HomeKit Essentials Worth Checking Out

[TVreporter]

A key to HomePod Mini worth adding in the article is that it’s the only Apple product that’s Thread enabled.

I’m just getting into HomeKit and got 2 Nanoleaf bulbs this week - they work on Thread and have been perfect with the HP Mini. No delay in activations and setup was simple.

The colours are good and when it’s on white it’s very bright.

Wish I could get the Nanoleaf strips but they’ve been out of stock for months.

 

[PJWilkin]

I have some Meross smart plugs
cheap and work well with home kit
highly recommended

 

[Rochy Bay]

HomeKit was slow to take off after its 2014 launch, but now that it's been around for seven years, there are hundreds of HomeKit products available, ranging from doorbells and speakers to TVs, lights, and cameras. In our latest YouTube video, we rounded up some of our favorite HomeKit products that we find most useful.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

• HomePod mini ($99) - At $99, the HomePod mini is probably the best HomeKit-enabled speaker on the market. It integrates seamlessly with your other Apple devices, and can be used to control all of your other HomeKit products with Siri, while also serving as a home hub for accessing HomeKit devices when you're out of the house. HomePod mini also works with Apple's Intercom feature, so if you have multiple HomePod mini (or HomePod) speakers in the house, you can use them to communicate.
  
• Logitech Circle View Doorbell ($199) - The Circle View replaces your existing doorbell with a version that offers video, so you can see who is at your door and keep an eye on package deliveries. It features HomeKit Secure Video, so the only plan you need is a 200GB or 1TB iCloud Storage plan to record video. It offers HD video, color night vision, and an unobtrusive design.
  
• Logitech Circle View Camera ($160) - If you want a HomeKit Secure Video camera but not in doorbell format, Logitech also has the Circle View Camera with a 180 degree field of view, water resistance, and a high-quality camera that shows everything in full detail.
  
• Ecobee Smart Camera ($79) - If you don't want to spend over $100 for a security camera, Ecobee also has a Smart Camera available that's just $79. It offers 1080p video, a 180 degre field of view, smoke alarm detection, and more. It supports HomeKit Secure Video as an optional feature.
  
• Ecobee Smart Thermostat with Voice Control ($250) - This is Ecobee's top of the line Smart Thermostat, which learns and adapts to your schedule to keep your home at a comfortable temperature at all times. The Voice Control feature is Alexa-based, but it lets you listen to Spotify, make calls, and send messages. With HomeKit, it also responds to Siri voice commands and can be controlled through the Home app. If you don't need the Voice Control, make sure to check out Ecobee's more affordable options.
  
• Nanoleaf Essentials A19 ($20) - Nanoleaf is mostly known for its wall-mounted Light Panels, but late last year, the company came out with a new Essentials line that includes HomeKit-enabled WiFi light bulbs. It's affordable at $20, and can be set to any color, plus it has a fun multi-faceted design that looks great in situations where the light bulb is visible. Nanoleaf's Essential bulbs feature Thread support, which is a mesh network that allows smart home products to better communicate with one another. Thread has many benefits, including extended range and coverage within the home, and better reliability for smart home products. No hub is required, and Thread devices integrate with other Thread devices, such as Apple's HomePod mini.
  
• Nanoleaf Essentials Lightstrip ($50) - Nanoleaf's Essentials line also includes a Lightstrip, which is priced at $50 for 80 inches, with expansion strips available too. The Nanoleaf Lightstrips connect to a HomeKit setup over WiFi and can be set to any color. You can put the Lightstrips under counters, behind TVs, behind desks, and more, thanks to the adhesive backing.

Have a favorite HomeKit device that we left out? Let us know in the comments and we may highlight it in a future HomeKit video.

Article Link: HomeKit Essentials Worth Checking Out

Ring with Alexa is way better. You can even set up your Alexas to listen for fire alarms. Homekit is horrible due to Apple's closed platform.

 

[name99]

What’s a good home security system that works with HomeKit?

Don't believe the HomeKit hype. Too many things work badly right now.
And reviews like this are part of the problem, shilling for whatever products will pay with zero concern fro actual functionality.

Ecobee, for example, is a great product, a nice thermostat -- but it is a LOUSY HomeKit product, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. It constantly disconnects from HomeKit and it's random when it decides to reconnect, you can't do anything to force it.

Same with, eg, iSmartGate Garage Opener. Seems like a good idea -- but again constantly and randomly disconnects from HomeKit.

