HomeKit with multiple users?

[J.Appleseed]

Has anyone here been using HomeKit with multiple users?

I used to be the only person in the house using the Home app because of my Philips Hue setup in my bedroom. However, now that the IKEA TRÅDFRI lights and the thermostat in the living room are also HomeKit-compatible my parents and brother will also be using the Home app.

I have noticed that if you set favourite scenes and accessoires in the "Home" overview tab, these scenes and accessoires are 'favourited' for every person in the house with no possibility of changing them for just one person. Any changes I make are made for everyone in the household.

This doesn't make sense, especially for personal rooms such as a bedroom since everyone in the house will now see my bedroom scenes and accessoires on the main page in the Home app.

Is there by any chance some way that allows me to adjust the Home app for only one person?

 

[whtrbt7]

I use multiple users. There is currently no way to not synchronize the Home app. Apple apparently thinks that all users should have the same interface. It gets a little tough to manage this between 2 users. With 3 or more users, it’s more complicated than rocket science, especially with geofencing automations.

 

[J.Appleseed]

I use multiple users. There is currently no way to not synchronize the Home app. Apple apparently thinks that all users should have the same interface. It gets a little tough to manage this between 2 users. With 3 or more users, it’s more complicated than rocket science, especially with geofencing automations.

Yeah, I can't imagine this is what Apple intends to do with HomeKit. I mean, it's a good thing to be able to share some scenes (in the living room, for example) but especially for bedrooms it should be possible to have your own favourite scenes without having to see others' scenes.

 

[boston04and07]

Totally agree. I’d love it if members of the same household could each get their own favorite accessories and scenes. That makes way more sense.

 

[Type4O]

Since my husband and I switched to the iPhone X, homekit doesn't appear to know if anyone is home. My automations that depends on someone being home no longer work. In fact, there isn't an 'if someone is home' option, and I am sure there was previously.

Anyone have any insights?

 

[nbwallace]

Totally agree. I’d love it if members of the same household could each get their own favorite accessories and scenes. That makes way more sense.

This is an issue for sure. I would think it might be addressed.

In addition, I am trying to use an old (ios 9) ipad for a touch panel sort of homepod interface. It would be nice to have some services unavailable to the central panel.

I can't use apple's home app, I need to use the one written by a developer to use it and it would be nice just to have widgets on the home screen of the ipad. All of this is probably out of the realm of possibility.

 

[BrettStah]

Since my husband and I switched to the iPhone X, homekit doesn't appear to know if anyone is home. My automations that depends on someone being home no longer work. In fact, there isn't an 'if someone is home' option, and I am sure there was previously.

Anyone have any insights?

Check all phones to make sure:

• They have the latest iOS version installed
• They're logged into the correct iCloud accounts
• That Keychain and Home are enabled under iCloud settings (I think 2 factor is required to enable Keychain).
• That under Settings, Privacy, Location Services, System Services HomeKit is enabled.

Also, make sure that your Home hub (usually an AppleTV, could be an iPad) is also up-to-date and logged in via the correct iCloud account.

 

[vipergts2207]

Since my husband and I switched to the iPhone X, homekit doesn't appear to know if anyone is home. My automations that depends on someone being home no longer work. In fact, there isn't an 'if someone is home' option, and I am sure there was previously.

Anyone have any insights?

To add to Brett's list, check your settings under Apple ID>iCloud>Share My Location. It should be set to 'This Device', when on your iPhone X.

 

[randy98mtu]

I'm just getting started with HomeKit and I think it's going to be impossible. I have my wife and I, 4 kids 8 and under, 1 full time nanny, 1 evening nanny and a weekend babysitter. I have had ecobee for a while as well as a Rachio sprinkler. Neither were tied to HomeKit. This week I started getting some Philips Hue stuff and linked those and Ecobee to Homekit. Today I bought a couple Hue dimmer switches and a Tap controller to start getting some proper control to the lights for people other than me since I'm the only one with the app.

