The most important thing in Apple's Home app

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
00:53 How to make an Apple Home Scene
03:23 Why naming a scene matters
04:14 Scenes you should set up
05:06 Why scenes help automation
05:55 Adding music to scenes
06:42 How I add music to scenes
#applehome #smarthome #homeautomation
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[@evlnte]

My problem with scenes is that they sometimes fail for no apparent reason. I would imagine it has to do with a specific device that is slow to wake from sleep, but I would like Homekit to have a user-set threshold for scene timeout. I also don't like that two separate scenes have to be created for the On state vs the Off state. I also wish Shortcuts or Scenes would also allow settings modifications for notifications so that either could change my notifications settings based not the Status of the home vs my geolocation or time. I want certain notifications when I set the home to Bedtime vs Home or Away.

[@PorcelainDuck]

I got almost the opposite issue where my scenes always work but half the time Siri says “some devices are not responding” when they totally are…

[@evlnte]

@@PorcelainDuck I have that issue as well and I have the Home app open on my tablet which shows the proper status.

[@EricWelander]

I agree scene performance is not always the best but I have seen Apple doing their part to make it faster. And weeding out the slower devices over time can help but it can cost money or using a product less without that scene which isn’t great. I think the challenge with the on off state is that it might be confusing for users to realize that the opposite of a scene being active is turning everything in that scene off. That could easily be triggered by mistake, but I think other smart home platforms have taken a different stance on this. It’s a good point on the notifications. My concern there is that iOS notifications have become incredibly complex. I think a few more settings could really help to your point but it’s a slippery slope to an airplane cockpit.

[@KevinBaggott]

I like the office bright, dim, off idea for each room. I would definitely be interested in the app you mentioned to help with creating HomeKit room setup. Great video - thanks! Kevin

[@left0verture]

A simple app would be great. I’d also love one that can be set to poll conditions and send an appropriate notification, say, “your dining room lights are still on” kind of thing. I know the Controller app does some of that, but I don’t find it simple or intuitive.

[@EricWelander]

Thanks for the feedback and ideas

[@garanceadrosehn9691]

I've been meaning to try some Scenes, but my smarthome isn't all that complicated yet so never felt like I *had* to. But this video popped up at a good time while I had plenty of spare time, so I tried creating a few. So far they seem to work very nicely. Thanks for going through all the steps!

[@EricWelander]

That’s great Garance! I’m glad they are working well for you so far.

[@debbiebridygham9230]

I have a fairly complex lighting setup in my residence, one of my frustrations with smart home lighting is that there’s no simple way to gradually raise the lighting or gradually lower the lighting, for instance I would prefer to have an automation gradually raise the lighting from 10 to 100 over three hours. The only apparent way to do this to create a lot of fixed scenes and have them trigger at fixed times every few minutes. That’s a ton of work to achieve that simple effect, and if you need to change it based on season or schedule then every one of those automations ends up having to be manually adjusted, which is an annoying amount of effort.

[@EricWelander]

That’s an interesting use case…like those “smart” alarm clocks that gradually wake you up with “sunlight”. I would say create a shortcut as part of an automation but HomeKit struggles with those if they take many minutes to execute.

[@SharpShruter]

I agree this is a problem that Apple should fix. The workaround I have found is most 3rd party apps have this. So for example, I have a room that is all Phillips Hue and can have them fade up over the course of an hour. It’s not great to need a workaround, but this has been working for me for some time.

[@debbiebridygham9230]

@@SharpShruter The Lutron app unfortunately doesn’t yet have this feature, though I and likely others have been nagging them to add this since Hue and other companies have already done so. So far it seems the only way to do this is via a Mac app with access to HomeKit, such as Follow The Sun. It’s possible even likely that the current Lutron hub, with ten year old hardware, just isn’t powerful enough to implement this feature.

