How I set up a smart home in Russia with Siri support. How Apple can make your home smarter

People appreciate the increased convenience when using the usual functionality of home appliances.

Consumers like the increased safety that smoke and fire detectors provide.

Undoubtedly, the work of smart sockets that can save electricity is positively assessed.

Recently introduced to a wide range of Apple consumers smart home- a fully smartphone-controlled home appliance automation system.

It is designed to combine multiple devices in a room, capable of exchanging data and being controlled remotely.

Features of the Apple Home Kit platform

Strictly speaking, the Apple Home Kit smart home is not an adaptive response system in its pure form.

This software environment, is primarily intended for automation and integration.

Its use solves the following problems:

1. centralized data collection from those installed in the house smart appliances and monitors, sensors;
2. control of home appliances;
3. implementation of pre-configured scenarios for the operation of a set of devices in the house;
4. prompt notification of the owner about emergency situations.

With a centralized automation system, management efforts can be significantly reduced smart technology. For example, smart sockets installed in the house, temperature monitors, locks, light bulbs - without the Apple Home Kit you will have to turn it on and off manually or use zoned controls.

The software installed on the smartphone will allow, for example, to start air conditioning or look at the visitor at the door without getting up from the sofa.

What devices and sensors can work with an Apple smart home

Manufacturers of the most diverse household appliances instantly became interested in the possibilities that smart house Home Kit.

Almost any device can be integrated into the control system.

However Apple company Responsibly approaches the selection of compatible equipment. Every manufacturer who wants their product to be included in an Apple smart home and automatically recognized by the system must certify it.

The certification procedure is outlined and quite transparent, it includes testing of devices, identification of the method of their control and collection of statistics.

After passing the verification Apple corporation labels the product Works with Apple Home Kit, enters its specifications into the system, after which each sold copy can work with a smart home.

Lighting

Apple Smart Home Today it officially works with several smart light bulbs from different companies.

One of the brands is Philips Hue. These lamps not only change the intensity of the glow, but can also burn in different colors.

A technique for setting effects is available. Apple Home Kit is capable of combining unified system control several Philips Hue light sources, up to 50 pieces, or manage controllers that regulate the operation of a group of lamps.

Another brand of lighting devices that the smart home works with is Nanoleaf Aurora. These are triangular lamps with brightness and color control.

Apple Home Kit can independently regulate the operation of 30 lamps. Or - work with controllers for groups of lamps. Their triangular shape, among other things, allows you to decorate the room, creating interesting compositions.

Thermostats, air conditioners, fans

There are dozens of individual devices that an Apple smart home can interact with.

However, the possibility of controlling another centralized controller is more interesting. This greatly expands the overall capabilities of the system.

Elgato Eve is a multifunctional structure for monitoring, collecting information from sensors, and controlling devices.

By interacting with the Apple Home Kit, you can receive data about installed smart sockets, climate parameters in rooms, and door status.

If there are drives, a smart home can independently open and close doors for a person.

The task of the Apple Home Kit is to complement the Elgato Eve operating scenarios, as well as provide the owner with complete statistical information.

It may also include humidity, pressure, air temperature outside the building, if there is an installed weather station.

There are also simpler devices that the Apple Home Kit smart home can interact with.

The Ecobee 3 automated thermostat can not only independently control the climate in the house, but also receive commands from a centralized system.

The functionality of the device includes, among other things, control of air conditioning and heating systems.

Speaker systems

Probably the very first model that comes to mind when thinking about music controlled smart home- Apple Homepod.

This system was originally designed to be fully compatible with the Home Kit and does not cause any difficulties in operation. You can turn on the music with one command Siri assistant on a mobile phone.

Security sensors

Some systems that support working with sensors and are compatible with the Apple Home Kit have already been mentioned.

This is, first of all, Elgato Eve. A smart home can also interact with smart locks.

The August Smart Lock product series is fully compatible. The owner can open and block doors, view statistics of inputs and outputs directly from the smartphone.

If you supplement your smart lock with the August Doorbell Cam, you can significantly expand the security capabilities of the system.

