HomeKit Swapping to Apple Home / HomeKit

[Kimbie]

Hello All,

Currently in my house I have a random assortment of 1st and 2nd gen Alexa devices, a Philips Hue hub with some bulbs and some Ikea lights connected to it, and a Eufy doorbell and two cameras, and a couple of smart plugs.

Don't get me wrong its all working fine, if a little disjointed, anyway we are in the process of moving and in the new house want to overhaul the smart side of things.

Looking at replacing the doorbell with an Aqara G410, moving over to either Ubiquiti CCTV or Aqara G5 Pros, then light bulbs whether to stick with Hue or swap to some matter bulbs though not sure which ones, as Hue for me as always just worked.

The G410 comes with a Matter hub, would I still need a Apple TV or Homepod to use HomeKit or Apple Home?
How good is Apple Home for integrations, voice commands, routines?
How responsive is it when controlling devices.

I am based in the UK if that makes any differeince.

Thanks

 

[mattrock2013]

Hi there! I just recently moved from Alexa to Apple Home over the past couple of weeks. I had to basically start over as none of my bulbs or plugs were compatible with Apple Homekit. Only my thermostat was. I have purchased new matter bulbs and plugs and upgraded everything to Home. It is so much better than using Alexa. Having everything in 1 app is amazing. The scenes and automations are spectacular. I purchased 2 Aqara G100 cameras for the outside and they work great but I am going to upgrade to the Aqara G5 Pro for the outside and move my G100's for inside coverage. You will need a homepod, homepod mini or a AppleTV 4K to be used as your hub to get everything into Homekit. I had a AppleTV 4K and that brought everything in. In regards to the Aqara G410 you will need their hub in addition to whatever device you use as your hub. Some devices need a hub to be brought into Apple Home.

Shane Whatley has a great YouTube channel that goes into all of this. His Apple Home 101 series has really helped me with the transition. He has great reviews of products as well. Shortcuts and automation has been a bit of a learning curve as it is different than Alexa but once I figured it out it is much better overall than Alexa.

I will say my matter bulbs have gone offline a few times but my plugs have been solid. They're both by the same company. So I'm troubleshooting that. The overall goal of mine will be to replace all switches and outlets to smart for better integration with Apple Home and overall usability. I hope this helps.

 

[srl7741]

I think by switching over to Apple HomeKit your new place will be easier to use and less frustrating. Aqara products play well with Apple and so do Philips Hue. Remember to Hardwire devices when possible and keep the WiFi clean and stable by using Hubs, Matter and Thread devices.

 

[Kimbie]

I will say my matter bulbs have gone offline a few times but my plugs have been solid. They're both by the same company. So I'm troubleshooting that. The overall goal of mine will be to replace all switches and outlets to smart for better integration with Apple Home and overall usability. I hope this helps.

Really useful thankyou, will check out Shanes videos.

I think by switching over to Apple HomeKit your new place will be easier to use and less frustrating. Aqara products play well with Apple and so do Philips Hue. Remember to Hardwire devices when possible and keep the WiFi clean and stable by using Hubs, Matter and Thread devices.

Yeah I plan to keep as much cabled as possible, will be putting in some new Ubiquiti switches with fibre backhaul to my main rack, and also will have a separate IOT vlan to keep them off.

Though need to look at Apple Home, as not sure what tweaks will need to make to the firewall for that to work over VLANs as believe it likes to be on the network where all the homekit stuff is.

 

[erihp]

Really useful thankyou, will check out Shanes videos.


Yeah I plan to keep as much cabled as possible, will be putting in some new Ubiquiti switches with fibre backhaul to my main rack, and also will have a separate IOT vlan to keep them off.

Though need to look at Apple Home, as not sure what tweaks will need to make to the firewall for that to work over VLANs as believe it likes to be on the network where all the homekit stuff is.

Check out homebridge to supplement your Apple Home system. It's a reliable and easy way to integrate non-Homekit devices without going the full Home Assistant route.

To answer your original question, you'll want a Homekit hub (Ideally a wired Apple TV) for what youre trying to do, yes.

 

[cynics]

The G410 comes with a Matter hub, would I still need a Apple TV or Homepod to use HomeKit or Apple Home?
How good is Apple Home for integrations, voice commands, routines?
How responsive is it when controlling devices.

