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Google Says Assistant Works With Over 5,000 Smart Home Devices, HomeKit/Siri Around 200

teamgibbs said:
Or don't actually benefit from being connected devices.

The 5,000 number sounds impressive but what does it mean? How many devices realistically can one household have and benefit from. Reminds me of Android in their land grab days, fragmentation city. Lets get as many irrelevant connected devices as possible never mind what they are!
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Its means flexibility. You are restricted to a small subset of devices that HomeKit supports, and some of those too are junk.
 
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1rottenapple said:
I have a 3rd gen nest and just got a nest remote temp sensor on order. I’m totally happy with it. Just wish it had native iPhone support but the nest app is really great. I’m dismayed to read poor reviews about HomeKit in this thread.

Re: nest It’s good to have a company that started with one product refine it over the years. I know it’s been bought by google but still.
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Most of the negativity is due to the relatively small amount of devices that it supports. HomeKit is IMO the cleanest and best platform to use, you just need to make sure the products you purchase support it.
 
Precision Gem said:
I wonder how many people actually use these devices, other than the first time they hooked it up. I can't picture wanting to control my dishwasher from my phone.
A thermostat makes sense, and a door lock, maybe turn a light on when you are not home. Beyond that, if I want to make toast, most likely I'm standing in front of the toaster and simply turning the toaster on makes more sense than taking out my phone to do it.
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Ya I don’t think everything needs to be “smart”. Like what happens when there’s a new iOS and the app is no longer supported. So your dishwasher app is obsolete. I stay away from less established companies and still o to proven smartphone companies.
 
mtneer said:
This is like Cable TV. You may pay for 500 channels, but you only really watch only a handful. Google may have hooked up with 5000 services, but realistically if most people use a handful in the 200 that Apple supports, its covered.
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not really, some prefer sky news, some bbc and some cnn. its like TV bundle with all channels vs 1 or the other. more options always helps and matter for market -- good ones thou. and yes when it comes to good options its safe to write off many of the devices that google supports.
 
Precision Gem said:
I wonder how many people actually use these devices, other than the first time they hooked it up. I can't picture wanting to control my dishwasher from my phone.
A thermostat makes sense, and a door lock, maybe turn a light on when you are not home. Beyond that, if I want to make toast, most likely I'm standing in front of the toaster and simply turning the toaster on makes more sense than taking out my phone to do it.
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I use mine for automation primarily except for lights or fans. There are times it gets dark during the day due to a storm so I ask Siri to turn light on or I have stretched out in the bed and want the fan on. Outside of that, you're right for my use. I have Ecobee and never manually control them but do use the remote sensor motion detection to see if my kids are up and moving in the morning. When they get up for school I can see motion has been detected in their rooms.
 
bbednarz said:
Most of the negativity is due to the relatively small amount of devices that it supports. HomeKit is IMO the cleanest and best platform to use, you just need to make sure the products you purchase support it.
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Ya I kinda want to buy a few AC plugs to turn off things when I am away. Like space heater, garage door plug, toaster. Etc...
 
You can find Homekit-compatible products for most popular device categories, so while a bigger selection would be nice it isn't a huge problem. Homekit has improved a lot and I for one am happy that Apple continues to enforce strict security standards (such as true end-to-end encryption). Many cheap IoT devices are ticking time bombs, as the increasing amount of secruity breaches involving such devices show (such as botnets being deployed on IP cameras etc.).
 
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mtneer said:
This is like Cable TV. You may pay for 500 channels, but you only really watch only a handful. Google may have hooked up with 5000 services, but realistically if most people use a handful in the 200 that Apple supports, its covered.
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Its not that similar.

the problem here is options and choices. If i want home automation, using Google / Alexa, I can take my pick from thousands of options. Even if I only end up using 2 or 3 of them in my home. I can choose which products, services and featuresets fit my home.

With HomeKit, those options are far far far more limited. So while both functionally will work once setup, I can outfit my home better overall using Google. EG: My Garage Door opener is not homekit compatible. It IS google home compatible. I can get the status of my garage door or even close it using google assistant.
 