At Apple help Home Kit will be able to both look at the visitor in real time and view photographs taken when people came while the owners were away.

Sockets

With devices compatible with the Apple Home Kit, you can make any outlet in your home smart.

To do this, you can, for example, use an Elgato eve energy adapter. You just need to plug it into a power outlet.

Energy consumption statistics, data on overloads, and operating time of connected devices are immediately included in Apple Smart Home. You can turn the power on and off during configured scenarios.

Setting up the Home app

The entire smart home system on a smartphone is controlled by one single application. It immediately contains several standard scenarios for controlling home appliances.

• Morning. Turns on the lights in the rooms, activates the sockets, and unlocks the lock on the front door. Heating, if appropriate control devices are present, starts 10-20 minutes earlier.
• Left. Disables most household appliances, locks the doors and windows, and switches the air conditioning to economical mode.
• I'm home. The garage door opens, the lights on the facade are activated, the locks are unlocked, the heating raises the temperature by set level. It is possible to configure the inclusion of other devices according to the owner’s habits.
• Night. The locks are locked and the heating switches to economy mode. Lighting is turned off or minimized to the limit.

There is also a mode that will allow you to watch a movie comfortably, with the curtains drawn, the air conditioner running quietly and the main lighting turned off. The Apple Smart Home behavior options are Party, Dinner, Romance.

Setting up the Home application for easy apartment management follows a few steps.

1. Sets the zonal division. This is the room in which certain smart devices are located. Adding occurs on the room tab. Here you can divide one room into several semantic zones.
2. Devices that are compatible with Apple Smart Home are identified.
3. For each device found by the system, you can specify the zone in which it is located. To do this, you need to press and hold its icon and select the desired room in the drop-down menu.

Setting up the system is quite simple. For each accessory, after a long press in the menu, its controls are available. For complex devices, such as thermostats, all control elements are presented in a drop-down list.

Scenarios for managing multiple devices are also quite easy to set up. To do this, go to the appropriate application tab, click + and enter a name.

After this, using the Add or Remove button, a list of devices is compiled. The operation is adjusted, a schedule is set, parameters for each device, and a response method when the scenario is activated. To save the changes you have made, just click the Finish button.

All scenarios or individual smart devices added to favorites are available for control not only in the Home application, but also on other devices with the same account Apple. For example, on the clock Apple Watch, MacBook or tablet.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, Apple smart home is a very convenient system. She doesn't pretend to be intellectual. This is just a centralized management and statistics collection system.

However, thanks to the Home application, you can set as detailed scenarios as you like, which can be activated voice commands Siri assistant.

But the main thing: fully realized remote access. You can look at the visitor at the door or turn off the lights in the yard while being on the other side of the city or planet.

Video: Full review of Apple HomeKit on iPhone MacBook Watch iPad aTV CarPlay siri

IN Apple app With Home, you can easily and securely control all your HomeKit-enabled accessories. Take your iPhone and ask Siri to turn off the lights. Take a look at your iPad and see who's at the front door. Control your home technology from a distance using Apple TV. With the Home app, all your connected devices work much more efficiently.

One application for all elements of a smart home.

The Home app makes it easy to set up and manage any compatible accessories. More than fifty partner companies around the world are developing devices that support the HomeKit platform, and more are becoming available every day. These accessories are tested and approved by Apple, so you can use them without worry.

Each room has its own rules.

The Home app groups your HomeKit accessories by room, so you can control all the devices in a room from one screen. For example, ask Siri: “Turn off the bedroom lights” or “Set the temperature to 24 degrees.” And with 3D Touch you can perform more complex tasks - dim the lights or adjust the thermostat. Just touch and hold the icon you want.

Run the script with one gesture. Or in a word.

Set up your own scripts to manage a group of devices with a single command. For example, create a “Leaving the House” scenario that simultaneously turns off the lights, locks the door, and turns off the heating.

Create a scenario for the morning: he will open the curtains, turn on the heating and the coffee maker.

When you arrive, the script will open the garage and front door- and turns on the light.

