HomeKit Weekly

Matter continues to be the 2023 theme as various smart home manufacturers continue to release supported products. Aqara has long been one of my go-to smart home vendors when you want a low-cost item that supports the latest technology. A prime example of the level of products that Aqara produces is the new U100 door lock that supports Home Key. It’s such a fantastic product at a low cost. Today, they’re delivering the new Aqara T1 Light Strip that has quickly become of my favorite light strip products on the market.

I’ve said multiple times how I think Google’s first-party hardware strategy is something Apple should be copying. While Google doesn’t make everything for the Google smart home ecosystem, they do make some key products like doorbells, thermostats, and cameras. If you’re just getting started with a smart home platform, Google has some easy options to start. Even though I love them, I prefer using HomeKit, so I use the Starling Home Hub in order to make them compatible with HomeKit. I recently picked up the Google Nest smoke detector to see how it works as well. Let’s dive in.

Without a doubt, Home Key is my favorite new HomeKit feature in a couple of years. The ability to lock and unlock your door with a tap of your iPhone or Apple Watch has become second nature to me day to day. Both the Level Lock+ and the Aqara Smart Lock U100 are great options for implementing it in your home, but after months of usage, I’ve realized that it’s missing one single feature: Home Key sharing.

Philips makes some of the absolute best HomeKit products on the market. The Philips Hue Bloom is yet another entry into that lineup. When paired with the Hue hub, you end up with a light that looks great, shines bright, and works perfectly with HomeKit’s Adaptive Lighting.

Is Matter going to be a great thing for smart home users? Yes. Is it going to replace Homebridge as a usable solution? Not anytime soon. I’ve been extremely impressed with the Homebridge platform over the years, and it’s done a lot of good for expanding compatibility for products that either don’t support Matter or ever will in terms of onboarding them into HomeKit. It’s now available on the fast-growing Umbrel home server as well.

Door and window sensors aren’t new to HomeKit. They’re one of the original device types, and depending on the use case, it unlocks some super interesting automations. Today, I am taking a look at Aqara’s brand-new Matter-enabled contact sensor that can be used on windows, doors, blinds, or really anywhere you want to track the opening of something.

Continuing with the summer of Matter announcements, TP-Link’s Tapo has just released the industry’s first Matter-enabled smart switches. The Tapo S505 and Tapo S505D are now both available for purchase. Tapo is TP-Link’s smart home brand. TP-Link makes a wide variety of home Wi-Fi routers, business grade networking equipment, and much more.

When the news broke in April that WiZ products were coming to Matter, this was a huge benefit to Apple, the HomeKit ecosystem, and to HomeKit users. In fact, I believe no one is benefiting from the Matter rollout to the smart home world than Apple, as they were the ones often left out of the lower-cost products. Matter is an open smart home standard that is supported by Amazon, Google, and Apple, allowing accessory makers to be compatible with a single standard rather than three separate ones.

In the past few months of using the Level Lock+, my mind has been doing a lot of thinking about the role of hardware in the future of the smart home. Sure, software (even voice) is great for interacting with devices, but there’s something I’ve found magical about Home Key. My smartphone is hardware device that interacts with my hardware lock through software. The software is invisible. It’s been so wonderful just tapping my iPhone on the lock and having it open. It’s also led me to believe that Apple should continue pulling at that string going forward. Of course, all this will apply to the recently released Aqara smart lock with Home Key support.

After using the Level Lock+ with Home Key support for a few months, I can honestly say that Home Key is now table stakes for all smart locks. It’s no longer enough to just support HomeKit. HomeKit is a software layer for door locks. Home Key support is a game changer in terms of day-to-day functionality. There are no apps to open or Bluetooth connections to wait on. With Home Key, it’s tap and go. I’ve spent the last week with the Aqara Door Lock U100 with Home Key support, so let’s dive into how it works, my thoughts on it compared to Level Lock+, and the installation process.

When you strip away home automation to its essence, it’s about taking something you normally would buy manually and automating it. That might be turning lights on based on motion, time of day, etc. It might be able automatically raising or lowering blinds based on smart blinds based on when the sun sets. It’s about streamlining how you interact with your home. There’s no more mundane task that should be integrated into HomeKit than smart vacuums, and it’s time for Apple to support it as a HomeKit device. Read on to learn about a few smart vacuums I’ve been testing this year, and how I’d love to take the experience further with HomeKit.

