>The shift
After a slow start, says David Chartier, Apple’s HomeKit technology finally looks to be on course to make our homes smarter
Controlling your home with the mere sound of your voice has always looked cool on screen, but felt far away. Until recently, most “smart” tech gadgets were anything but. That might finally change soon, thanks to Apple’s HomeKit technology. After a mixed launch and a slow start, the platform is shaping up to put the “art” in “smart home.”
Apple launched HomeKit in 2014 as a platform for smart home appliances. The idea was to make it easier for companies to build smart gadgets, from doorbells to dishwashers, and HomeKit would make it easy for us to integrate and control it all with Siri and apps on our iPhone and iPad. I have some HomeKit-friendly LED lights, a home security camera, and a doorbell I plan to install soon.
Everything works together pretty well, but HomeKit had some stumbling blocks at first. Apple had high security requirements and long review times (sometimes up to five months), hampering adoption by manufacturers. They had to buy a custom authentication chip from Apple, and users never had a place to go learn about and try HomeKit devices. Finally, there was no single dashboard to set up and manage your HomeKit stuff. This left us to the whims of thirdparty manufacturers, who are often bad at building quality apps to manage their gadgets.
In the last few years, HomeKit has made big strides. In iOS 10 in 2016, Apple debuted its Home app — a unified dashboard all certified HomeKit devices must support. It was a strong step towards showing us regular folks the what, why, and how of HomeKit’s potential.
With iOS 11 last year, Apple slashed both the cost of building HomeKit devices and its review time for certification, while still maintaining its high standards of security and privacy. Industry reaction was great, and a variety of companies like IKEA, Netamo, LIFX, and Logitech were quick to announce HomeKit adoption in new products, and occasionally in existing ones (through a free firmware update). The 2017 holiday season saw HomeKit devices “suddenly booming,” to quote The Verge, and January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas saw its fair share of HomeKit debuts.
Perhaps key to HomeKit’s future success is Apple walking the walk in its own stores: A renovated layout for existing stores and new ones includes a dedicated HomeKit section with working demo units, products for sale, and staff trained on the ecosystem.
Add it all up, and the next year or two are shaping up very well for HomeKit. With both the industry and Apple throwing more weight behind this matured, accessible ecosystem, you may finally be able to make your house a HomeKit.