Get Started with Apple Smart Home in 2025 - Complete Guide for Beginners

[@beardfm]

⭐ If you're looking for a getting started guide like this, but for iPhone, you can watch mine here! kzbin.info/www/bejne/ponZlWt-g6aXd80si=lFeOzBXTQGX2drfe

[@KelVarnsen9]

Well done video. Definitely worth a watch.

[@beardfm]

Appreciate that!

[@sa-wj3nt]

What a pleasure to watch your content. 🥇

[@beardfm]

Thank you 🙏🏼

[@JuiceBaby-zl8no]

Thank you for great and informative videos man.

[@beardfm]

My pleasure!

[@bl54913]

Great video, Stephen! One thing that I wish Apple would change is automation settings. The time period choices for turning off should be lengthened to at least 6 hours. Now the maximum is 4 hours. I've use the automation for scenes that turn on holiday lights around my house. I have the automation start at 5:00pm, but it shuts off at 9:00pm and we would prefer it shuts off at 11:00pm! Any workarounds?

[@beardfm]

Thanks! And agreed. I setup individual automations for on/off times when I need those kinds of intervals. There also needs to be more contact sensor + time notifications (like a door left open for a certain amount of time)

[@jeffhale1189]

Thanks for sharing. Blessings on your day.

[@beardfm]

And same to you!

[@Colorado-Hiker]

Excellent! A few questions… I have a very large house, do I need more than one home kit hub? If so, Can I use both an Apple TV and a home kit hub at the same time? Again with a large house, do I need more than one Luton hub?

[@beardfm]

Thanks! Lutron will cover even a very large house, so just 1 hub for that. And for HomeKit, you can intermingle HomePods, Apple TV, etc., but the only reason you may need more than one for a large house is to act as a thread border router or connect via bluetooth to devices that aren't on wifi.

[@Colorado-Hiker]

@@beardfm OK. Thanks for that. The reason I ask is that I live in Spain and all the walls here are brick, plaster, metal lathe, etc., and generally don't like passing wifi signal through them. :) For instance, I had to install a 3-node mesh system in a friend's 1800 sq.ft. apartment and we needed 3 nodes to get good coverage throughout the apartment! (We were using ASUS ZenWiFi AX8 mesh system). Does this further information change your thoughts on my questions above? Thanks!!

[@LEEASHTON69]

Was trying to look for an automation that if a sensor is detected an announcement could be made in the intercom- or do you think that his would be done through shortcuts

[@Jerseydevil1921]

This ⬆️. This is the video I’ve been looking for to *finally* get started with Apple HomeKit. Thanks for the primer and for your thoughtful explanations. It was easy for me to press “Subscribe.” 🙌🏼

[@stephencooper3583]

Awesome!

[@vibhasbhardwaj9682]

Any recommendations for Home security system especially one supporting professional monitoring?

[@beardfm]

Abode is the only legit one that works with HomeKit. Would recommend.

[@vibhasbhardwaj9682]

If you’re using this system. Can you make a review on it. Would be really really helpful!

[@bchedda33]

@@vibhasbhardwaj9682 FrontPoint security works well if you’re willing and able to use Homebridge to get it in to HomeKit.

[@Don_060]

Did you switch to Spotify and back to apple podcasts

[@beardfm]

For podcasts, I used Pocket Casts for a while, but now back on Apple Podcasts, mostly because it syncs playback with my Tesla

[@Don_060]

@ hard for me to leave overcast with smart speed and voice boost , queue , pinning shows , etc

[@TannyOHaley]

It would be nice if you could do a video on helping disabled people with home automation. In my case I've had Parkinson's for over 29 years which is a movement disorder. Also since there is a difference between what you can do in an apartment versus your own home, that would also be nice. For instance in an apartment they may not let you change the lock and you would have to use a retrofit lock instead.

[@beardfm]

I'll try to look into this!

[@jimthedj]

Great video! I have a very large system and trying to do a simple thing. Is there a program that does an action with a delay after an event, or did I miss that somewhere in the Apple Home? As it is now, I have it set for my garage light to come on when I get home. I can set it to go on when I open to door also. I want to turn it off 10 minutes after I close the garage door or even 10 minutes after it opens and turned on. Is there a way to do that without getting a motion sensor and doing it that way? Am I missing it, or is there a program that can do it?

[@chaplainpaul5326]

He explains automatically turning off after x minutes at about 13:20 in the video

[@jimthedj]

@@chaplainpaul5326 Thanks! It doesn't quite do that, though; you have to have it turned on, then turn it off after a certain amount of time, but at least it's a workaround because I have the light on at the time anyway. THANKS! What I was hoping for is that you could trigger something like you can do with a sensor already. I could have done it with the sensor but I didn't want to purchase one since I really didn't need it because there is an indicator on if the garage door is open or shut already. But again, this worked. thanks!!

