“I’ve been testing HomeKit accessories since the first wave premiered earlier this year, and I’ve used a variety of apps to set them up and control them,” Serenity Caldwell writes for iMore. “Most manufacturers have released device-specific apps, but if you have a few different HomeKit items and need a central hub, there’s no better app out there right now than Home – Smart Home Automation by Matthias Hochgatterer.”
“Your iCloud account is how you register HomeKit items to your home: When you create a database for your house, it’s linked to your account; you can give other iCloud users guest access, but your account (and your account alone) is in charge of the house,” Caldwell writes. “Within this database, you can add HomeKit accessories from any manufacturer, and set up those accessories in specific rooms, zones (groupings of rooms), or scenes (groupings of accessories that might be time- or situation-based). There’s one catch: You can’t do any of this without a third-party app.”
“Yes, despite this very iOS-centric registration scheme, your iPhone or iPad has no official HomeKit app where you can view and control accessories: Instead, it punts you to apps from various third-party HomeKit manufacturers. And given that most home automation manufacturers are largely hardware-focused, that means—yes—cruddy software,” Caldwell writes. “So what to do if you have multiple HomeKit services and want an app to quickly view and use them all? The Home app to the rescue. Home is Mattias Hochgatterer’s $15 all-purpose HomeKit control application, and it is worth every penny and then some.”
Read more, and see all of the screenshots, in the full article – recommended – here.
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Crafty! Now I need some HomeKit gear to try it.
I just installed it. It pulled in my HomeKit devices automatically. I’m looking forward to trying some scenes now.