Best application for HomeKit in 2022

When It’s only a few months before Matter’s release. It may be crazy to try to say what the best application for HomeKit is because, it seems, it is possible that with the new version of the Apple operating system, iOS 16, a new renovated and more functional House application will be presented. I wish it were, but for now There are already several manufacturers integrating the threat technology into their devices and not all current applications are able to manage these devices, so today I wanted to tell you what for me is the best application for HomeKit right now. Let’s look at the different alternatives.

And then I’ll tell you what my favorite is and why.

Go ahead that I didn’t find the application PER-FEC-TA They’re all missing something! At this time I combine 2 of them, one as’ visualizer ‘and the other to create automations and detect possible problems. Besides, you know that I am a firm advocate that the house will react alone under certain circumstances.… if I enter home when there is no one and it is at night, for I hope that some light will be turned on automatically so as not to go into the dark… but if it is at night, there is no one and I do not enter, for I obviously want nothing to be turned on, that at the price of the light one cannot walk with nonsense. The same for the temperature, if there is

someone at home and it’s very cold, I hope the boiler gets on… but if there’s no one at home because we’re going to spend the weekend in Valencia, because it doesn’t make sense to keep the house warm… that is, that I don’t want to go around opening an app to interact with the house or to voice the voice assistant light the bathroom light., so I actually just need an app that works well and allows me to create all the automations I need.

Aqara app vs Mi Home app

You didn’t expect the Aqara and Xiaomi app in this comparison, did you? Well, I have to say one thing about them… They’re very nice and they work perfectly.! If all your devices are from Aqara and you have the Aqara bridge compatible with HomeKit, you can create automations from both the Aqara / Mi Home app and from Home or any other app. But… which one is better? Let’s see it.

A few years ago, the people of Xiaomi created the Aqara brand to separate their division of domotics or the connected home from the rest of devices. Until then we could only use the My Home app. Obviously when the Aqara app reached the stores it was not yet fully mature and there were things it could not do, such as setting up the bridge’s alarm function. When I bought the first bridge of Aqara, I used the My Home app precisely for this.… but today the Aqara app has evolved perfectly and there are no longer great differences in functionalities.

My Home supports many more devices, since the Aqara app focuses on the Aqara and some Xiaomi devices… but My Home supports the Aqara, Xiaomi, Mija, Yeelight… a lot of additional devices to create automations with. For example, If you want to add an air purifier (already, I don’t understand it either, but there are countries that use this move a lot, it will be their air is bad), in the Aqara app you will find 2 models while in My Home you are 13 at this time. Of course in the basics you will not find differences, and much less if all your devices are purchased in Europe b

in Amazon or Apple Store (which in case you didn’t know has sensors and Aqara devices in the House section)But there are some things to consider.

Although the new Aqara gridges are certified Zigbee 3.0, remember that you cannot add sensors or bulbs other than Aqara, Xiaomi or associated. There are some compatible Philips bulbs out there, but they’re not even compatible with HomeKit, ‘they don’t leave’ from the Aqara bridge… that It’s the same thing that happens with the Philips Hue app and Ikea’s TrÄdfri bulbs… they can ‘match’ through the Hue bridge and see them on their app but they don’t ‘come out’ from here and you won’t see them in Apple’s House app. for example.

You may think this doesn’t affect you, but for example. We couldn’t use Eve’s door opening sensor (which is compatible with Thread) to fire the alarm of the Aqara bridge! We could do it from HomeKit by creating an automation that I took into account when we’re not home. even get the sound out of the HomePod alarm as we talked a few weeks ago., But in the Aqara app you can’t put the alarm trigger to the Eve door opening sensor < /

strong >.

I like the Aqara app better.. I find it very pretty, clear and visual, you can see sensor graphics to see how many times your door has opened in the last week or the average temperature of the sensors… but it’s also that has a functionality called HomeKit Mode that allows to make ‘login’ of the application and see all the sensors you have included in Home. This means you can’t create automations, see the graphics or any of this, simply the bridge becomes just that, a bridge or bridge between the devices and the home app… but it’s actually what we need almost all!

> This functionality I like very much, allows you to even uninstall the Aqara app if you are not going to add new Aqara / Xiaomi devices to your network in the coming months.

Home + v5

You know that I’ve always been a very fan of the Home + v5 application.. Your 15 euro I found it super justified as soon as I started creating the automations from this application. Not just us. allows to create conditioned automations in a fast and MUSIC way more COMPRENSIBLE than it does shortcuts but we can also duplicate and organize all these automated folders. So for example, I have all the automations for the switches inside a folder called the Switches, which makes that when I need to modify one I should not move into a huge list.

The implementation aspect is also well achieved It looks a little like Apple’s house app… but it’s not the typical application we’d have on an iPad anchored on the wall. It’s not as friendly and with an interface as clean as House where everything looks much clearer. I could play the part, but it’s not that pretty. Still, it allows us to change the background, the icons of the device in question (it has many very well designed icons)… is a good alternative to the Home App and a serious candidate to become the best application for HomeKit in this 2022… but no Thread, no third-party devices…

And also your developer has become an idiot, every time we address him to inform you about something or ask you for some functionality, he answers us from his ivory tower as doing us a favor… when it’s actually us who have paid for that ivory tower from 15 in 15 euros! Anyway. As a single developer and not a team, the advances and changes in that application are slower than in the rest and are being left a little behind.

With Home + v5 is also possible to create an Automation Backup, was the first app to implement this, so if we have to restore for any reason (once I wanted to remove some rules and I removed those that were not… because I restate backup and so I don’t have to recreate them) you just have to pull back up.

Ah, and the Apple Watch app allows us to send to the clock only the devices we use most often, so we avoid having a huge list on which to move until we reach the device we want to turn on.

