Apple Home, previously referred to as Apple HomeKit, is a smart home platform that lets you control all your smart gadgets in one place. The Home app is a powerful solution for home automation, allowing you to streamline tasks and quickly let your various devices communicate with each other. There’s a bit of technical jargon with Apple Home and Apple HomeKit (Home is the actual app, while HomeKit is the underlying communication technology), but whether you call it Home or HomeKit, one thing is the same — it’s one of the most popular smart home platforms on the planet.
Beyond Google Home and Amazon Alexa, Apple Home is one of the big three smart home platforms. It also supports Matter, meaning it plays nicely with thousands of products outside the Apple Home lineup, making it relatively futureproof. But should you use Apple Home for your smart home? Or are you better off with another platform?
Here’s a closer look at everything you need to know about Apple Home, including supported devices, how it works, and why it’s a good choice for iOS users.
What is Apple HomeKit?
As mentioned above, HomeKit is a platform that allows different smart home gadgets to communicate with each other and gives you access to all of them through a single app. Along with using the Home app on iOS, you can also dish out voice commands to supported smart speakers, such as HomePod or HomePod mini.
From checking security cameras to increasing the temperature of your thermostat, Home makes it easy to control your gadgets. You’ll want to set up a HomeKit hub to serve as the brains of the operation, but once that’s taken care of, you’ll have unprecedented control of all your smart home devices.
What can Apple Home control?
While Apple Home can’t control quite as many products as Amazon Alexa and Google Home, its catalog of supported smart home products is enough to keep most people happy. The number of supported products is constantly increasing, and HomeKit currently supports many items in the following categories:
- Air conditioners
- Air purifiers
- Bridges
- Cameras
- Doorbells
- Fans
- Faucets
- Garage Doors
- Humidifiers
- Lights
- Locks
- Outlets
- Receivers
- Routers
- Security
- Sensors
- Speakers
- Sprinklers
- Switches
- Thermostats
- TVs
- Windows
Apple Home supports Matter
One of the biggest innovations in the world of smart homes is Matter. This new connectivity standard allows products to communicate with smart home platforms that they typically wouldn’t support. For example, a smart light may not have native support for Apple Home, but if it’s updated to support Matter, it’ll work with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Home.
Of course, the main caveat here is that manufacturers need to ensure their products are built to support Matter. But if you see a product with a label on the box for either Apple Home or Matter, you can rest easy knowing it’ll work with your setup.
Should you use HomeKit in your smart home?
While HomeKit doesn’t support as many products as Alexa or Google Home, it’s a great option for iOS enthusiasts. Not only does it feature a similar UI to all the other products in the Apple lineup (making it easy to learn its intricacies), but Apple TV and HomePod are great hubs for the action. In short, if you’ve been using an iPhone for years, you’ll feel right at home with Apple Home.
Be sure to take a look at its full list of supported gadgets before jumping on board, but using HomeKit in your smart home is the perfect way to connect all your disparate equipment.