So, honestly, if you're not using HomeKit today, wait for a few years.
- Most of what's being sold today is garbage.
- Apple seems uninterested in changing this (eg much stricter licensing requirements)
- You simply cannot trust the reviewers. I don't know if they are just w****s who are happy to lie for money, or aretoo stupid to understand the real issues with HomeKit functionality (no-one gives a fsck about how it works in the first hour, what matters is how it works [or more frequently fails] in the months after installation).

 

[name99]

Ring with Alexa is way better. You can even set up your Alexas to listen for fire alarms. Homekit is horrible due to Apple's closed platform.

Ring latency is just awful. It's PATHETIC that I can hit "Live View" in the app and it can take anything from 10 seconds to more than a minute to display the image. Totally unacceptable!
I could understand bad latency if they were trying to conserve power, but you get this same lousy behavior even with a wired doorbell.

I can't speak to other products, but Ring is bad bad bad.

(Blink, on the other hand -- also AMZ -- is fairly good for what it is. Yes, it also has nasty latency, but it doesn't pretend to be a low latency device. It's sold on the basis of cheap and wireless, easy to place anywhere, and it does a pretty good job of fulfilling those promises and being fairly robust. Not perfectly -- it falls apart in bright sunlight when it gets hotter than maybe 90 degrees sustained, but a far better product than Ring.

Wyze is also acceptable. Again not perfect, but the latency is much better than Ring. And the price can't be beat.

My problem with Ring is that they charge Premium prices but don't deliver Premium experience. Nest also charge Premium prices but at least their latency is very low and their wireless connection is a lot more robust.)

 

[WilliamG]

Lutron Caseta wireless products are rock solid. Plus dimmers don’t need a neutral wire. It does need a hub but that is part of why they are so reliable.

Seconded. I have 60 Caseta devices in my house at least (lights and shades). This is the gold standard for HomeKit.

Nest (with the Starling hardware) is also most excellent.

And then for my alarm system I use HomeBridge with SimpliSafe.

 

[jlc1978]

I've setup a bunch of FEIT lights, plugs and switches and liek the. Costco has them aand they are much less than other alternatives. I also have 2 Hue lights intehgrated into my system. In the process of setting up garage so that the lights come one at night when motion is detected.

I like Ring for security, especially since $100/year extends the warranty for as long as you have an account. tech support has also been helpful.

Ring through Shortcuts. It doesn’t show up in Home app but frankly the Ring app is way better anyway

If you like to tinker and have access to a Raspberry Pi, Homebridge is the greatest thing ever. It lets me manage my hodgepodge of smart home devices within the Home app regardless of official HomeKit support, including my Ring alarm and TP-Link Kasa outlets. Use a Ring motion detector to trigger Hue bulbs? No problem. Use a Hue switch to set a scene including Kasa and IKEA Tradfri bulbs? Easy.

While I do much of that via Alexa, I am playing around with HOOBs to test out Homekit integration and get my Nests to work with Alexa. I've found Alexa to be very useful, especially with Echo's around the house.

Ring latency is just awful. It's PATHETIC that I can hit "Live View" in the app and it can take anything from 10 seconds to more than a minute to display the image. Totally unacceptable!
I could understand bad latency if they were trying to conserve power, but you get this same lousy behavior even with a wired doorbell.

I don't have any latency of note (5 secs or so) but have Chimes and a repeater setup with mine so could it be a signal strength issue perhaps?

Don't believe the HomeKit hype. Too many things work badly right now.
And reviews like this are part of the problem, shilling for whatever products will pay with zero concern fro actual functionality.

So, honestly, if you're not using HomeKit today, wait for a few years.
- Most of what's being sold today is garbage.
- Apple seems uninterested in changing this (eg much stricter licensing requirements)
- You simply cannot trust the reviewers. I don't know if they are just w****s who are happy to lie for money, or aretoo stupid to understand the real issues with HomeKit functionality (no-one gives a fsck about how it works in the first hour, what matters is how it works [or more frequently fails] in the months after installation).

Nothing is worse than wonky tech; we may be willingto fiddle with it but I quickly get a "I'll just use the switch" if it starts acting wonky. I'm going to play around with Homekit but since Alexa's been rock solid for some time now will stick with it; espcially since the wife knows how to use it. Onkly issue I had was after killing power to rooms my FEIT bulbs need to be reconnected with its app; when I did that Alexa recognized them as before.