So does anyone have any strategies yet? I fiddled around and made 1 scheduled thing to turn on the 2 color Hue's over my fireplace with an orange glow at sunset and turn them off at 11pm. I am thinking about getting the ambient temperature bulbs for the upstairs hallway and putting the motion sensor up there to set those lights when someone gets up at night. Now I'm wondering though if I can use the Ecobee motion sensors to trigger the Hue lights using Homekit. Also, do people just hard wire your lights with Hue and put a dimmer/controller on each circuit? With this many people in my house, switches will get turned off (now that I don't want them to, that is.)

Any tips much appreciated!

 

[vipergts2207]

I'm just getting started with HomeKit and I think it's going to be impossible. I have my wife and I, 4 kids 8 and under, 1 full time nanny, 1 evening nanny and a weekend babysitter. I have had ecobee for a while as well as a Rachio sprinkler. Neither were tied to HomeKit. This week I started getting some Philips Hue stuff and linked those and Ecobee to Homekit. Today I bought a couple Hue dimmer switches and a Tap controller to start getting some proper control to the lights for people other than me since I'm the only one with the app.

So does anyone have any strategies yet? I fiddled around and made 1 scheduled thing to turn on the 2 color Hue's over my fireplace with an orange glow at sunset and turn them off at 11pm. I am thinking about getting the ambient temperature bulbs for the upstairs hallway and putting the motion sensor up there to set those lights when someone gets up at night. Now I'm wondering though if I can use the Ecobee motion sensors to trigger the Hue lights using Homekit. Also, do people just hard wire your lights with Hue and put a dimmer/controller on each circuit? With this many people in my house, switches will get turned off (now that I don't want them to, that is.)

Any tips much appreciated!

The best option would be to hard wire the lights always on and replace the switches with Lutron Connected Bulb Remotes.

 

[cynics]

I'm just getting started with HomeKit and I think it's going to be impossible. I have my wife and I, 4 kids 8 and under, 1 full time nanny, 1 evening nanny and a weekend babysitter. I have had ecobee for a while as well as a Rachio sprinkler. Neither were tied to HomeKit. This week I started getting some Philips Hue stuff and linked those and Ecobee to Homekit. Today I bought a couple Hue dimmer switches and a Tap controller to start getting some proper control to the lights for people other than me since I'm the only one with the app.

So does anyone have any strategies yet? I fiddled around and made 1 scheduled thing to turn on the 2 color Hue's over my fireplace with an orange glow at sunset and turn them off at 11pm. I am thinking about getting the ambient temperature bulbs for the upstairs hallway and putting the motion sensor up there to set those lights when someone gets up at night. Now I'm wondering though if I can use the Ecobee motion sensors to trigger the Hue lights using Homekit. Also, do people just hard wire your lights with Hue and put a dimmer/controller on each circuit? With this many people in my house, switches will get turned off (now that I don't want them to, that is.)

Any tips much appreciated!

Use the Hue bulbs in lamps that are plugged into an always on socket and then use smart switches (Leviton or Lutron both make good ones) for control other things like lamps and outlets.

While I have a bunch of Hue bulbs I prefer the smart switches because you don't need to do anything special to turn them on/off. They work like a normal switch for everyone but also have the smart functionality.

I prefer to avoid hard wiring switches. Not only is it against code in many places (bypassing the switch someone could think the power is off while fiddling with the circuit) you just have a dead switch which IMO feels "half assed".

I believe you can use the occupancy sensor of an ecobee to act as a trigger. You need to go into the automation section of the home app to set it up.

 

[kylew1212]

I think they need to have a set bedroom feature. For example a home would have multiple bedrooms and each bedroom would likely be called Person X's room. Person X should be able to set their room so that they can say turn off/on my bedroom light. This would continue allowing control of Person Y's room as well.

However if Person y is home then person X should not be able to control their room. It gets complicated. I hope to see vast improvements in logic and flow as well as accessories.

 

[vipergts2207]

I think they need to have a set bedroom feature. For example a home would have multiple bedrooms and each bedroom would likely be called Person X's room. Person X should be able to set their room so that they can say turn off/on my bedroom light. This would continue allowing control of Person Y's room as well.

However if Person y is home then person X should not be able to control their room. It gets complicated. I hope to see vast improvements in logic and flow as well as accessories.

