Apple HomeKit – any good?

[Salted_Peanut]

Talk to me about Apple HomeKit. How reliable and easy to use is it? How does it compare to the others (Ring, Eufy, etc.) for cameras?

[Alorotom]

HomeKit is just an interface for a range of compatible smart devices - Apple HomeKit don't produce cameras etc.

I have HomeKit and GoogleHome compliant devices and purposefully chose ones that are compatible with both so I could change between apple and google in the future if I wanted and to leverage the elements of both where one is better than the other.

What I do like about HomeKit is how I can call up the cameras for both my home here and home in the US on all my AppleTVs and see the live collective screen view for them - rather than using the Netatmo app (all Netatmo Presence cameras).

I do however find that the automations in GoogleHome are more intuitive for certain tasks - I have a lot of smart plugs for various lighting purposes, and GoogleHome handles them very well.

[kevinon]

Happily there is convergence in Internet of Things protocols.

Key words to know - Matter, and Thread.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/4/23386883/matter...


I have a HomeKit (Apple) bias. Because their expensive certification process gave me comfort re security versus alternatives.
Perhaps all the vendors who signed up with Google were scrupulous, but video footage of my home is something I want a LOT of confidence about.

But, there has been a lack of vendors joining HomeKit. It's getting better - Eve cameras are part of it now. And hopefully this Matter interoperability will mean that 'backing the wrong' horse is not a problem.

[casbar]

I have a Nuki smart lock and ring doorbell. The problem as always is Apple change something and developers then struggle to keep up. So I currently just run my devices via their own apps as I'm not great with APIs etc. It works for a while, then something breaks.

[bobthemonkey]

Also, tools like Homebridge running on a raspberry pi let you bring in a load more tools into the HomeKit world for remarkably little effort or complexity.

[somouk]

I currently have some Ring cameras, TP Link sockets and Hue all running through my Homebridge on my Synology NAS in to Homekit.

Works really well and it's much simpler to have everything in one place and just share that with the wife than trying to give her all the logins and keep space free on her phone for all the apps.