myHome Plus

myHome gets in before Home

Free Developer Vicinno Soft, new.vicinno.com Platform Universal, watchOS Requirements iOS 9 or later

Thanks to HomeKit, the dream of a true connected household inches closer to reality. But until iOS 10 arrives this fall, there’s no central app for controlling all of your HomeKit accessories from a single place – and if you also happen to have Nest or WeMo devices, you’ll wind up having even more apps on your screen.

myHome Plus promises to bring sanity to this madness with a free app that allows an entire home to be controlled from a central hub, with your most important accessories controlled via Notification Center or the Apple Watch on your wrist. Many official apps from manufacturers of HomeKit-compliant hardware lack this crucial piece of the puzzle, but this app delivers.

The app fully supports all HomeKit features including Scenes, Triggers, Multiple Users, Remote Access, Rooms, and Zones, but there are in-app upgrades available to bring supported Nest and WeMo devices into the fold as well. You can also configure devices into Service Groups, which is a great way to flip on only certain lights or other devices in a particular room, rather than everything at once.

Although it’s hard to pick faults with a free app such as this, myHome Plus could benefit from a tutorial or in-app user guide to help first-timers get up and running. We’d also love to see additional device support, specifically LIFX smart bulbs and Zuli smart plugs. Without such comprehensive, wide-ranging support, myHome Plus is a step in the right direction, but not yet the “one app to rule them all” for your smart home.

the bottom line. Can’t wait for the Home app? myHome Plus makes it easy to control your entire smart home from a single app right now, assuming you stick to HomeKit, Nest, and WeMo devices.