[@clciaccio]

Where did you cover how to set up Apple TV as a hub?

[@beardfm]

They actually removed granular settings for that, so if you have an Apple TV setup like normal, you can just open the home app and it will appear there.

[@sethdobrin2594]

What about backward compatibility? I would love to use HomeKit but I have been running on SmartThings since their kickstarter so I am stuck with Alexa or Google as far as I know. Anyway to get my non Matter/Tread devices moved over? With or without ST?

[@beardfm]

I haven't using SmartThings so unsure, but I don't think there's a way without hacking something like Homebridge

[@skokovich]

thanks for the video Stephen, liking the step by step guide! i bought aqara switches and sensors and i'm slowly starting to build the smart home. did you find a good way to log the sensor data or have them somehow visualized historically like it's possible in home assistant?

[@beardfm]

You're welcome! I don't have a method for that just yet, though I wonder with Pushcuts / Data Jar if that's possible...

[@skokovich]

I think it would be possible using Pushcuts to set a periodic shortcut like every 1 or 5 minutes, read all data and send it to IFTT/GDocs/Prometheus/API but this requires a subscription for "Automation Server Extended" which is $2.5 per month. I wonder if the Eve App or Homebridge have something that's not subscription based

[@jaw4uz]

Yes a video on hubs would be very useful

[@beardfm]

I’ll add it to the list!

[@wzk921109]

Thread is very important to your experience.

[@FritsJanSmit]

Thanks. I get the message 'Number of Scenes Reached" I only have 17 scenes. Any idea? Need to reinstall the home? (about 80 accessoires)

[@beardfm]

Interesting, how many home hubs (TV or HomePods) do you have?

[@FritsJanSmit]

​​⁠2 homes: 2 apple tv and 2 homepods, 3 hue bridges, 1 netatmo/velux gateway. Update: I got the tip to use Eve app to delete scenes that are not showing in Apple Home. I think it might solve the issue. Meanwhile… thanks for all your insights over the years

[@singhdavinder2003]

Hi. I was looking if u would create course for how to use apple from begineers to advanced in depth it would really help those who are switching for android to iphone. Hope u would help me out. Thank you.

[@beardfm]

I have that video right here! kzbin.info/www/bejne/ponZlWt-g6aXd80si=lFeOzBXTQGX2drfe

[@singhdavinder2003]

@beardfm Thanks my friend! But is that enough !

[@jeffharmed1616]

Why does the movie “Enemy of the State” come to mind?

[@AmmarMalik]

I bought a 4 pack Hue bulb set and hub 2 years ago. I only set up 1 of the 4 bulbs. In the past 2 years, that 1 bulb has worked about 60% of the time. It has completely turned me off getting any more smart products.

[@beardfm]

Yeah even though Hue bulbs are the “best,” I vastly prefer light switched for reliability (Lutron specifically)

[@Drucio1]

Apple needs to build a face unlock door… lol only makes sense….

[@JuiceBaby-zl8no]

First?

[@Edelegn]

Comparing my experience with Apple smart home and google smart home: Apple sucks at it like all the time

[@joshk333]

This is great to hear. I’ve noticed Apple Home and Home Assistant are just about 80% of what every single influencer channel is doing now. Makes you wonder.

[@beardfm]

It may, I’ve never built out a Google smart home, but Shortcuts integration is a big enough deal for me to stick with Apple

[@Edelegn]

@@beardfm it’s not about some home per se, it’s all about devices. If any smart device works just fine with Google home, there is barely nothing decent for Apple home.

[@stephencooper3583]

@@Edelegn ... this is exactly why Matter was introduced. Before, it was confusing which device worked with which ecosystem. Matter kind of evens the field. But still not everything is switched over yet, but it slowly becoming the standard for new devices.

[@Y0UTUBEADMIN]

Ignore everything he says in this video and install Home Assistant. Thank me later

[@alishafique1]

Lol, home assistant is great if you are doing this as a hobby. If you have family with iOS devices, Homekit is the best option. The amazing thing of Home assistant is that you can use homekit and home assistant at the same time and Home assistant can make your apple Home more capable.

[@beardfm]

Home Assistant is powerful, but for those that want simplicity and integration with Apple devices, it’s not a good first step. For instance “install home assistant,” where? On my phone? On my laptop? Then what? Maybe I’ll make another getting started video on that.

[@wpas76]

I use both. They are not mutually exclusive. I do a lot with Apple Home. For me your comment is out of context.

[@TannyOHaley]

Home assistant is nice, but I've had Parkinson's for over 28 years. When I first looked at Home Assistant it required too much manual programming and since I can no longer type I have to use voice control that was not an option for me. I ended up using the Home app because it is easy to use for me personally. While voice control allows me to type and create articles and social media posts it is not good for programming.

[@JerryJerryxyz]

Well that was convincing