[@christianhotter]

I was thinking I was using scenes, but it looks like I mostly have automations. My only one that's a scene is my office lights. Let me see what else I can set up. One thing I've not been able to figure out is a good way to have my HomePods chime when a door is opened. I have the new Aqara door sensor on my back doors and the thread response is fast when it chimes on my phone and iPad, but so far I don't see how to make that work on the HomePod. As far as I can tell, the HomePod just chimes for the doorbell.

[@EricWelander]

Hmmm yeah I would not think of the HomePods for doing that, especially with a fast speed. You are correct they are mostly intended to chime for the doorbell. Potentially something like an M1S hub from Aqaba could do it, but that’s another speaker to setup and have around.

[@jbponzi1]

My particular issue is with others in house not wanting to use scenes, automations or any smart home stuff. If it is out of site like Nest Protects. Or not any different than before, such as the Ecobee; though the sensors creep out everyone but me. Or there’s an alternative method like the garage door opener or Level lock. Nothing is used. Whatever.

[@Yoskio]

Scenes could be useful if allowed to run shortcuts

[@breadone_]

omfg yes! automating on a scene trigger would be humungous for me. imagine a TV mode scene that dims the lights and turns the tv on, all accessible right from the control centre!

[@Dactylonian]

Thank you so much, Eric! I have been building my smart home over the past couple of years with Eve, Nanoleaf, Govee, and Logitech, and the Scenes feature is not totally clear to me. This video helped a lot. Your videos have truly been immensely helpful in my smart home adventure. What is that bulb at about the 4:45 mark of your video - is it the Nanoleaf BR30?

[@EricWelander]

Thank you! That’s great to hear. Good question. That is a standard BR30 light bulb controlled by a Lutron Caséta Dimmer switch. The light strip before that is a Nanoleaf Essentials light strip

[@Patrick76399]

If we can control lights does Apple make it possible to fade in or fade out those lights?

[@koiphish]

Whoa... what app is that ambient sounds from???

[@ddvantandar-kw7kl]

Great review and enriching content highly appreciated.

[@MelissaAtwell]

Another great video! You really post the best Apple Home content, and I have learned so many tricks & tips from you. Thank you!

[@EricWelander]

Thanks Melissa! I really appreciate hearing that from you

[@Patrick76399]

What if you had an Apple Home app playlist where there was three videos discussing scenes, automations and shortcuts? I finished this video about scenes and now are looking through your videos tab for a video about the last two topics.

[@Patrick76399]

When we are adjusting audio for a HomePod scene I wish the volume slider gave the percentage.

[@jeeeprs]

Do you know how to make a scene run a shortcut? Ultimately, I want to be able to run non home compatible devices like Kasa switches with just one button.

[@pablomedok]

If only scenes could enable/disable automations it would be a totally different game. I could create scenes like ‘Vacation’ that would not only switch off some lights, but also disable automations that are useless, when we’re away. Some conditions would also be great. So if it’s morning a scene called ‘Waiting for guests’ would only switch on a water heater, but would not switch on some guest house lights (it’s bright already), but would switch on an automation that would do it in the evening automatically.

[@jonathanitin9065]

Great content, Eric, as always but correct me if I’m wrong here. Is there still a maximum limit of 100 scenes and automations in HomeKit? It may sound like a lot but my whole house is outfitted with LIFX 4-gang switches (essentially HomeKit Scene controllers). Haven’t gotten to it yet but if I program every button on every switch, I’d hit that 100 max limit pretty fast.

[@EricWelander]

Thanks Jonathan. I haven’t hit that limit you mentioned of 100 scenes. I could see how it might be a problem in larger homes. I can’t imagine doubling to 200 would be that big of a performance hit. Hopefully Apple does that sometime soon

[@jonathanitin9065]

@@EricWelander Appreciate the reply. I was hoping when they lifted the HKSV cap of five cameras to unlimited (with the appropriate iCloud plan) that there would be the same done for the scenes and automations. Not even sure if that’s still a thing to be honest. Can’t find any recent concrete evidence of that in my research. I planned on nuking my HomeKit and starting over. Might create 101 nonsense scenes just before to see what happens lol.