When you decide it's time to go to bed, the evening scenario will turn off the lights, lower the room temperature, and close all doors.

Now Siri is a switch. And the switch.

Siri knows which devices are connected to HomeKit in your home and monitors their status.1 You can ask Siri to turn it on or off separate device, dim the lights, change the song, or start one of your scripts. And if you have Apple TV, you don’t even have to be at home - for example, while on the road you can give Siri command set the “I’m home” scenario. And when you arrive, the house will be light and warm, as if you had never left.

Control your home from anywhere.

The Home app lets you control smart home components remotely using your Apple TV or iPad.2 You can, for example, close the garage door, watch video from the entrance camera, and even ask Siri to turn down the thermostat—all the things you normally do. when you use the application at home.

The house is on autopilot.

Apple TV and iPad let you run some smart home features automatically. For example, you can have accessories or scenarios included in certain time, when sensors are triggered or under other circumstances. One setting - and the house is in complete order.

Geolocation

Set the lights to turn on when you approach the gate.

Time

Set an alarm not only for yourself, but also for the heating in your home.

Action

Have a motion sensor in the hallway turn on the kitchen light when you approach it.

It's easy to get started.

HomeKit accessories connect to the Home app easily and securely. Simply touch the icon of the connected device or scan the HomeKit setup code located on the accessory or its instructions. And a couple with iOS device will be instantly created. Additionally, the Home app can recognize HomeKit accessories that were previously set up through other apps.

Accessories supporting the smart home system HomeKit are starting to enter the market and it’s time to talk about new technology Apple more details.

What is HomeKit?

HomeKit is a smart home system from Apple that allows you to control various household devices using special applications for iPhone and iPad. By connecting to a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, HomeKit-enabled devices can be controlled by users, making many household processes easier.

How does HomeKit work?

By pairing an iPhone or iPad with a HomeKit-enabled device, the user can control all of its settings. For example, if a “smart light bulb” is installed in a room, then the owner of the house can set a schedule for turning it on or off, adjust the brightness, or set some other settings, and all this can be done using convenient application for a mobile device.

Why do we need HomeKit?

Yes, there are already many different household devices with the “smart” prefix on the market. However, only some of them can work together with other “smart” devices. This means that your smart light bulb will not be able to transmit data " smart plug"and at the end of the month you will not receive information about your electricity use specific device. And this is just a small example. HomeKit allows anyone to organize a real “smart home”, where the operation of each device can be easily monitored and regulated.

Does HomeKit support Siri?

Yes! And this is one of the main differences between HomeKit-enabled devices and other smart devices. Imagine being able to control all your home appliances without even touching them. Too lazy to get up from the couch and lose that sweet, sleepy state? Just tell your smart light bulb passphrase and make yourself comfortable. Again, this is just the first example that comes to mind.

How do you know if a device supports HomeKit?

Any accessory manufacturer that wants to make a HomeKit-enabled device must join Apple's Made for iPhone program. Thus, the finished HomeKit-enabled device will contain the Made for iPhone (MFi) inscription on the box.

How does the MFi program work?

Manufacturers planning to release devices with HomeKit support must obtain approval from Apple. After the company representatives initially familiarize themselves with the device, she asks the manufacturer to provide her with a prototype on which all APIs will be tested. Apple also makes sure that applications associated with the smart home device comply with App Store rules.

If the manufacturer completes all these steps successfully, the prototype is approved and the company can begin mass production.

If there is HomeKit, then where is the Home app?

At the moment, an application for controlling all smart home devices has not yet been presented. However, analysts have assumptions that its announcement will take place simultaneously with the public iOS release 9.

What Apple devices does HomeKit work with?

To control a HomeKit device, you must have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch With installed iOS 8.1 or higher.

Last year, Apple introduced the HomeKit platform and the Home app to make it easier to integrate and control iPhone-compatible smart home gadgets. This year the company opened a platform for more third-party developers, added support for the HomePod smart speaker and multiroom systems based on AirPlay 2.