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robjulo said:
Is a heroin addict likely to hack your security system or just kick in the door? The “security” that Apple and many here tout, is a red herring.
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That’s an excellent argument.

So because physical break and enters occur, one shouldn’t be concerned about the security of devices used around their home that controls lights, locks, doors, cameras, etc?
 
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1rottenapple said:
Ya I kinda want to buy a few AC plugs to turn off things when I am away. Like space heater, garage door plug, toaster. Etc...
Click to expand...

Yup, plugs are my next upgrade. Currently got Hue lights, a Nest, chromecasts on all TVs and my Garage door automated. Next will be a bunch of power outlets for specific functions (EG,currently have an old fashioned timer on my aquarium that could use a mroe advanced setup). Also want to replace a bunch of light switches with WiFi powered ones so that I can automate certain lights (Like outdoor / hallway lights when not home)


but with a move planned and my house up on the market, i've had to stop my automation roll out for now.
 
Anybody know the relative licensing costs? I would bet (large) that the cause of 200 vs. 5000 is almost entirely in how much Apple demands from some third party to license HK vs. how much Google charges for GA.

Step out of the Apple halo and go shopping. Find comparable products and the one with HK is generally much more expensive than the one with alternatives. That's very likely higher costs being passed through to us consumers.

I really wanted the door locks. HK version $219. Version without HK $119. Magic unlocking of 5 outside doors for >$1000 vs. magically unlocking 5 outside doors for >$500. Or retain a willingness to use an old-fashioned key for the locks already in the door: free. I chose the latter. I would rather have that $1000+ to buy a computing device from Apple than magical door locks.

In short: my guess here- and it's just a guess- is that this is just Apple being Apple. Maximizing profits typically means Apple ends up with only a smallish share of the markets in which it plays. MacOS was once entirely dominate of graphical OSs, but Microsoft rolled out an inferior-but-licensable (and cheap to do so) Windows and now Windows runs on 9.X computers for every 1 Mac. iOS dominated the smart device OS at first but then Android rolled out as licensable (and cheap/free) and now iOS is relatively niche vs. Android. I suspect HK vs. GA is the same.

Perhaps we can just sling around "...but who has the most profitable home automation system" if we need our favorite one to "win"???;)
 
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Pssst... Apple... make an Alexa skill to marry the two like a Wink/SmartThings hub...
 
robjulo said:
Is a heroin addict likely to hack your security system or just kick in the door? The “security” that Apple and many here tout, is a red herring.
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NOOOOOO!!! SO WRONG!! imagine some one hacking into your home camera and spying on or recording your little ones. security is parammount for these devices.
 
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I’m saying the risk of a hacker is so low that it is a non issue. The average criminal takes the easy way. They aren’t hacking into a residential house. What is the risk benefit ratio? The HomeKit user is limited to a few, overpriced devices because of some perceived risk, that in reality is minuscule.

profets said:
That’s an excellent argument.

So because physical break and enters occur, one shouldn’t be concerned about the security of devices used around their home that controls lights, locks, doors, cameras, etc?
Click to expand...
 
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Precision Gem said:
I wonder how many people actually use these devices, other than the first time they hooked it up. I can't picture wanting to control my dishwasher from my phone.
A thermostat makes sense, and a door lock, maybe turn a light on when you are not home. Beyond that, if I want to make toast, most likely I'm standing in front of the toaster and simply turning the toaster on makes more sense than taking out my phone to do it.
Click to expand...
I can check my garage doors from anywhere. I have an alert that tells me if they are open after 10 PM. I can turn my sprinklers on and off from anywhere like standing next to one when I am working on it. I can turn the lights off in my shop when I realize when I am going to bed that I left them on. You said a thermostat makes sense and it does. Not sure about a toaster but there are times when it would be nice to preheat the oven from anywhere.
 
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The desperate quest to find something at Apple that can be branded a "failure" versus competitors continues...
 
ipponrg said:
There are targeted ads at the top of this forum. Everyday you visit this site, you give Ziffdavis, Google DoubleClick, Moat, etc chances to learn more about you :)
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Nope. Not in my browser.

And I'm certainly not interested in google collecting HA data/statistics from various sensors inside my home.
 
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