Apple Homekit is one of the most well-known home automation platforms in the smart home industry. This platform is made purposely for the Apple product owners who want to switch to smart homes.
With Apple Homekit, you can control any Homekit-compatible smart devices from the lights, door locks, doorbells, thermostats, smart cameras to motion sensors and alarm systems.
What makes Apple Homekit popular among many homeowners is that, like most of Apple’s products and platforms, it follows very strict encryption and authentication protocols.
With Apple Homekit, you’re guaranteed that all the data you link or share with your smart devices remains private and out of reach by any hackers or forms of a data breach. Whether it’s your search history, voice history, or Wi-Fi password, all this information remains secure.
For many homeowners who are working on automating their smart homes, it might be confusing to differentiate between Apple Homekit and Home App or even tell what purpose either serves.
For this reason, this article is made to give a detailed breakdown of what Apple Homekit and Home App mean to smart home automation and how each works.
What is Apple Homekit, and How Does It Shape Your Home Automation?
Apple Homekit-compatible smart devices are easy to setup, easy to use, and generally regarded as high-quality. Any of the Homekit-compatible devices work strictly over iPad, Apple Watch, HomePod, iPhone, and Apple TV.
This means that Android-powered smart devices do not support Apple Homekit. When switching to home automation, you can use HomePod, Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, or Apple TV as a hub to set up your smart devices. You can also go further and integrate Siri as the digital voice assistant.
You should also note that Apple Homekit doesn’t work with either Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant as of now. So how does Homekit work? Suppose you own smart lights, smart speakers, and smart blinds in your home.
Without Apple Homekit, you’ll need to download and set up each of these products’ native apps to control them. This is because these smart devices won’t communicate with each other or be controlled from a single interface.
However, with Homekit, you can have your smart lights light up, your favorite song playing on your smart speakers, and your blinds simultaneously.
All the Homekit-compatible smart devices can communicate with each other and this means that you can also control them from a single interface. Since all the Homekit-compatible smart devices are also compatible with Siri, you can also give voice commands to them and respond accordingly.
How do you know that a smart device is Homekit-compatible?
All the Homekit-compatible smart devices usually come with a tagline or badge written ‘Works with Apple Homekit’ on their packaging.
Therefore, if you’ve purchased any smart device and it doesn’t bear that badge, it’s most likely not Homekit-compatible.
What is the Home App, and How Does It Work?
Apple launched the Home App back in 2016 to offer their users more customized control of their Homekit-compatible devices.
Even though all the Homekit-compatible smart devices come with their native apps, the Home App acts as a more centralized hub where you can control all of them in a single platform.
The Home App is fitted with 3D Touch quick actions, Siri as the digital voice assistant, and the Control Center. When you download the Home App for your iPhone, you can add all the smart devices you want there.
To add your smart devices on the Home app, you need to ensure that both your Apple device and smart device are connected to a common internet connection. These devices are added by scanning the code at the back of the device or on its packaging.
One of the important features in the Home App is the Rooms, a section where you can add all the smart devices from different rooms of your house. You can also create automation for your smart devices so that they can react to a certain time or whenever the motion sensor detects something.
The Home App also has the Groups section to add all the devices you want to control simultaneously. You can also create Scenes in your Home App so that one function from one device triggers another function from another device.
Final Thoughts
If you value data security and your privacy, Apple Homekit is the ideal platform to use for your home automation. Besides that, Homekit-compatible smart devices are among the best you can get in the market, and they are bound to give you all the convenience you need while also remaining energy-efficient.