 

[CJ Dorschel]

The August locks are nice. They also have a Bluetooth keypad that can be used to unlock them if one needs to give someone else a code.

I also really like the Level.co locks. One version replaces only the deadbolt itself (I mean the just the bolt) and the other uses NFC replacing the outdoor hardware as well.

nice! So it’s the same mechanism (just the deadbolt) that August locks replace. I’ve checked them out and liked it. I’ve already invested in August but if things change that would be the other one.

The Nanoleaf bulbs are only $19 for full color, so not that expensive.

I started out with Insteon with Indigo for control, then moved to HomeAssistant (which can also bridge devices to HomeKit like HomeBridge) and am in the process of switching everything to native HomeKit. Just so much cleaner.

I used Homebridge years ago on a dedicated Mac mini that was also a HTPC but got rid of it as most of the devices I now own are HomeKit compatible and I updated my home theatre in Berlin with an 8K system, 80 TB’s of server racks with ripped movies in lossless (stereo and any surround sound tracks in DTS/ATMOS/True HD/etc), and a McIntosh AVR with B&W speaks. The Mac mini doesn’t passthru some audio codecs and unfortunately neither does the Apple TV 4K (apparently licensing fees with ATMOS etc which has been an ongoing campaign for cinephiles petitioning Apple for support - Infuse Pro is a great app for media management and playback I’m a tester with and we’ve been trying for a while) and I didn’t need homebridge.

However, I have a few legand adorne WiFi dimmers and switches and hub that isn’t HomeKit and recently checked out Homebridge as it’s been a few years. I was surprised with how easy it is now. Installing Homebrew on one of my Mac Pro’s then homebridge which is now done via a web browser - I didn’t even need to keep my Mac Pro running. They even made the plugins as easy as selecting your devices via a GUI interface and restarting homebridge with just a click of a button.

No need to use an editor to create the script with each devices MAC address, etc - it does it all. Took me 2-3 minutes to get my legrand adorne dimmers and a few other devices up and running.

So what’s this about HomeAssistant and Thread? I’ve been out of the loop these past few years. I know Thread is fairly new and a lot of devices don’t utilize it yet. I’m holding back on anything new as there are some recent advancements in tech that will make smart home devices even more tangible. One area that needs improvement across the market are smart locks - power drain is an issue and it breaks my heart every time I have to change the batteries as it’s a waste. I have WiFi 6 systems running 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and check connectivity often to ensure my locks aren’t struggling thus impacting battery life yet it seems a lot of people experience heavy battery usage no matter the brand. If there is another way for devices to interact without using so much energy I’m all for it.

 

[Spacetime Anomaly]

The word 'essential' has been devalued somewhat.

 

[Suckfest 9001]

I've setup a bunch of FEIT lights, plugs and switches and liek the. Costco has them aand they are much less than other alternatives. I also have 2 Hue lights intehgrated into my system. In the process of setting up garage so that the lights come one at night when motion is detected.

I like Ring for security, especially since $100/year extends the warranty for as long as you have an account. tech support has also been helpful.






While I do much of that via Alexa, I am playing around with HOOBs to test out Homekit integration and get my Nests to work with Alexa. I've found Alexa to be very useful, especially with Echo's around the house.



I don't have any latency of note (5 secs or so) but have Chimes and a repeater setup with mine so could it be a signal strength issue perhaps?



Nothing is worse than wonky tech; we may be willingto fiddle with it but I quickly get a "I'll just use the switch" if it starts acting wonky. I'm going to play around with Homekit but since Alexa's been rock solid for some time now will stick with it; espcially since the wife knows how to use it. Onkly issue I had was after killing power to rooms my FEIT bulbs need to be reconnected with its app; when I did that Alexa recognized them as before.

Yeah sounds like that guy just has terrible signals going to his Ring. I can get motion alerts within .5 seconds every single day of the year, 40 degrees or -40 degrees. Opening live view usually happens within 2-3 seconds for me as well.

Invest in good wifi solutions folks

 

[kkclstuff]

Last fall MR mentioned some kind of 'industry level home automation symposium' coming in 2021. Does anyone have info on this?

Would love to see some kind of 'event' where all the home automation companies can agree upon some standards of compatibility.

