HomeKit NEED HELP- Homekit /Alexa

[ALFA2002]

Need to ask a question. IF both Apple TV and Amazon Echo Show 15 have thread, do you still need a 3rd party hub to make them operate in conjunction with each other?

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[waw74]

homekit and Alexa don't directly work together. They can exist in the same home at the same time. but both will talk to the bulb/device instead of to each other. So if you turn the bulb on via HK, then the bulb will tell Alexa someone turned it on. Alexa won't know if you turned it on from homekit, using the device's app, or another way. Just that it turned on. Same for homekit.

if a device has thread, you shouldn't need a hub outside of the appleTV with thread.

Currently I dont' think apple can utilize thread border routers from other manufacturers, so the thread radio in the echo won't help with homekit. Once a thread device is added to homekit, it should be able to be found on your main network. And you may be able to add it to amazon home from there.

I'm not sure what you think adding a third party hub will allow you to do.

 

[ALFA2002]

homekit and Alexa don't directly work together. They can exist in the same home at the same time. but both will talk to the bulb/device instead of to each other. So if you turn the bulb on via HK, then the bulb will tell Alexa someone turned it on. Alexa won't know if you turned it on from homekit, using the device's app, or another way. Just that it turned on. Same for homekit.

if a device has thread, you shouldn't need a hub outside of the appleTV with thread.

Currently I dont' think apple can utilize thread border routers from other manufacturers, so the thread radio in the echo won't help with homekit. Once a thread device is added to homekit, it should be able to be found on your main network. And you may be able to add it to amazon home from there.

I'm not sure what you think adding a third party hub will allow you to do.

So what I wanted to do was have the Alexa Show15 work within the HomeKit ecosystem as a recognized device. I have appleTV- the version that has matter and thread built in. So my understanding is that as long as each Device have thread. They both should talk to each other, regardless of the brand. Earlier on- before matter/ thread were introduced I heard you needed a hub to make Alexa devices talk to Apple

 

[waw74]

so you want to control your homekit things using Alexa?

That won't work

If your devices support both homekit and Alexa, you may be able to add your devices to both at the same time. Then you can ask Alexa to turn on a light, and siri to turn it off. Each way will be completely separate, so scenes created in homekit won't be available with Alexa.


You may have seen something about using homebridge to do this. homebridge is a software option to add non-native homekit things into homekit. There is a plugin that lets you also add those things to Alexa, BUT... it only adds the devices you're using homebridge to bring into homekit. Native homekit devices that aren't going through homebridge will not be exposed to Alexa. Not really a hub, but needs to run on a computer of some kind that's running 24/7, can be windows, Mac, linux, or some NAS boxes.

 

[BigBlur]

For what you're wanting to do, you would need Matter-capable devices and hubs that support Matter (which the Apple TV and Echo Show 15 do). Then you can control the Matter device from any ecosystem. Thread has nothing to do with it; nor do the different hubs talk to each other.