It’s worth wondering if we’d be further along in our quest for the ultimate smart home if we had never called it a Smart Home.
The idea that an entire dwelling could achieve something approaching sentience in one-fell swoop was always ludicrous. While our homes represent a singular idea, they're comprised of a million competing ones. Invariably it’s a hodgepodge, an eclectic mix of design, decor, gadgets and interfaces.
We buy what we like and what we think will fill a utility gap. The refrigerator is purchased for one reason, while the electric stove is for another. Our dish washing machine might be from Kenmore while our clothes dryer is from Samsung.
We buy one set of shades for one room and a different set for another.
In the early days of the smart home revolution, manufacturers tried to sell consumers on a cohesive idea: turnkey systems installed by professionals with a centrally managed interface that only a Mensa candidate could figure out.
Nest’s success paved the way for other connected home devices like locks, security cameras and smart bulbs. Many worked like Nest, little beacons of intelligence in a home full of dumb, disconnected devices.
Not only were they expensive, they asked home owners to do something they almost never do: change everything at once (unless they sell their dwelling and move).
Smart devices and Internet of things gadgets, on the other hand, came in the side door. None trumpeted life-altering technology for the whole home. Instead, they’ve been fairly discrete problem solvers.
Clearly, Alphabet’s (Google) Nest has been a part of this side action. It set out to solve home climate control and make it more 21st century. Plugging into the existing home Wi-Fi network without asking for any adjustment was brilliant. This was smart home technology for everybody without the bold-faced Smart Home.
Nest’s success paved the way for other connected home devices like locks, security cameras and smart bulbs. Many worked like Nest, little beacons of intelligence in a home full of dumb, disconnected devices.
Some companies have added hubs (like Wink) and made an effort to tie some of these disparate products together. Amazon has slowly transformed the Alexa-sporting Echo into a smart device hub, though there a limits to what you can do with voice alone. Meanwhile Nest has tried to expand its reach by acknowledging that the thermostat they sold you is also a hub and finally consolidating its thermostat, web cams and smoke detectors into one app.
More often than not, though, consumers have been adding a bunch of connected devices and using multiple apps to manage and control them. And like all those TV remotes piling up on the arm of your couch, the situation is getting out of hand.
Enter Apple
Apple’s entry into the smart home space was, by some measures, late and halting, especially when you compare it to competitors'. There's Nest's steady expansion and even Google first started testing the home automation waters back in 2011 with Android@Home. Of course, Google dropped that strategy almost as soon as it launched it. Google’s new smart home strategy is only slightly more focused. The company launched a Google Home smart hub at this year’s I/O, which, though working with Nest products, was not built by Alphabet’s own Nest company.
Apple’s introduction of the HomeKit API in 2014 signaled its intention to enter the smart home market, but the lack of supporting hardware products and a consumer front-end seemed to seriously handicap its chances for success.
It would be almost two years and another World Wide Developers Conference before Apple would have enough products and, finally, a consumer-facing app it called, naturally, Home.
This could be a very important moment for Apple and for smart homes in general
This could be a very important moment for Apple and for smart homes in general, what some see as a true inflection point — the coalescing of vision, products and control into that almost forgotten Smart Home ideal.
The fact that this is happening now and not two years ago may actually be according to plan. Apple's execs tell me they started mapping out the company's smart home vision three years ago.
This strategy for smart home dominance has at least three key phases or steps (I assume there are more since Apple is about to roll out Step 3).
Step-by-step
Step 1 was, naturally, the API. Apple had some very specific ideas about how connected devices should work and, at the top of the company's list, was security. As a result, whatever Apple built could not simply integrate with existing hubs and smart devices. It had to build a platform and then convince third-party companies to build to it. Not only did this entail programming, but Apple was also requiring the integration of secure hardware for end-to-end encryption.
Put simply, Apple’s goal with the Smart Home was, it seems, to be the anti-Google (or Nest). No cloud-based services, no surreptitious data gathering to learn more about your habits. Nothing would leave the confines of the accessory-Apple HomeKit relationship.
That requirement, though, put a serious damper on Apple’s progress and made it, for a time, look as if it was standing still in the smart home race. HomeKit was this interesting idea that had no real visibility in the home.
Getting companies to build and reengineer for HomeKit compatibility became Step 2. And it’s been fairly successful. By the end of this year, there should be 100-HomeKit compatible devices (in stores, you’ll see the special logo on the product packaging).
And now we’re about to witness Step 3, which is probably the most important step of all.
Apple’s Home vision
When Apple at WWDC 2016 unveiled Apple Home, which is part of iOS 10, tvOS 2 and watchOS 3, there was almost an audible sigh of relief from the assembled developers, some of whom had been laboring on HomeKit compatible devices for the better part of a year. Apple’s Smart Home Vision finally came into focus.
Even so, we didn’t see much of how the system would work or entirely understand Apple TV’s hub-like role in the new HomeKit-backed system.
