Recently Apple announced a new HomePod — their flagship HomeKit device. It was a bit of a shock announcement, but one that has many newly interested in home automation. Apple has not yet experimented much with IoT for real estate but this might be their path toward a consumer solution for all who don’t want to use something from Apple rather than Alexa.
What is Apple HomeKit about?
Much like Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa service, HomeKit is Apple’s take on a centralized system and protocol for managing smart home devices in clever ways. Like other systems, you can quickly set up a variety of smart devices that support the protocol and manage them through Apple’s own Home app from any supported iPhone.
From there, you can organize and arrange devices and even set up daily routines to automate your home using the Home app’s “Automation” tab, which can also interact with iOS shortcuts. Additionally, HomeKit allows for more secure access as it requires two-factor authentication in certain cases like remote access. In short, HomeKit makes it easier to connect and control compatible smart home devices from your iPhone or iPad, while providing an extra layer of security that could be beneficial to users who are wary of potential security risks.
Quick and simple setup
If you’ve got a HomeKit device you want to set up in the Home app it’s super straightforward. Simply tap the “Add Accessory” button, and it will use your iPhone’s camera to scan a QR code, or eight-digit code, on the device or box. Boom, device added. After that, you can control it with a HomePod or HomePod Mini and add which room you set the device in, which leads to our next home automation tidbit.
Controlling multiple devices by room and reactions
When you’re setting up your space for home automation, HomeKit has the handy functionality of grouping your devices by room. So you can tell set up both your lights and heat in the living room to come on as you prefer in the morning with one action, for example.
HomeKit also can react based on your other devices and shortcuts too. You can create and enable one of the automations we mentioned earlier so that it turns on your smart light in your room after you stop your morning alarm.
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It’s all about the interconnected nature of these devices and automations that makes HomeKit so great. That, and its easy setup makes it stand out from some of the other home automation platforms on the market.
Making a house a home
Of course, you don’t need to rely on your phone for everything when trying to automate your home. You can set up a HomePod or Apple TV to act as a HomeKit Hub and control your devices from there, too, making it easy to access your smarthome equipment even without the smartphone.
YouTube: Introducing the all-new HomePod | Apple
Photo credit: All images shown are owned by Apple and were made available in a press release.
Source: Apple press release
