At WWDC last summer Apple introduced HomeKit, the iOS 8 framework to communicate with connected devices in your home. Unfortunately half a year later asking Siri to turn off my lights doesn’t have the desired effect yet.
So far there is no actual hardware available with HomeKit support. However this is about to change quickly.
Upcoming hardware
Just this week a number of products with support for HomeKit have been announced already. These include:
- A HomeKit enabled plug by iDevices
- Elgato Eve
- Insteon HomeKit-enabled App & Hub
- Incipio HomeKit compatible automation solutions
- Zendo
- Schlage Sense smartlock
- iSP5 SmartPlug by iHome
- Tempo Environment Monitor
- Withings Home camera & sensor
- Honeywell Lyric Thermostat & security
It’s likely more announcements will be published because of the ongoing CES conference in Las Vegas. (I’ll make sure to keep the above list up to date).
Personally I’m still eagerly awaiting Philips Hue to adopt HomeKit.
DIY
Can’t wait for official hardware support for HomeKit? There are several efforts to bring HomeKit to any (programmable) hardware. These projects implement a HomeKit accessory bridge by reverse engineering the HomeKit accessory protocol that works over Wifi and Bluetooth LE. Use at your own risk.
- Hap-NodeJS - a homekit accessory server implemented in Node.js
- HomeControl - a homekit bridge written in Go
- HomeKitBridge - hook up existing devices to HomeKit from your Mac.