A HomeKit hub (HomePod, AppleTV, iPad) is required for video processing, encryption and uploading to iCloud.

Homekit operates locally using its own secure protocol (HAP) across your wifi network. A host device is required to be on your network to operate your accessories. A HomeKit Hub bridges this gap, your iPhone is communicating with the hub over the internet which is communicating with the accessories over your home network.

Integration between Apple devices is really good. You can use an AppleTV to see all your cameras like a CCTV security system. Siri works from any devices that has Siri. You can share access with friends and family with Apple devices. Integration to other devices ranges from poor to non existent.

Voice commands via Siri are fine as long as you stick to script. When you set up Home make sure to add the accessory to a named room (bedroom, office, etc) and name the accessory if there are similar devices (lamp, ceiling lights, etc). So a voice command sounds like "Hey Siri turn on the bedroom lamp".

Automations (routines) are as you might expect. The Home app covers most basic to some advanced (depending on how clever you are) automations. Things like having lights come on certain times of day, temperature on the thermostat changing as you come and go, etc. The Shortcut App can further enhance automations for your specific requirements.

You can also make "scenes". This would be something like "Goodnight" and that scene turns off all the lights in the house. Or "Goodbye" and everything is turned off and thermostat set back. You can then just say "Hey Siri Goodnight".

Since homekit operates locally responsiveness is near instant most of the time. Even if Siri can't process a request locally I find its responsiveness to be more than adequate.

 

[JulianL]

...
Voice commands via Siri are fine as long as you stick to script. When you set up Home make sure to add the accessory to a named room (bedroom, office, etc) and name the accessory if there are similar devices (lamp, ceiling lights, etc). So a voice command sounds like "Hey Siri turn on the bedroom lamp".
...

That's good advice and probably not too difficult to implement for someone coming from an Alexa setup because it has similar issues with getting quite annoying if you don't stick to the script.

We won't know until we see it, and it's not a huge problem if one sticks to your advice, but that's one thing that I'm hoping will improve a lot when Siri gets its update to include LLM functionality. I've seen some videos on YouTube demonstrating Home Assistant's relatively new LLM-based voice assistant and it is quite impressive how it can work out what a user wants to control even if that user refers to something in a way that is quite unlike the actual device name. I'm hoping Siri will get to that same level - and without being as incredibly slow as the Home Assistant demos that I saw.

Minimising response time for its LLM functionality is still a work in progress for the Home Assistant voice project I think and the response time issue is one reason why I'm quite excited about the future of Apple's smart home initiatives. If we are about to get a new Apple TV (probably in Q1 2026 now) that has a more AI-capable A-Series SoC in it that should really set Apple apart in terms of more robust handling of queries while maintaining good response times.

Maybe the timing just won't work out for the OP (Kimbie) and something is needed much sooner but personally I would wait a few months before investing in an Apple TV to see if the new version does indeed have a significantly upgraded A-Series SoC in it because I think the ability that will give to run more sophisticated LLMs locally could make a worthwhile difference in terms of Siri performance in the future.

 

[Kimbie]

I need to get moved first so hoping this side of Christmas but who knows, then need to sort out the decorating, running of cabling etc so its not something going to do day 1 when move in, but more once I have done the things the wife wants doing in the new house, I can then do the things I want lol.

Also will be waiting for Ikea to launch their new range of bulbs as well as they will be matter based, so will give me chance to standardise on my smart bulbs as currently have a mix of Hue and Ikea, although the ikea bulbs are added into the Hue hub.

But all great advice/info so far from everyone.

 

[JulianL]

I need to get moved first so hoping this side of Christmas but who knows, then need to sort out the decorating, running of cabling etc so its not something going to do day 1 when move in, but more once I have done the things the wife wants doing in the new house, I can then do the things I want lol.

Also will be waiting for Ikea to launch their new range of bulbs as well as they will be matter based, so will give me chance to standardise on my smart bulbs as currently have a mix of Hue and Ikea, although the ikea bulbs are added into the Hue hub.

But all great advice/info so far from everyone.

I obviously don't know what you're planning decoration/building-work wise in your new home but you did mention running a wired backbone around the house (and the best time to do it is when moving in - I confess to some jealousy there because I missed that trick).

