own units. It’s going to take some ime for things to settle down and homogenise, and it’s really the responsibility of those unifying platforms to make everything better. Alexa and Google Assistant support are now much more common, and HomeKit’s increased presence at this year’s CES signals that it’s on the verge of something special.

Every manufacturer worth its salt seems to create its own unique way of addressing its own cabal of smart kit, whether it makes sense to do so or not. We’re given an unending stream of apps, each of which works slightly differently from the other. Apple’s HomeKit tech (which debuted in iOS 8) and companion Home app (iOS 10) are, in many ways, a solution to that mess, specifically made for Apple device owners.

It’s a consistent way for a wide range of smart kit to connect to a single common ecosystem. HomeKit compatibility means multiple accessories from multiple manufacturers can be administered in one place, while still being accessible from their usual control apps. That could mean Apple’s own Home app, recently ported to macOS Mojave, or a third-party app like Eve for HomeKit or HomeRun for Apple Watch. Setting up a network of HomeKit accessories means your smart home is controllable with Siri, too.

HomeKit also allows you to cook up a certain degree of interaction between those devices that wasn’t there before. A HomeKit-compatible motion sensor from one manufacturer can trigger a light from another. A light being switched on can cause a whole host of other lights to activate at the same time. A HomeKit door sensor, opened at a certain time of day, can switch off your heating, trigger a fan, and send a push notification to your phone or watch. It’s up to you and HomeKit acts far faster than some other smart automation systems.

HomeKit can also act as a platform in its own right. Certain smart accessories utilise HomeKit (and only HomeKit) as their method of communicating with your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch or Mac, although this isn’t outrageously common most pull double duty.

The downsides

So that’s what HomeKit is; transparently, we should also talk about what HomeKit is not. It is not, by any means, universal. A HomeKit-only accessory is inherently incompatible with any controlling hardware that doesn’t come from Apple. You can’t toggle an Eve Energy smart plug, for example, with an Android phone or an online automation service like IFTTT.

In addition, not every smart device supports HomeKit, and not everything can. The initial HomeKit specification required manufacturers to build their devices including a special authentication chip, although as of iOS 11 this was revised to support a software encryption layer. This means more modern smart devices can potentially introduce HomeKit support with a straight firmware update it’s not tremendously common for older hardware to add HomeKit support, so we’re forced to presume that this isn’t an easy addition for manufacturers, although the number of newer accessories carrying the HomeKit badge is definitely trending upwards on the graph.

That said, it’s technically possible (and perhaps more feasible) for non-HomeKit devices to be brought on board if they work with a hub or bridge that’s designed to work with HomeKit. Philips Hue bulbs (unlike competitor LIFX’s) don’t directly work as HomeKit accessories, but the Hue Bridge they talk to does; Belkin’s Wemo range recently got an upgrade in the form of the Wemo Bridge, bringing HomeKit support to a wide range of older devices in one fell swoop.

Taking control

HomeKit doesn’t do away with the apps that come with smart hardware. You’ll use them less, certainly, but HomeKit apps usually present a limited set of options, so you may need to fall back on them from time to time. But high-level device configuration isn’t really the point. HomeKit is about making everything work together. And it does the best job of that if you have the right device at the centre of your home; without a home hub (see Best HomeKit Controllers for your options), the range of automations available to you is limited to reacting to timers or HomeKit scene triggers like the Logitech Pop button.

Realistically, you may already have the hardware you need to make the most of your HomeKit setup. Configuring a home hub (or using an Apple TV 3rd generation or later) is also the only way you’ll be able to control your HomeKit accessories remotely, at least without resorting to their default apps. You don’t absolutely need one, but that’s a powerful feature to miss out on without.

Once you’ve got your HomeKit setup all worked out, installed your accessories, and customised your rooms and scenes, you can share it with the rest of the members of your household and they won’t be able to mess with it, beyond taking direct control of your devices. That means no spurious automations or alterations to your customisations, just quick and easy visitor access to your devices. That’s something you’ll rarely find with other smart apps, at least in as easy a way as the Home app presents it, and it’s something which really makes HomeKit worth using even if it’s only as a secondary platform.

Recourse: iphone buying guide 2017