5 Reasons WHY HomeKit Automations are the BEST!

[@myHomeKithome]

I absolutely love automations based on people arriving and leaving not just from the home, but from other places my family visits regularly. This is great to simply keep tabs on whether someone made it to their destinations. Good stuff!

[@DeriqueDeCoux]

The number one reason I switched is that Apple at least SEEMS concerned with privacy and protecting my data. The second reason is HomeKit secure video. I don’t want to pay 3-6 different companies to use their servers.

[@faengelm]

Great video. "When an accessory is controlled" is a great trigger. I also like "repeat", "AND/OR" and "variables" in shortcuts

[@CraigsTechTalk]

Hey Frank, I am sorry that I had not respond. The accessory control is so nice. It’s crazy how much you can do in shortcuts. I have not even got into variables. Thanks frank for being a channel member. Have a great day.

[@misstubbie1313]

When I started my Homekit smart home my first purchase were some Meross lightbulbs and plugs. My first automation was setting my house entrance lights to turn on when I arrive after dark. I have changed to Philips Hue since but oh man…It works like magic! And it feels like magic too!

[@BR7Fan71]

I'm definitely switching to apple. The last time I had an apple phone,was when Apple 3 was out. I turned to Android since then. I definitely was a Android fan boy and couldn't care less what Apple was doing. I ran across a home kit video and learned about thread devices. I was amazed by what Apple was doing with their products. I was going to pick up the 13 pro,but decided to wait for 14 pro.

[@CraigsTechTalk]

Very cool. You have been away from the iPhone for a while. Welcome back. I hope you enjoy the switch. Apple is doing some good stuff and looks to be more interested in growing the smart home.

[@philf_]

After I purchased a pair of HomePod minis last November, I started using Siri for some tasks: the ones that do multiple things like “Living Room On” that turns lights on as well as my TV and Apple TV. And I also use it for my theater experience with lights set for “Cinema”, “Intermission”, and “End Credits”. The mics on HomePod mini are great. They can hear me in the next room. I’ve been at odds with Alexa. I constantly have to repeat myself even a few feet from the Echo device.

[@anom6707]

If you don’t have an Apple TV, definitely get that, great for watching stuff. I got an Aqara FP2 and it’s amazing. I’ve automated it so as soon as I sit down it automatically dims the light, and once I get up and walk away it pauses the content and brightness the light. It is a bit pricy and annoying to setup, but it works like magic once it gets going.

[@charles9860]

Hello Craig!, Do you know why location based (When people leave) doesnt trigger in home app?

[@Dr_Cole]

Ok, apparently it’s comedy Sunday. You and The Brad Loyd injected some unexpected comedy today and I loved it. Music for trying in clothes… My favorite automation is that I placed an Aqara vibration sensor within my mailbox and when it is triggered it plays the infamous “You’ve got mail” sound bite on all of my HomePod Minies throughout the house (limited to appropriate times of the day).

[@devinjohnson44]

Will the NFC tags work when you put your Apple Watch next to it also?

[@BenjaminCutting]

As always, super helpful! Been so educated on all things HomeKit since subscribing- thank you!

[@CraigsTechTalk]

Thank you very much Benjamin. I appreciate you watching. Glad to help.

[@RODRIGOROMERO-mh2bb]

Hi Craig, I love your videos, could you or would you do in the future a list of home kit devices sold by Amazon MX? I noticed not all the devices you selected in your list can be ship to MX. Thanks!

[@CraigsTechTalk]

Hello, thank you very much. I am glad your enjoying the videos. Thank you for the suggestion and for watching.

[@markwilliams6310]

Thanks for your great video I recently switching over to HomeKit I was curious which iPad you were using in the video.

[@CraigsTechTalk]

Thank you Mark. Congratulations on the switch. I hope it is going well. I am using the 2018 iPad Pro. It is still a beast, but will probably upgrade this year. Thanks for watching.

[@longnang]

Is it possible to add Arlo pro 4 to HomeKit?

[@jgirizarry]

I am very interested in moving to Apple home kit. I have been using Google Home since 2019 and it is limited, slow and I am tired of using the voice most of the time. I want to install sensors around the house. I currently have 7 google assistants, three displays and 4 mini’s. I do like the displays, specially in the kitchen and office, but I want to be able to do more automations and use NFC tags.

[@nickpanzeca7640]

Another great video. Several of these I already use and love!

