Elgato Eve Button

Control the mood at home

$49.95 From Elgato, elgato.com Features Bluetooth LE, CR2032 battery

Without Hey Siri, you have to tap your iPhone or iPad to control HomeKit. That, or buy a programmable remote that can invoke a limited number of actions.

Eve Button has an advantage over its rivals: it doesn’t need a bridge (and a plug socket) to talk with Apple’s tech.

In the Eve or Home app, you can set what happens for a single press, double-press and long press. Each can activate one or more scenes, set the state of accessories, or a combo of those. We noticed a pause between pressing the button and getting results. It wasn’t long, just not instant.

We set the button to light up our living room when clicked, a double-press to do the same in our hallway, and a long press to turn off all lights and our HomeKit-connected power switches — great when heading to work or to bed.

The button itself is competitively priced, though not cheap. Still, we quickly grew to appreciate it as a fixture near our home’s entrance (though it’s designed to be portable). Just bear in mind you need an Apple TV with tvOS 11 or an iPad set as your home hub for it to work properly.

the bottom line. A practical HomeKit add-on, but like many rivals it’s a bit costly. Elgato Eve Button Nothing to plug in Easily portable A bit pricey Needs a HomeKit hub Solid