 

[CJ Dorschel]

Ring latency is just awful. It's PATHETIC that I can hit "Live View" in the app and it can take anything from 10 seconds to more than a minute to display the image. Totally unacceptable!
I could understand bad latency if they were trying to conserve power, but you get this same lousy behavior even with a wired doorbell.

I can't speak to other products, but Ring is bad bad bad.

(Blink, on the other hand -- also AMZ -- is fairly good for what it is. Yes, it also has nasty latency, but it doesn't pretend to be a low latency device. It's sold on the basis of cheap and wireless, easy to place anywhere, and it does a pretty good job of fulfilling those promises and being fairly robust. Not perfectly -- it falls apart in bright sunlight when it gets hotter than maybe 90 degrees sustained, but a far better product than Ring.

Wyze is also acceptable. Again not perfect, but the latency is much better than Ring. And the price can't be beat.

My problem with Ring is that they charge Premium prices but don't deliver Premium experience. Nest also charge Premium prices but at least their latency is very low and their wireless connection is a lot more robust.)

I wish there was a way to connect just a camera to an existing wired doorbell or even wireless. The video doorbells always make me wonder how easy it would be for someone to steal it and if someone knows you have one all they need to do is wear a mask (at night especially) to take off with deliveries. Police won’t and can’t do anything and most security experts recommend not wasting money on video doorbells.

It’d be perfect if I could keep my existing doorbell and connect it with a camera that could be placed somewhere out of sight. Some way to bring the two together so if my doorbell is rung I can use the camera and the camera would be hidden from thieves, etc., catching them off guard and I wouldn’t be concerned with someone unscrewing and taking a $300+ video doorbell.

Plus a lot of people either don’t want a large video doorbell on their front door or they have an HOA that won’t allow it. There has to be a way.

I already have servers setup with surveillance recording capabilities for local video storage. Just haven’t found the right solution.

 

[Treeskier]

I just got the Casada by Lutron System lighting switches and they work great. But also got the Hunter Douglas Shades, both Homekit compatible. And so far Hunter Douglas Shades do not work seamlessly. FYI

But my comment to suggestion is for you to do an in-depth training on programing HomeKit. I have looked around and not found a good one. A bit confusing. Plus a bit of discussion on going with only one system. Like Homekit over Ecobee for instance, as I have found if you program them both they end up fighting each other.

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Nano leaf is so tacky. Reminds me of something I’d have in my apartment when I was 18 and thought tacky was cool.

 

[theviewer19855]

My experience with homekit, is overall, head 'butting the wall-worthy'

Among months of aggro, I have the pleasant joy of receiving 40+ notifications every 10 minutes from Homekit secure video, telling me of movement. This is obvious, because it's me, in my own house

I just turned notifications off now, which defeats the purpose of security cameras.

Mixed in with homepods answering me from different rooms. Urgh. Its all so annoying.

 

[Alan Wynn]

nice! So it’s the same mechanism (just the deadbolt) that August locks replace. I’ve checked them out and liked it. I’ve already invested in August but if things change that would be the other one.

Actually it is even cooler than the August in that there is nothing visible at all. It literally replaces only the bolt, not even the handle/knob inside or the key outside. The battery is embedded in the bolt itself.

However, I have a few legand adorne WiFi dimmers and switches and hub that isn’t HomeKit and recently checked out Homebridge as it’s been a few years. I was surprised with how easy it is now. Installing Homebrew on one of my Mac Pro’s then homebridge which is now done via a web browser - I didn’t even need to keep my Mac Pro running. They even made the plugins as easy as selecting your devices via a GUI interface and restarting homebridge with just a click of a button.

Best way to run HomeBridge or HomeAssistant is on a Raspberry Pi. Super low power (can run on a battery backed power supply for hours or days.

So what’s this about HomeAssistant and Thread?

HomeBridge just bridges between non-HomeKit devices and HomeKit controllers/devices. HomeAssistant adds its own web interface and automation, so it has all the functionality of HomeBridge with some added features.

Thread is a low power, low data rate, IPv6-based, mesh radio network. It is similar to Zigbee, but instead of using its own network addressing system, it just uses IPv6. With Zigbee, there a million different protocols to do anything, all of which are incompatible with each other. That means that not every Zigbee hub can talk to every Zigbee product and that the hub needs to translate between the Zigbee command set and the other command set (like HomeKit).

Thread is just another IP based network and it just needs a border router that acts more like a simple access point and does not need to know anything about the devices two which it connects. It is very low latency, so it makes connections feel instantaneous. Since Thread directly supports HomeKit enabled devices, it allows them to be grouped with other Thread or WiFi directly, without needing a bridge to translate the protocols.