[@lukedavidson81]

I recently bought a house and I want to get into an ecosystem but I’m having a hard time deciding from Google and HomeKit, I really want HomeKit because of the app, shortcuts, and since I have an iPhone, Apple Watch, MacBook, etc. But I want to get Google because I want to have the hubs in rooms to monitor my cameras, the previous owner left a nest doorbell and I was planning on getting Sony tvs that have built in Google tv. What do you guys think is the better option for me haha anything helps thanks!

[@SpaceStrike]

I would say you could get some light bulbs(and switches) that are HomeKit enabled so you can use shortcuts, but have google speakers and neat hubs for voice commands and for the doorbell. If you get an Amazon Firestick, you can have any Ring Amazon Doorbell automatically show up on your TV when it’s pressed!

[@staticsong]

Sony TVs support HomeKit as well - can't do much more than turn the TV on and set the input, but it is pretty nice to integrate it into automations. I recently switched everything to HomeKit as well and would highly recommend it. There are so many more devices that support HomeKit these days than a couple years ago.

[@1607trojan]

We are an Apple home and recently upgraded our doorbell to a Logitech HomeKit. We get doorbell rings alerts on our mini HomePod and all our TV’s shows the live doorbell thru Apple TV, so no need to look at our phones or pads.

[@anom6707]

@iunstable0 scrypted is also great. Not sure if it supports nest.

[@garethjones5068]

Shortcuts is a killer extension to the native HomeKit capabilities & that to me is that separates it from Alexa or Google Home for automation

[@AntonKrall]

Craig, all the devices shown on your automation are 100% homekit compatible or are you using homebridge for using amazon compatible devies on homekit?

[@ignatiusatenikang788]

Do I have to set up family account for me and my wife or these can work for different accounts, I mean the routine and nfc tags

[@CraigsTechTalk]

You would invite your wife to be part of the household. I don’t think it even needs to be someone in a family icloud account. it need be just an invited member to the house. Once you send an invite and she is part of the home, you would go on her phone and write personal automations for the NFC tags. On your phone the personal automations can read the same tag and trigger a completely different automation.

[@ignatiusatenikang788]

@@CraigsTechTalk thanks

[@davemestes]

Having issues with HomePod mini switching to music while tv is on. How do I prevent this?

[@jharsh3376]

I agree and as a iPhone using family, if I could start all over I’d probably go the HomeKit route. I’m so deep into ST and Amazon that it’s too late to turn back unless you know of a good way to integrate the two? I’ve looked at hoobs but it seems to be very buggy. When I first started hearing about matter and that the big three were involved, I was hoping they play together but no such luck although I think it’ll be most useful for google and apple. Not ST and Amazon. Thanks for sharing, all your videos are great.

[@bobbertels959]

Link to NFC tags you demonstrated??

[@MrB8boy]

What NFC stickers do you recommend?

[@xarm2]

I tried using when arriving/when leaving feature with my Meross garage opener and it doesn’t work. If anyone knows how to set up please help.

[@viigraphix]

anyone know why my Automations for "When I leave/Arrive Home" dont work with my Level Bolt Lock? I've gone through all my settings and enabled everything and it still doesnt work through Homekit. Siri and button presses work, but not automations

[@CesarGamino]

No affiliate link for NFC tag?

[@holmesphillip]

Good information, thank you

[@BMar1andonly]

One thing I’ve noticed Homekit exclusive accessories draw more power. Example: Ring Doorbell Pro worked fine, but when using Wemo or logictech nadda. I had to beef up my transformer to get enough power. I have wall mounted lamps with dimmer switches. Bulbs like hue or VOCOlinc work great. Switched one out for the Homekit exclusive Nanoleaf and immediate flicker. It wasn’t getting enough power. So for whatever reason non-Homekit or universal accessories manage power much better. That said Homekit is much more adaptable and reliable compared to Alexa or Google.

[@bagrubmeister4973]

Hi Craig, another great video! Like you said last week you can't just have one assistant. I am integrating HomeKit into my flow. You are correct HomeKit does have a lot of cool things that the other assistance don't have. But Alexa can do things apple can't right now. I hope apple get moving a little faster here because I am an apple guy. So I am using Alexa and hpomekit and like you said Ring is best just using that in its own app. I just don't know why they can't all get along and just make things work together.

[@jjones8587]

Will the Apple Watch trigger NFC tags?

[@CraigsTechTalk]

No they will not unfortunately

[@jedwardoo]

Does the NFC tags work with  Watch too or only via iPhones only?