Controller for HomeKit

I recognize that Controller for HomeKit has won my heart. I tried it for the first time years ago because it has’ Log ‘of actions, so I tried it to see what information it offered and if I could know for example which of my children had been up at night and had done poop without pulling the chain (it happens to me a lot).

It’s actually a Log of events similar to what the Aqara app we’ve talked about before does, it’s not a Log to use as we can imagine IT people… but it does its part.

Like Home +, allows us to create advanced automations in a very simple way, with conditions that must be met all or only one of them (AND and OR) and above it allows to create an automation for any event of a switch, whether we do a long, double-click or whatever… with any event the action is going to run.

Another interesting function is the ‘Maintenance’ module where the app detects rare things… for example if you have duplicate names (the voice assistant this will not like), if you have empty or deactivated automations, errors in some device, low batteries… all this is going to be on the maintenance screen in an orderly manner. It has served me on several occasions to detect problems.

In addition and just like Home + allows you to backup your settings and automations to be able to restore in case of Panic.

But… _. As a good ‘beta-testar’, I paid the subscription that allowed me to customize icons and screens… I hoped that I would let me personalize it and make it pretty and I don’t know, maybe replace the home app… but not even of cunt, it’s only able to show the accessories in ready mode with a small icon next to it… it can come well for the management of automations and so on, but of course it’s not friendly and we can’t put it on a wall iPad.

Eve

This year’s big surprise.! The last time I tried Eve’s app was when I was testing her devices. I came to hate the intelligent plug that lit and turned off my boiler because it was connected by Bluetooth and spent life without connection.

The thing is, he’s aged pretty well, is very customizable, pretty, with a lot of colors and information (not icons) And you can create an initial screen with the favorites. No, he can’t replace the House app… but it’s functional.

You can create complex automations in a simple way and with AND and OR conditions, but it is not able to set the condition ‘with any type of push’ on a switch You have already seen that it is fundamental to me. Too bad.

Nor does it allow the creation of a backup or error detection. So Carlos, why did you say it’s this year’s big surprise? Because she’s the only one Show us our network of Thread devices!!

It actually goes with advantage as it is of the few manufacturers (along with Nanoleaf) who have Thread devices, but the case is that I like to see what devices I have connected by Thread and so know that they behave more efficiently than the rest… and that they are compatible with Matter, of course. It’s no use, I can’t change a device to be the border router of the network or things like that, but it shows us enough information to know if the network is working well.

Apple House

And finally we have the Apple House app. It bothers me that so many functionalities are missing but that it’s so pretty. Since it’s the one I want to have all day in sight and the one I’d put on an iPad on the wall. It bothers me that the automations are slower than in the others, that you have to go to shortcuts to create conditions, that the conditions based on a slot are A SUPPLICIO PUT because you have to bring your time in seconds and turn it… but it’s really pretty!! In Home is all computer and in sight, the mosaic-shaped accessories have the perfect size, the wallpaper is to configure you, the icon also (okay, there are s

Io 5 to choose from… but there are 5 more than the ones that Controller offers if you don’t pay and 5 more than Eve has).

Not to mention integration with the ecosystem. A couple of versions ago, in the Apple Watch Home app, you were getting all the devices out there to get a concrete one, you had to go through the list up and down. Now you can define the favorites and also create ‘smart’ favorites with the devices you use most. On the other hand we have the integration with the Apple TV, where if you’re watching a movie and someone plays the smart doorbell, you get a little window in a corner of the TV with the doorbell image… and if you recognize the face tells you who it is! It still has some multi-device deficiencies, for example not being honest.

They onize the wallpapers, the device mosaic on the Mac is absurdly small and things like that… but for the rest it’s a very ‘usable’ app.

If you don’t need Log, no backup (devices and rules are stored on iCloud, but for example you can’t restore a deleted rule by pulling back), nor do you want to create complex automations that take into account various conditions, and you don’t care if a device is connected using threat, wifi or bluetooth… you’ll love House.

So, which one do I use?

As you can see, they all fail in something for different reasons, but There are limitations imposed by Apple against which they cannot fight. For example, Apple’s own devices such as HomePod and Apple TV do not come out of the Home app, you can’t control them from any third party app… so the rules that involve these devices have to be done from Home yes or yes. Well, or from shortcuts, but you can’t have them all centralized in one place anymore.

Also, remember that Third party apps cannot execute an action on a device but must create a scene… and that the scenes in HomeKit are limited to 100! So if you have a lot of devices or your hand’s gone with the automations, you’re likely to reach that limit.

On the other hand, Eve’s app is the only one right now that shows us information about the Thread network. In Controller for HomeKit you can see if the device is connected using Thread, Bluetooth, Zigbee or Wifi, but for this you have to enter the properties of the device, it does not show it as visually as Eve.

So as you could have intubated, I still use the Home app for day to day. Since in my day-to-day there is no longer the creation of rules every 2×3 since I have reached a more or less stable level of maturity, that I have no new devices every few days and that I know perfectly how to connect each of my devices, I stay with the beauty of the Home app and its ease of use.

However, When I have to mess with some rule or I want to create some new automation, then I use Controller for HomeKit. But only then, only at that time, I don’t open it again, or look at logs or milk if I don’t have to create a new automation.

The rest of the manufacturer apps like the Nanoleaf app, Koogeek, Aqara, etc. I don’t even have them installed.! I install them if I have to release any new devices and then I’ll take them. And that Nanoleaf app also shows you information about your Thread network (and it shows me 2, the one that creates the Eero and the one that created the devices for themselves before it enabled the Thread support in the Eero)… but it doesn’t bring anything else, it doesn’t have any use beyond adding new light bulbs and changing the brightness and color.