Matter is the new solution to all our smart home compatibility problems, right? That’s what we’ve been told, and that’s what we want to happen, right? Open stands on everything related to technology are preferable, but sometimes, new standards take years to mature. That’s what we’re seeing with Matter. We’re even seeing brands like Wemo back away from Matter support as well. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been testing a product called Homey Bridge, and it’s one of the most interesting smart home concepts I’ve tried in some time.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago when looking at the Onvis Thread-Enabled door sensor, HomeKit door and window sensors are some of the most underrated devices that most people aren’t thinking about. There are so many use cases that HomeKit door sensors unlock, that they might even be more versatile than HomeKit motion sensors. This week, I am looking at the Meross MS200 door and window sensor.

Since early 2020, I’ve used abode as my primary security system. I’ve discussed it a number of times in past editions of HomeKit Weekly, but I continue to get emails asking if I am still using it, etc. I wanted to take an opportunity to update my review, discuss how I am using it in my new house, and where I’d like it to go in the future.

One of the biggest challenges with a smart home is knowing…when you’ve gone too far with your gear purchases and your home is so heavily tied to a smart home platform that without access to Wi-Fi, your home is fundamentally useless. For this week’s edition of HomeKit Weekly, I want to explain how I’ve tackled this problem and how to know when too much HomeKit is just too much.

With air pollution becoming an increasingly prevalent issue in many urban areas, finding ways to improve indoor air quality has become a top priority for many homeowners. Fortunately, with the advent of smart home technology, we now have access to a range of high-tech air purifiers that not only helps to remove harmful pollutants from the air but can also be controlled remotely using our smartphones or voice assistants. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at some of the top HomeKit air purifier options on the market today, and explore how they can help you breathe easier and stay healthy in your own home.

Aqara is one of the best value brands for HomeKit products today. You can add its M2 hub as your starter kit, and then start layering on devices like the low-cost water leak sensor, motion sensor, and door sensors. Aqara continues to innovate with products that work great with HomeKit, and today, they’ve released a brand new product. The Aqara Presence Sensor FP2 is a new millimeter wave motion sensor that is taking smart home automation to the next level. This new motion sensor device is loaded with features that make it one of the most versatile and precise sensors on the market today. It does require an Aqara hub, but thankfully, there are plenty of options like the M2 I listed above or the M1S hub.

Back in November 2022, Meross announced the Meross MSS115. It was one of the first smart plugs with Matter support that was available to purchase. After a few months at the preorder stage, I finally got my hands on the product and was able to spend some time with it. Is it better than other products that focus on HomeKit only? Let’s dive in.

As smart home technology continues to evolve and grow in popularity, manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to make their products more versatile and convenient for users. One such company is Switchbot, known for its innovative Button pusher devices that allow users to automate non-smart home devices with ease. Until recently, Switchbot products were not compatible with Apple’s HomeKit without the use of a Homebridge setup. However, with the emergence of Matter, a new smart home connectivity standard, that’s all about to change with SwitchBot Hub 2.

One of the industries I have some prior experience with is home and business security systems. In my first job out of college, I helped an independent telephone company launch a new business line offering installation and monitoring services. It’s been an industry I’ve followed since then. In my home, I currently use the abode alarm system, and I love it. It offers HomeKit compatibility as well. What if you invested in a Nest Secure system or are using the Nest Smoke Alarms and want HomeKit compatibility and 24/7 monitoring? Google discontinued support on the Nest Secure in favor of the new ADT partnership, and there is no stand-alone smoke detector monitoring offered by Google. That’s the bridge the new service from the Starling Home Hub manufacturer aims to offer with Starling Protect.

Smart doorbells have become a popular option for homeowners who want to keep an eye on their front door while also triggering some HomeKit automation as well. Battery-powered doorbells are easy to install and offer a range of features that make them an excellent alternative to traditional wired doorbells. In this week’s HomeKit Weekly, we’ll look at the benefits of battery-powered doorbells and review the Aqara G4 video doorbell, a wireless smart doorbell that offers a range of features and benefits for folks looking for an easy-to-install HomeKit doorbell.