As a fellow UK resident one other thing I would consider to future-proof yourself when it comes to cabling is to see if it would be practical (not too much mess & disruption) to run neutral wires to at least some of your most strategically positioned light switches. There have been quite a few times when I've seen a really nice smart switch or mini display panel designed to replace a regular light switch only to discover that it needs a neutral wire to work and standard UK wiring tends to only run a switched live through the light switch back boxes with no access to a neutral wire. Maybe that practice has changed since my flat was rewired and maybe newer builds do run neutrals now (and you might not be moving to anything particularly new of course) but it might be something worth checking because, as well as having wired network connections to all my rooms, another thing that I really wish that I had is neutral wires running to all of my light switch back boxes.

And if you're doing that then perhaps you might also want to consider whether you might ever want to put more sophisticated smart wall-mounted displays at any light switch locations in which case you might also consider running a network cable to those light switch back boxes as well. I remember seeing one really cool wall-mounted display that needed a wired network connection so who knows what other cool stuff you might see and want to install some time in the future.

The final thing I can think of that I wish I'd done is to make sure there is power to the front doorbell location. My flat just used one of those cheap battery powered press-button doorbells so my smart doorbell choices are limited to battery-powered models and I wish they weren't but can't be bothered to pull up carpets and floorboards to fix the problem.

[ This post jointly sponsored by your local electrician, builder and decorator 😊 ]

 

[Kimbie]

The plan cabling wise at the moment will be running two fibre pairs from the garage which will become my office up to the attic, another pair to just behind where the TV will be.

Our main bedroom and house mates bedroom going to put two network drops into each room then decorate those rooms, the other two rooms we will be in while decorate the main rooms, then move out of them, add more drops in, also this will allow me to have an AP upstairs along with CCTV mounted outside, all will go back to a switch in the attic, will need to chat up my local electrician to see if he can run those for me, since he will have the ladders and long drills etc

I would imagine as the house was built around the 70's will be typical no neutral in the switches, but won't know till get in there and open them up, also with it being that age, the odds are the back boxes wont be deep enough for some of the switches.

As my plan would be to use smart bulbs with voice assistant for most of it, not having a neutral would not be a major issue, but I do take your point on board and will have a look.

Power to the front door, there is already an outside light there, but I will be looking at the feasibility of getting cat6 there for a POE doorbell, of course what I call feasible and what the wife calls it are two different things lol.

 

[erihp]

The plan cabling wise at the moment will be running two fibre pairs from the garage which will become my office up to the attic, another pair to just behind where the TV will be.

Our main bedroom and house mates bedroom going to put two network drops into each room then decorate those rooms, the other two rooms we will be in while decorate the main rooms, then move out of them, add more drops in, also this will allow me to have an AP upstairs along with CCTV mounted outside, all will go back to a switch in the attic, will need to chat up my local electrician to see if he can run those for me, since he will have the ladders and long drills etc

I would imagine as the house was built around the 70's will be typical no neutral in the switches, but won't know till get in there and open them up, also with it being that age, the odds are the back boxes wont be deep enough for some of the switches.

As my plan would be to use smart bulbs with voice assistant for most of it, not having a neutral would not be a major issue, but I do take your point on board and will have a look.

Power to the front door, there is already an outside light there, but I will be looking at the feasibility of getting cat6 there for a POE doorbell, of course what I call feasible and what the wife calls it are two different things lol.

I hope for your sake (and the WAF!) that you have neutrals. Going with bulbs versus wall switches is a huge L. If the switches can be turned off, they will be, and it will be an extremely frustrating experience trying to maintain state and leveraging automations.

But sounds like a fun project! I would strongly suggest Lutron Caseta switches if you can afford them! If not, consider zigbee or zwave before you opt for WiFi (re: bulbs too, for that matter), trust me!

Best of luck!

 

[cynics]

I hope for your sake (and the WAF!) that you have neutrals. Going with bulbs versus wall switches is a huge L. If the switches can be turned off, they will be, and it will be an extremely frustrating experience trying to maintain state and leveraging automations.

But sounds like a fun project! I would strongly suggest Lutron Caseta switches if you can afford them! If not, consider zigbee or zwave before you opt for WiFi (re: bulbs too, for that matter), trust me!

Best of luck!

100%

Its a bit embarrassing when visitors don't know how to turn on lights.