Now, as Apple prepares to release its updated mobile and TV platforms, it’s giving us some glimpses of how an ultra-simple home device management software hub could work and enhance your existing smart home platform. Seeing it at work is a little like the realization of a long-ago, nearly forgotten dream.
It’s true, this is an invite-only kind of system. Without that HomeKit logo and the encryption technology underneath, you don’t get to play in the Apple Home space -- for the most part. You see, you could buy a connected plug and plug in any dumb-as-a-post device and control it at a very basic level. Think of a fan plugged into a HomeKit-compatible smart plug. You can turn it on and off with Apple Home, but you can’t control the speed.
Where things get really interesting, though is Scenes.
Where Apple Home will really shine, though, is in its simplicity.
Current connected and smart devices run the gamut from near-plug-and play setup (think Nest) to pure pain and frustration.
HomeKit devices will be nothing if not consistent. Apple’s relying on its old-school Bonjour network technology to automatically discover any powered-up HomeKit device. Home, which will have apps for the iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch (you can only add devices through the first two), will see them, and even share your Wi-Fi network credentials (typically a real smart device installation pain point). Then you scan the code that comes with every HomeKit device (yes, you can use the iPad or iPhone camera), and the device is part of your Home network of smart devices. After that, you just have to enter the name of the device and assign it to a room.
We have a handful of HomeKit-ready devices in the offices and an iPhone running iOS 10 Beta 5. So I gave Apple Home a little set-up test drive. The app requires you turn on Apple’s Keychain password management feature, which is something I honestly never use (I had to remember an old passcode and authenticate via a texted pin number). After that, Keychain faded back into the background and I did not have to access it again.
After that, I launched Home, plugged in a pair of smart plugs, which Home found immediately. The app guided me through scanning the HomeKit code on each one and pairing took about 15 seconds. Then I just assigned them to a room and I was done. I could actually turn them on and off my tapping the accessory icon. Nice and simple.
Set the scene
The Home iPad interface offers ample real estate for accessory boxes, each with an icon to illustrate what it is and its current state. A smart ceiling fan that’s spinning (Hunter, by the way, just became a HomeKit partner) will show a spinning fan icon. The app front-loads your favorite devices, but you can also view all your devices on the Rooms tab. This might be the more popular tab since we tend to spend time in one room or another.
Where things get really interesting, though is Scenes. Though not a new concept to the smart home space, it might never get easier than this to create a smart home scene. Home lets you create a scene based on the current state of all the devices you add to it and/or customize the settings for each device in a scene.
Triggering scenes can be done through the app or Apple’s AI assistant, Siri. So you could tell Siri on your Apple Watch or iOS devices “I’m home,” which is the phrase that triggers the scene that turns on your lights, lowers the room temperature and, perhaps, turns on the TV.
Scenes can also be triggered by activity on other HomeKit devices. Imagine there’s a light you always turn on when you enter your home (this is something we do in my home). That light could be the signal to run the whole “I’m Home” scene or another scene, which then triggers all the other HomeKit devices and the actions tied to the Lance arrives home scenario.
Inside Out
Apple Home works while you’re inside the home, which is great, but I know that I usually check my Nest Cam and even adjust my Nest thermostat when I’m miles away from home.
Apple tasks your Apple TV, if you have one, or an iPad that you can leave behind when you head out, to act as a secure communication hub for HomeKit devices. So instead of talking to a connected devices’ cloud service or sending commands through the Internet unsecured. Apple wants to maintain the encrypted communication pipeline through its devices.
This also enables features like proximity-triggered events and scenes: “Open the garage doors when I arrive home.” “Unlock the front door when I reach my doorstep.” (I don’t know if the triggers can be that precise, but that’s how I’d like to see them work.)
Home and HomeKit can work with other hubs and pass commands along to them, as long as they include the requisite security hardware (basically HomeKit approved). That’s the good news. The bad news is that many existing hubs, like Samsung SmartThings and the Wink hubs currently controlling the Phillips Hue lighting in people’s homes, are not HomeKit compatible. A FAQ on Wink’s Web site indicates that they are considering HomeKit support.
That Apple TV connection goes beyond just being a Hub. With its Siri remote integration, it can be an active member of the Home family, Telling the Siri remote that “It’s Movie Night” could lower the shades and dim the lights. it won’t help you agree on an iTunes movie, though.
Where’s Nest
Adding devices, creating rooms, adjusting settings. It all seems so simple, but there remains a fly in the ointment. Nest, the company that really got the smart home ball rolling, is not building HomeKit compatible devices. In addition, its parent company, Google, has not announced plans to support HomeKit on its Google Home Hub.
Nest's rejection must be especially galling to Apple. A number of people, including former CEO and founder Tony Fadell (who left the company in June) came from Apple. Apple continues to discuss HomeKit with them – even just weeks away from the Apple Home release -- but there’s no indication that anything will change.
Consumers probably don’t care about the squabble, but they do worry about compatibility. Without some agreement on platform and, probably, security from Google, Nest, Samsung, Wink and others in the IoT space, the exciting Smart Home future of our dreams may always be just out of reach.
Topics Apple