There has still been no talk of any full-fledged competition with advanced professional systems that have existed for many years, but their owners and experts in the home installation market were, not without reason, concerned about the emergence of such a large new player.

Apple tends to come to the ground prepared by its competitors and offer the simplest from the point of view ordinary person software and technological solutions. Often these decisions are big game changers. Let's try to figure out how possible this is in the current smart home systems market.

What is Apple Home and how does it work

The entire ideology of Apple's smart home is based on controlling devices from the iPhone using Siri and special application"House". It is assumed that the potential owner of a smart home already has an iPad or Apple TV, which can be used as the main control hub for connecting all existing devices and remote control.

The list of supported devices is huge: there are both banal lamps, lamps, switches, and advanced home security systems, control of windows, garage doors and network bridges. More than fifty companies on at the moment already support the HomeKit platform. Apple itself does not sell any ready-made equipment kits; you need to find everything yourself. Most of the accessories are sold in the Apple online store, but for our country everything there is still very scarce.

In addition, Apple focuses on ease of setup and pairing of all smart devices into one system. The devices are recognized by the smartphone immediately after switching on, or require scanning a special code. If you've already set up any HomeKit-enabled devices, the Home app will instantly recognize them. You don’t need to call any specialists to create a smart home system.

Place in the market and relations with competitors

The existing market for smart home systems is in no hurry to respond to the emergence of Apple at their gate. Companies like Crestron, Control 4, AMX, Savant and others continue to develop their platforms and applications, ignoring HomeKit support, but not ignoring iPhone support and other systems. The same Crestron, for example, has an application for Apple Watch, and recently support for Amazon Alexa and Sonos has appeared.

And although some companies are already taking the first steps towards other smart platforms, big picture remains approximately as follows: manufacturers of smart home systems with a long history do not want to let Apple and alternative solutions from competitors into their possessions, offering a more holistic and comprehensive approach.

Meanwhile, users of such systems are increasingly beginning to feel left out. Many people really want to control their smart home with using Siri and very simple application instead of cumbersome and not always flexible alternatives. People write their own drivers for Control 4 and use devices like Raspberry Pi as a connecting bridge between the iPhone and the whole home system. One such way to pair devices from different worlds available and .

And this is how it might work:

Disadvantages and advantages

Despite the apparent simplicity of the Apple smart home concept, the system has a number of obvious disadvantages that not every potential owner will want to put up with. For example, the same lack of a ready-made set of devices from Apple itself creates confusion and creates difficulties for users who do not know which devices and gadgets to choose for their future smart home.

No less important and not too pleasant Apple feature Home is a necessity using iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. They all need to be purchased and will not work with your Android smartphone or any other device on any other platform.

The variety of companies supporting the HomeKit platform has reverse side. If something goes wrong, the owner will get tired of writing complaints to each manufacturer and running to different services, because Apple does not bear any responsibility for their devices. An integrated approach from one company in in this case It will also be more convenient.

But unlike conventional systems smart home, Apple setup Home does not require a specialist visit or deep study of instructions. Even a child can figure out how to connect devices to a smartphone - and this is the main advantage of the Apple platform.

The ability to choose any gadgets for a smart home also frees up the hands of owners. A wide range of devices will allow you to create exactly the smart home you want, and not what one manufacturer offers.

Plus, the design of smart home gadgets and accessories that support HomeKit is most often made in the typical Apple aesthetic and goes well with any modern interior. In addition, the likelihood of exclusive designer high-tech accessories appearing in this market is higher, because these days you can sell any beautiful trinket if it works in conjunction with an iPhone.

So is it a killer or not?

Many owners existing systems smart home and experts agree that Apple HomeKit will not kill current platforms, but will help them become more modern and closer to people. Together they can evolve into more flexible, secure and advanced end-to-end solutions that benefit everyone, especially consumers.

In my opinion, it will specifically harm the current smart Apple systems It will only be able to do so if it begins to offer some comprehensive smart home solutions with unique functions. Until then, competitors don't have to worry. But it still won’t hurt them to update their apps and gadgets for HomeKit.