I made a nearly identical suggestion to Apple on their feedback page. You should be able to assign 'ownership' of HomeKit devices. The scenario that gave me such a thought was the fact that my 2-car garage is made up of two single doors. Even though they may be named "left garage door" and "right garage door", or "Person A's garage door" and "Person B's garage door", if I can assign 'ownership' I could simply say "open my garage door" and Siri will know which one I'm talking about. To take it a step further, you could limit HomeKit control to the device 'owner.'

You can give Apple feedback here:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/

 

[randy98mtu]

I just bought the Lutron Caseta starter kit. I'll see how that does at dimming. I'm also curious if I can use HomeKit to hijack the signals the Lutron buttons send and route them to Hue bulbs. I'll do some experimenting tonight. Philips is really missing the boat by not having more elegant physical button controls. The 4 button remotes feel a bit cheap and the tap is just kind of odd. I need something where my switches "were" that looks halfway normal.

 

[vipergts2207]

I just bought the Lutron Caseta starter kit. I'll see how that does at dimming. I'm also curious if I can use HomeKit to hijack the signals the Lutron buttons send and route them to Hue bulbs. I'll do some experimenting tonight. Philips is really missing the boat by not having more elegant physical button controls. The 4 button remotes feel a bit cheap and the tap is just kind of odd. I need something where my switches "were" that looks halfway normal.

You can’t ‘hijack’ the signal, but you can probably control Hue with them by setting up an automation. You can also use Lutron Connected Bulb Remotes.

 

[randy98mtu]

You can’t ‘hijack’ the signal, but you can probably control Hue with them by setting up an automation. You can also use Lutron Connected Bulb Remotes.

That's more what I meant. Last night I was setting up the normal Hue remotes and found in the Hue app you could set 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 pushes of the first button. In the Homekit you could set a unique action for each button. But you could not have it both ways...

This light automation is expensive...

 

[Type4O]

Check all phones to make sure:

• They have the latest iOS version installed
• They're logged into the correct iCloud accounts
• That Keychain and Home are enabled under iCloud settings (I think 2 factor is required to enable Keychain).
• That under Settings, Privacy, Location Services, System Services HomeKit is enabled.

Also, make sure that your Home hub (usually an AppleTV, could be an iPad) is also up-to-date and logged in via the correct iCloud account.

To add to Brett's list, check your settings under Apple ID>iCloud>Share My Location. It should be set to 'This Device', when on your iPhone X.

Thanks for the feedback. I have checked all things suggested and the only one that was not correct was the device sharing the location. On both our services it was set to our old phones. I have corrected this.

I will test tomorrow and see if anything changes, but under people there is no option for when some people are home.

Either something is still not set correctly, but I don't know what's left, or it's just not working correctly.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[BrettStah]

Choose the when some people are not home... I think that is poorly worded but I think it'll do what you want. I'm on the latest beta and the wording says "when some people are home" for me.

 

[Type4O]

Choose the when some people are not home... I think that is poorly worded but I think it'll do what you want. I'm on the latest beta and the wording says "when some people are home" for me.

You think "When some people are not home" is supposed to be "When some people are home"?
Could be I suppose. You're right about the poor wording. Hopefully the fix will come in 11.2 as you mention.
Thanks

 

[BrettStah]

You think "When some people are not home" is supposed to be "When some people are home"?
Could be I suppose. You're right about the poor wording. Hopefully the fix will come in 11.2 as you mention.
Thanks

Yep, give it a shot and report back... Hopefully it works for you.

 

[Type4O]

Yep, give it a shot and report back... Hopefully it works for you.

Just noticed the wording is different on the main automation page and sub page.

Sub-page

Main-page

 

[Type4O]

Choose the when some people are not home... I think that is poorly worded but I think it'll do what you want. I'm on the latest beta and the wording says "when some people are home" for me.

You think "When some people are not home" is supposed to be "When some people are home"?
Could be I suppose. You're right about the poor wording. Hopefully the fix will come in 11.2 as you mention.
Thanks

Yep, give it a shot and report back... Hopefully it works for you.

It does appear to be working as hoped.