Can you tell us if the new hub supports HomeKit?
An integration or compatibility with HomeKit is not part of our upcoming announcements related to the next generation SmartThings hub.
7 Likes
Bummer, but good to know. Looks like I’ll be shopping for a different system. Thanks for the quick response. Maybe I’ll try Smartthings again someday if they can get their shit together. Sounds like these new announcements will be a step in the right direction but its too little to late…
3 Likes
Good … don’t indulge those evil Apple closed-ecosystem monsters! (OK… Just my nasty opinion, pardon me). 
7 Likes
Why is HomeKit so important to you, may I ask? Not being sarcastic like my previous post … I really want to know what value folks expect to get from HomeKit. Thanks!
2 Likes
Best of luck with whichever system you land on!
3 Likes
I’m pretty sure anyone that wants Homekit right now, has no idea what it actually is, what the integration requirements are, and what it will and won’t support. It’s Apple, so it’s the best right?
9 Likes
Being able to control my house using Siri is the main value of HomeKit. I don’t have to unlock my phone, open an app, search though various menus to make adjustments, I just have Siri do it. With iOS 9 and HomeKit, I will be able to talk to my apple watch and control my house without using an app at all or even having my phone nearby. I believe HomeKit also requires apps to have the ability to group devices into rooms, group rooms into floors (or other larger groups), group floors into homes, etc and perform commands on all devices in those defined groups. (Sounds like the new version of the Smartthings App/Hub will only allow you to create rooms.) Also, if a new HomeKit device is released it will automatically work with other home automation products you have. You don’t have to wait for Smartthings to release an official integration or search through forums or github to find custom code to make it work.
Apple does set a high bar for integrating with their technology but it helps ensure devices work they way they are supposed to.
I’ve been using homebridge to connect Smartthings to HomeKit for the past few weeks. It is incredibly convenient to use Siri to control my lights but its far from fully functional. Homebridge doesn’t support all devices, it does support returning the status of devices, it doesn’t allow my wife and I to both control our devices, and most importantly its not reliable. It has to be restarted frequently or if my phone is not connected to our wifi network, it doesn’t function.
I’m also hopeful the new Apple TV which will (hopefully) be released this fall/winter will add some Amazon Echo type features which could make HomeKit even more appealing.
9 Likes
that seems like a pretty harsh assumption…
1 Like
It’s not an assumption, it’s based on observations on this and other forums, where the questions being asked and statements being made by the vast majority of Homekit fans exemplify a partial to a complete miss-understanding of the Homerik eco system and its integration requirements.
3 Likes
Good luck and patience waiting for any platform as open as SmartThings to be fully HomeKit integrated.
Meanwhile, because of the open Platform, we can already integrate, SmartThings with Amazon Echo, The Ubi, and Android voice control.
2 Likes
I think I’m fairly well-educated with regard to HomeKit integration requirements (see my past posts in this forum), and I want HomeKit. I wouldn’t make any particular assumptions about people who express an interest. Just sayin’ 
10 Likes
Hey JD,
I’ve been following all you’re posts and just want to say, you’re pretty awesome and I appreciate your voice in the forums, it’s been a great help. Personally, I’m a big apple fan but since I got my Amazon Echo and started integrating that, I’ve pretty much decided HomeKit is not the way to go for me.
First let me say that our home is open concept and the Echo is centrally located to where, from almost anywhere, I can tell it to turn off the lights and do stuff. While the integration with SmartThings is still a work in progress, it has a lot of potential and promise. Having to search for my phone when I want something done is just not as easy as calling out to Alexa. Especially when my hands are full. My wife likes that we can play music through Alexa as well while we’re cooking. As for talking to the watch, I can see where that could come in handy (like when we’ve got guests and Alexa might no be able to hear me) but that’s a pretty expensive remote. Not to mention the geek factor when people see you talking to your wrist.
Anyway, while I’m not ruling out the use of HomeKit all together, right now My Echo + SmartThings are winning!
4 Likes
I really like the Echo–the farfield recognition is amazing. I also really like my Apple Watch (I use it for voice texts.)
I’m never going to put my door locks on Echo, for obvious reasons. But I might use HomeKit control on the watch with them, for example.
Mostly, though, I want options. (It’s part of what brought me to SmartThings in the first place.) and reliability.
No way to know yet what HomeKit will look like by Summer 2016 when I expect to make a decision about some of my bigger HA projects.
I’m not wedded to HomeKit, but for reasons previously discussed I do have IOS on my tablet and phone, so I might as well see if that gets me anything. 
3 Likes
@hilljon86 have you played around with putting Hello, Home Actions in your iOS Notification Center? I didn’t even know that was a feature until a few months ago. You still have to unlock your phone, but pulling down the notification center is a lot easier than navigating the ST app.
2 Likes
I agree with JD in regards to having the options. HomeKit implementation and the Apple Watch have the potential of being great partners. I, like him, use the voice recognition on the Watch to great extents.
To what hilljon86 said, I can’t really agree with those sentiments. This is quite a statement considering that I’m totally an Apple fanboy. Your idea of what home kit is will officially be crushed when a couple of things happen: 1. You get tired of having your phone close to you at all times.
2. Siri tells you that it needs you to unlock the phone for that function.
The idea of using the Watch is good, since it can potentially bypass the security requirement of unlocking by the simple fact that it’s attached to you (same way that it uses it for Apple Pay). But, as any Watch owner will tell you, it isn’t the fastest way of doing things.
The ideal solution is for open platforms to co-exist. This would allow for you to use HomeKit for some things, Alexa for others, and use the tablet on the wall for even more things. This is the beauty of this platform. In opinion, it’s something that Amazon seems to have noticed also. Look at the integration with Wink and Alexa. I wouldn’t be surprised that they essentially used the work that one developer started and just implemented it to their software. It’s what SmartThings has done with a LOT of their Smartapps.
Anyways, just my honest opinion. For me, one of the biggest reasons for wanting V2 is for the speed aspect of things.
5 Likes
I was able to get an iPad mini for $99 on a promotion and this is now my dedicated HA manager. It is plugged in all the time, which means I can use “Hey Siri” handsfree. It’s my iBeacon receiving station, runs Harmony, Smart
Tiles, the Echo app and a couple of Philips apps.
Since it will run IOS 9, it should be OK with HomeKit as well. As my HomeKit center, it would give me handsfree voice control, although it doesn’t cover as much space as the Echo.
So my HomeKit expectations are that I will use HomeKit with the watch and the tablet control center, not the phone.
We’ll see what actually gets delivered.
2 Likes
Good luck finding a better solution. And, please, if you do, come back here and share it with us.
3 Likes
[quote=“Jsalicru, post:734, topic:5146”]
The ideal solution is for open platforms to co-exist.
[/quote]http://media4.giphy.com/media/YIcca82tH5ba/giphy.gif
5 Likes
Siri integration would be nice, but nicer for me is no intervention at all to control my home. Setting it up so things automatically happen based on events and triggers is what I aspire to. The whole opening a phone, starting an app, and tapping is a straw-man argument at this point and a tired one. No one is saying that is an ideal.
9 Likes