So, over a 4-year period, the VS1 is still better value for money, but only if you don’t already have an Aqara hub, which you may have already bought for other sensors previously. Take the price of the hub out of the equations above, and it’s a different story. Has the VS1 performed well? Yes, it has. This is in no small part due to it being relatively close to one of my Apple TVs, wherever I place it, and this is critical to a well functioning Bluetooth device. If the reach of Bluetooth 5.0 is as good as they say, then for most people you should have no issues. In fact, even my Zigbee devices have been slow to react on occasion, although it’s a lot rarer than Bluetooth, generally speaking. Meross have two smart plugs, one of them has the Apple-certified chip inside that allows it to connect to HomeKit, make sure you choose the correct plug when purchasing. Once you have the two Eve Door & Window pieces installed, you can add the accessory to HomeKit by scanning the QR code on the sensor module with your iPhone’s camera; doing so will jump you directly to the Apple Home app, where you can group the sensor with other HomeKit devices in a given room. In my case, I added the sensor to the kitchen. Each sensor can be named after a corresponding door or window so you will know immediately where to look for threats.

You can use these risers to boost the height of the Eve Door & Window magnet module (on the far left). Whether you have a dumb TV or a smart TV, chances are that it doesn’t natively support HomeKit. However, you don’t need to go out and buy a new TV set as you can add support with a TV box. Choose an accessory automation: You’ll now want to select “do you want this trigger to occur when it opens or closes” and based on either a time or people arriving/leaving. My recommendation is the HomePod Mini (especially since Apple announced in 2021 that they were discontinuing the flagship HomePod). It’s also the only HomeKit hub that supports Thread. Unlike other products on this list, this one requires a drill for installation. Nevertheless, it completely blends into your door, window, and frame.Select an accessory from the list. The accessories available will depend on which trigger option you use. The most common, and indeed the basis of the platform IFTTT. One input is used to trigger another action. The input can be a device control event (a device did something), a sensor detects something (motion sensor, temperature, light level etc), a schedule event (a fixed time or date), or a geofence event (someone arrives or leaves a given location) which are useful for location based routines. HomeKit supports all of these to some level. Conditional Actions (if A and B then C) Select the scene to run as the action, or select specific accessories to control at the bottom of the list.

The device will last 10 years without needing to change the battery, this is great news if you’ve ever been woken up by a smoke detector low on battery.Eve filters the available characteristics to those it thinks make sense for the device type. This just helps to keep the list of options a bit cleaner, but it can hide some useful values in certain cases, especially accessories with multiple functions. If you do need to access custom characteristics, then Home+ exposes everything the accessory offers (even more than Controller does), including the ability to do string comparisons. Smartmi's P1 Air Purifier keeps your home's air fresh and clean with HomeKit and Siri, convenience. This HEPA air purifier covers small to medium rooms — up to 180 square feet, with customizable fan speeds and an automatic mode that ramps up when the onboard particulate sensors detect a change in the air. It'll filter out 99.7% of all in-air contaminants, so you can be sure that the air you're breathing is clean. Geofence presence. The Home app calls these “ People Arrive” and “ People Leave”. These events can be for one or more members of the Home specified as Anyone or by selecting specific users. Interestingly the ability to select specific users is limited to the Home app, the third party offerings can only use Anyone. You can also specify events based on the first to arrive and last to leave rather than specific people, but these can also be based on a filtered group of home members.

Now your favorite Hue products work with your Apple devices. You can adjust dimming, change colors in certain rooms, sync your lights, set scenes, and more. The Philips Hue Starter Kit is a great way to get started with smart lighting. The Thread support on this device means that it’s going to work incredibly well with HomeKit, ensuring that you get instant alerts when doors or windows are opened. Plus, with up to one year of standby time, you won’t have to worry about constantly replacing batteries or monitoring the device.

SENSORS

For instance, let’s look at the Wemo Bridge. It links the Home app and the Belkin Wemo brand, increasing compatibility between devices such as the Wemo Switch, Insight Smart Plug, LightSwitch, and Dimmer. If you want a bit more customisation, the premium Home+ app is similar to the Home app but with more options for creating a personal dashboard. Having an action continue UNTIL something happens or WHILE a condition is true can also be achieved with a dummy switch and multiple triggers. The process is very similar to creating a delay action. It could look something like this:

For A Sensor Detects Something, you’ll be able to select sensors that report specific events like open/closed, motion/no motion, as well as certain sensors that have values, like temperature or light level. For other sensor types you’ll need to use a third-party app. Here’s how to create HomeKit sensor triggers in third party apps. Open the iPhone ‘Settings’ app > Tap your Apple ID at the top > Tap ‘iCloud’ > Scroll down and enable ‘iCloud Drive’ > Scroll down further and enable ‘Hive’.Although Google recently added HomeKit support to the popular Nest Learning Thermostat, I recommend you consider an alternative device from Tado which offers better functionality at a cheaper price. Update your iPhone or iPad to the latest version of iOS or iPadOS. To use the Home app on Mac, update your Mac to the latest version of macOS. The latest HomeKit-enabled accessory from Meross adds smart home convenience to a wide variety of existing garage door openers. Open and Shut