I would also consider the Lutron, I wish I would have. I personally have the Leviton HomeKit switches/dimmers but they don't use a hub and over the years I kept adding more, now I have 20+ additional IP's on my router. I've had to document everything to keep track of it.

 

[Kimbie]

To be fair currently in our longue all our lighting is light strips, lamps, book case lightning so that is all voice controlled, we rarely if ever use the big light, but I get what you are saying, the other day is I would just put a decorative blank where the light switch use to be.

 

[JulianL]

I hope for your sake (and the WAF!) that you have neutrals. Going with bulbs versus wall switches is a huge L. If the switches can be turned off, they will be, and it will be an extremely frustrating experience trying to maintain state and leveraging automations.

But sounds like a fun project! I would strongly suggest Lutron Caseta switches if you can afford them! If not, consider zigbee or zwave before you opt for WiFi (re: bulbs too, for that matter), trust me!

Best of luck!

I use Lutron Pico - I'm not actually sure how that compares with Caseta. I really like the way my Picos fit into a very low profile back plate that attaches directly to the front of a light switch back box in place of the previous dumb mechanical switch to give something that looks quite sleek.

What I did to solve the problem of the uninitiated switching off power to a smart bulb was to take the dumb mechanical switch off and hard-wire the live and switched live behind the switch together inside the back box (using a well-insulated terminal block) and then fit a Lutron back plate in place of the old mechanical switch and slot the appropriate Pico remote switch (or a pair if I'm replacing a double light switch) onto the back plate.

With recent developments though I think that if I was starting now I might well use Philips Hue mark 2 dimmers since the new Hue Pro bridge avoids the issue I had previously of overloading a single hub. That would avoid having the additional Lutron hub.

I confess that I'm not actually on Apple Homekit yet, I'm waiting for the new AppleTV to be released, but I do plan to make the move from my current Alexa + Hubitat setup to an all-Apple setup probably in April or May next year. Did you have any issues integrating your Lutron Caseta switches into Apple Homekit? Presumably it's done via the Lutron hub.

Do you use the Caseta switches that look more like a regular wall switch or do you use the smart remotes (e.g. https://www.casetawireless.com/us/e...es/original-smart-dimmer-switch-elv-lighting) My Picos look almost identical to the remote I linked to above and I'm wondering whether you can see all the actions in Homekit i.e. all the buttons (5 of them for my Picos) and are able to see both a single press and a long press on each button. I use long-press quite a lot to get as much functionality out of each wall switch/remote as I can.

 

[erihp]

I use Lutron Pico - I'm not actually sure how that compares with Caseta. I really like the way my Picos fit into a very low profile back plate that attaches directly to the front of a light switch back box in place of the previous dumb mechanical switch to give something that looks quite sleek.

What I did to solve the problem of the uninitiated switching off power to a smart bulb was to take the dumb mechanical switch off and hard-wire the live and switched live behind the switch together inside the back box (using a well-insulated terminal block) and then fit a Lutron back plate in place of the old mechanical switch and slot the appropriate Pico remote switch (or a pair if I'm replacing a double light switch) onto the back plate.

With recent developments though I think that if I was starting now I might well use Philips Hue mark 2 dimmers since the new Hue Pro bridge avoids the issue I had previously of overloading a single hub. That would avoid having the additional Lutron hub.

I confess that I'm not actually on Apple Homekit yet, I'm waiting for the new AppleTV to be released, but I do plan to make the move from my current Alexa + Hubitat setup to an all-Apple setup probably in April or May next year. Did you have any issues integrating your Lutron Caseta switches into Apple Homekit? Presumably it's done via the Lutron hub.

Do you use the Caseta switches that look more like a regular wall switch or do you use the smart remotes (e.g. https://www.casetawireless.com/us/e...hes/original-smart-dimmer-switch-elv-lighting) My Picos look almost identical to the remote I linked to above and I'm wondering whether you can see all the actions in Homekit i.e. all the buttons (5 of them for my Picos) and are able to see both a single press and a long press on each button. I use long-press quite a lot to get as much functionality out of each wall switch/remote as I can.

The picos are the Lutron accessory remotes for the Caseta switches. I have a couple setup just like you describe as well.

Lutron Hub is required but works great as a bridge for HomeKit support. Cheap on eBay as lots of people buy the combo packs and sell the bridges.