[@BMar1andonly]

I’ve been asking for Apple Watch support for years. Unfortunately it’s only with the phone. It’s a nice novelty thing, but I dabbled and ultimately ended up just using buttons like Aqara’s for $15. Once I can use my Apple Watch like I did at Disney World for my tickets, just raise and scan no double click like Apple Pay, I’ll revisit NFC tags.

[@jedwardoo]

@@BMar1andonly 😢

[@BMar1andonly]

@@jedwardoo it is funny to place the NFC stickers on the back of photographs and place them back in the frames. My wife always gave me strange looks as I raised my phone to a family photo on the wall and my nighttime scene would run, lol.

[@jedwardoo]

@@BMar1andonly OMG! That’s a neat and super hilarious placement!!! 🤣🤣🤣

[@ronm6585]

Thank you.

[@CraigsTechTalk]

Thank you Ron for your support and checking out the video.

[@VVARDEYN]

Hey Craig, I've been banging my head against the wall trying to create what seems like the simplest of automations - it's a contact sensor for a door, which I would have turn on the lights when it opens, and what I'm trying to figure out is whether it's possible to create a second automation which turns the lights off whenever the door opens and the lights inside are on. Seems so simple yet I can't quite make it work...

[@GreeniusGenius]

When you make the automation, and set the trigger to be the door sensor, tap the convert to shortcut button, and then use an if statement, and then check if the light you want is on, and then turn it off, and under the else part, turn the light on.

[@VVARDEYN]

@@GreeniusGenius problem with that is that whenever I open the door nothing happens because both options trigger - when the lights are off it turns them on and because of that it turns them back off, which gets it stuck in a loop and glitches out. I managed to make it work through Controller by creating 2 automations - a normal one to turn the lights on when the door is opened, and another one to turn them off if they're on. For whatever reason running this as a shortcut makes it negate itself, but running it as a conditional automation doesn't.

[@GreeniusGenius]

@@VVARDEYN I think there is some kind of end or exit shortcut option that should fix that? ‘Stop This Shortcut’ But great that you managed to make it work!

[@tome2035]

good video thanks

[@thomastevis8655]

Awesome videos sorry I’m so late

[@drjablow]

Problem is you cannot automate short cuts.

[@charlesxavier1904]

What's alarm system do you use?

[@CraigsTechTalk]

I use Ring Alarm. I think they are still the best option. HomeKit doesn’t have a good enough option yet. Ring Alarm is great and works very well. Sheriffs visit to prove it works. I would rather use it through the app and use a Hoobs hub to have it work with HomeKit.

[@charlesxavier1904]

@@CraigsTechTalk that's the one thing I'm amazed hasn't improved yet. I really want better integration between security systems and smart homes.

[@CraigsTechTalk]

It’s a tough one, someone like Ring didn’t put the resources into HomeKit. Then Amazon bought them. I think it is a big endeavor and hopefully as HomeKit takes over more, Ring and others will support it.

[@charlesxavier1904]

@@CraigsTechTalk I've been looking and the only system that seems to work with homekit is abode. But I haven't personally used them and not many tech reviewers have covered it yet.

[@JasonSuminski]

I've started my automation process and things have been going great but one huge issue. How do you get your wife to stop using ALEXA? She's all over my house and I've begun the expensive(ish) transition of getting my devices over to Homekit but man she hates saying "Hey Siri" lol. You should make a video on "How to make wives okay with switching assistants". Thats my biggest hurdle.

[@CraigsTechTalk]

That is a great question Jason. My wife is so trained to use Alexa. I think the key is to make things happen by themself. Or, I use buttons for the physical control. You did me realize my wife doesn't ask for anything other Alexa, Bedroom lights on or off. Even moving her away from that will be hard.

[@JasonSuminski]

@@CraigsTechTalk so far I’ve found sticking a home pod next to Alexa and ignoring Alexa has made my kids like Siri more and just by hearing me use her all the time has made her slowly start to conform lol. I’m brainwashing my own family.

[@drjablow]

Too bad automations cannot link to short cuts which will make it really powerful. I can’t switch until that’s happening.

[@BMar1andonly]

I feel like you’d just make a bigger automation. What’s your case scenario?

[@thomastevis8655]

The reason why I’m switching to Apple home kit is because I think Alexa is scary and Apple is just so much easier to use and better lighting

[@mindblockandroid]

Even though every fiber of my body reels at the thought of apple as a company, I must admit that those features are indeed nice and missed in Alexa (typing this from an iPhone hehehe, but apart from that, Windows for life! ☝️😑)

[@raywong6666]

it copies Tuya