I know Thread is fairly new and a lot of devices don’t utilize it yet.

Most of what Eve makes will be Thread-enabled (if it is not already) and all of Nanoleaf’s new products are as well. The HomePod mini is a border router and I expect we will see more Thread gear soon.

One area that needs improvement across the market are smart locks - power drain is an issue and it breaks my heart every time I have to change the batteries as it’s a waste.

Thread will help here. It is about the same power draw as Bluetooth without the weird connectivity issues.

I have WiFi 6 systems running 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and check connectivity often to ensure my locks aren’t struggling thus impacting battery life yet it seems a lot of people experience heavy battery usage no matter the brand.

WiFi is super high power, so it will always be a problem.

If there is another way for devices to interact without using so much energy I’m all for it.

That is one of Thread’s best features. I just wish someone would implement it in 900MHz to increase its range, but it is pretty good as it is.

 

[Alan Wynn]

Nano leaf is so tacky. Reminds me of something I’d have in my apartment when I was 18 and thought tacky was cool.

Are you talking about their Shapes or their bulbs/light strips? Their bulbs look like bulbs. What is tacky about them?

 

[Rychiar]

Eve definitely makes the best door and window sensor!

I'd agree with this except for the physical design which is way too chunky to fit right on most door openings and line up right.

 

[Rychiar]

Lutron Caseta wireless products are rock solid. Plus dimmers don’t need a neutral wire. It does need a hub but that is part of why they are so reliable.

these were a godsend in my new house that has old wiring and no neutrals. never had an issue except the time I accidentally knocked the wore from the hub lol

 

[jlc1978]

It’d be perfect if I could keep my existing doorbell and connect it with a camera that could be placed somewhere out of sight. Some way to bring the two together so if my doorbell is rung I can use the camera and the camera would be hidden from thieves, etc., catching them off guard and I wouldn’t be concerned with someone unscrewing and taking a $300+ video doorbell.

Ring offers several battery/solar solutions that could be mouted on a tree, etc and are black so they would be inconspicuous. You could set the 2021-02-27ection zones to cover the aarea you want aand wirelessly connect to tehm. I have 2 and tehy aare pretty good, only downside is the solar panel can't quite keep up so eventually I have to chgareg the battery. No big deal as both have slots for 2 batteries.

 

[theredsoxman]

For those who are stuck with Nest products, the Starling Home Hub is an amazing bridge for that. Yes, you are basically paying $80 for a preloaded Raspberry Pi, but they have great support and run regular updates. I’ve even got my Nest Protects running as HomeKit motion sensors (with moderate success).

 

[mnsportsgeek]

I'm really happy with the circle view doorbell. The only thing I will say is make sure you have a very strong wi-fi signal. We had to do some moving around of our mesh system to accommodate the doorbell as we were getting random disconnects. Now we have a mesh router about 10 feet away and it's rock solid.

 

[NervousFish2]

Thanks to this, I just bought a bunch of Nanoleaf A19s...

 

[InfiniteJoules]

I’ve got all of the following and recommend them.
• HomePod x 5
• HomePod mini x 1

Lightning:
• Lutron Caséta Light Switch PD-5ANS x 14
• Lutron Caséta 4-Speed Fan Switch PD-FSQN x 4
• Lutron Caséta 2-Button Pico Remote PJ2-2B x 3
• Nanoleaf Essentials Bulb A19 x 1
• Nanoleaf Essentials 80" Lightstrip x 1

Thermostat:
• Ecobee 4

Sensors:
• Eve Door & Window Sensors x 13

Garage Door:
• Insignia Garage Door Controller x 1

Humidifier:
• VOCOlinc Flowerbud Smart Diffuser

I would NOT recommend:
• OneLink Smoke and CO detectors x 6
• WeMo 1st or 2nd Generation Light Switches x 12

I just changed out all of my WeMo switches for Lutron Caséta. I’ve had WeMo for many years now and they are constantly having issues and “No Response” in the Home app. The Lutron Caséta work perfectly!

 

[PsykX]

HomeKit is great, until you try to make a DIY home security system.

I'm trying to make it so that every time I open a door, a door chime is played on the HomePod. Did anybody manage to do that? It seems even though I choose a music file to play (the door chime), the HomePod then continues with more music >_>