[@marka351]

Can you use scenes to turn on the Apple TV? I would like to create a scene that turns on my Apple TV, turns off the main light, and turns on my strip lights but I can't get the Apple TV to turn on.

[@gavin1215]

I have a lot of scenes but had no idea you could change the logo and color

[@technithusiast]

You touch on a good point that you should have a simple pattern or nomenclature especially if your scenes are shared

[@EricWelander]

Thanks!

[@brainguynyc8729]

Yes, interested in that “small little free app”

[@thepwps.]

I do love scenes in the Home app. I did run into an issue this Christmas though--I set a scene to turn on our Christmas tree lights and Christmas village lights and named it "Merry Christmas' so that 'Siri, Merry Christmas' would turn on the lights. Yet, every time I tried 'Siri, Merry Christmas', she would interpret that as a greeting and would simply reply instead of triggering the scene. I gave up and changed the scene to 'Happy Holidays' and it worked. At least 'Humbug' works and turns off the lights!

[@EricWelander]

lol! What a funny story. I guess there are some phrases that trigger Siri to do other stuff

[@BenBazan]

Great video! I’d love to see an app, looking forward to more info on that.

[@EricWelander]

Thanks Ben!

[@pierrelavigne2808]

Hello, my scenes don't work with says Siri. ?

[@davidjdelaney]

Thanks Eric! In future videos that promote the use of scenes in Apple Homekit, please emphasize the Apple HomeKit is limited to a maximum of 100 scenes. 100 hundred scenes seems like a lot. However, if, as you recommended, you setup multiple scenes per room, per on and off, and add a few variations of colors, that number of scenes becomes restrictive and disappointing Thank you!

[@EmirSaldierna]

The lacking for me is that is very much limited to the Home accessories, in that way, Shortcuts turns to be way more useful because it can automatically play or open specifics apps like turning on my Apple TV 4K and open Apple Music and play an specific type of music or playlist.

[@TheHockey1980]

I tried the Apple Music and it worked for awhile then just stopped

[@blackcoalboy]

I’ll tell you what I’ve watched your videos on at least three occasions and I still can’t get my head around it, I must be thick or something.

[@Patrick76399]

I am watching this video and testing it out with my LIFX bulb.

[@bambuhiphop]

I really Apple would handle Scenes at the Home level rather than the room level. That way I can create 1 Scene and associate any rooms I would want to use it. Would be so much easier than creating the same scene 12 times. And then they could add a sub menu to select what type of accessory is impacted by a particular scene.

[@handcoding]

Saved you a click: Scenes.

[@United_Wings]

😮

[@Mtgavin55]

Eric the scene for audio is worthless unless you have subscription to Apple Music. One thing I hate about Apple always trying to sell you something you don't need. Why won't it allow you to play iHeart Radio or music out of your own library!!😢

[@misteraon]

HomeKit has to one of Apple’s buggiest products and it’s been that way for year. It’s not reliable by any means. I don’t get why Apple doesn’t fix it or can it. Home Assistant is way more solid and works with more devices.

[@thefryinallofus]

Are you dressing like Tim Cook’s son as a character for your channel? Or is something else going on?

[@TheSuperStroker]

This is great but please stop saying Siri. Every time you do it triggers her. Consider this a warning. A trigger warning 🤭

[@EricWelander]

It doesn’t set off my devices but yes every since it changed from Hey Siri to just Siri it’s harder to talk about

[@BreakTime10101]

@@EricWelanderJust say S lady. 😊

[@timeout...4nva]

Gave up on Home App. Completely crap app was unreliable and thrown together like a second thought. Siri and home automation was incredibly stupid and inconsistent. Again, Apple late to the party and way too expensive.