Top 5 Apps for HomeKit

[@ShaneCreates]

Links to all the apps mentioned here are in the description! Also, the developer of the new HomePaper app gave me some codes to hook y’all up (first come first serve). I’m giving them away on Instagram (check my Instagram story from today). Instagram.com/shanecreates

[@jonathancineus6424]

I love my Sundays because of these videos.

[@ShaneCreates]

Thank you for the support!! 🙏🏻 🙏🏻 🙏🏻

[@davelindenmuth1421]

I’d like to see a video about HVAC systems. Remote sensors combined with flue dampers or register boosters that would allow the upstairs to be comfortably cool in the summer without “meat-lockering” the main floor. Knowing which thermostats can be part of an extended smart climate control environment would likely be helpful to many people.

[@gregg5958]

Glad I just came across this video. I had no idea that all these apps existed!!! Now I’m even more excited about my switch to Home Kit and my new Apple TV 4K coming today because of that multiple live feed camera app. Thanks Shane! Between this video and your video on helping out your grandpa, you’re really giving me some ideas and helping me out a lot here!

[@ShaneCreates]

That's great! Thanks for watching Greg.

[@NoxGarage]

Hi Shane, just to tell you that I love your posts, even from France. Yes, I am French and I really learned a lot watching your videos. Tks for that. Nox

[@ShaneCreates]

Awesome! I’m glad the channel is helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@marcopallotta1452]

Useful video. I’m using Eve app for advanced automation and native brand apps for firmware updates only.

[@Polkster13]

Another great video. Gave me some reasons to try out a few new apps. I really like HomePass and I use the Eve and Controller apps. I didn't realize that HomeCam was giving a live view of the cameras instead of doing a snapshot. Now I have to go buy that one and set it up so I can see live views of my cameras on my AppleTV. By the way, we missed you last week. Hope you had a great time with your family over the Easter weekend.

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks Frederick! Yes, I had some nice family time. Thanks for the support!

[@mitchelltatum4614]

Shane, great video. Which app would you recommend to send conditional notifications? For example, if I’m in “vacation mode” and a door is opened, I’d like a notification. But if “vacation” mode is off, I don’t want the notifications. I’m assuming I will need one of these 3rd party apps…

[@Johnnyedwrd]

Your videos are great man. Starting my HomeKit home this Saturday and your videos are my guide. Keep up the good work.

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks Johnny! I appreciate that. Good luck with your new HomeKit setup!

[@jamesmonahan7872]

Really enjoying your videos. Question on Homepass - how do you (or do you need to) add the hoobs bridge accessories to Homepass?

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks James! You don't need to add the Hoobs accessories because they don't have unique setup codes, only the bridge does. That applies for all bridged devices. So you really only need to add the bridge (HOOBS in this case).

[@Mr.Tec01]

nice video! like the homepaper and papercuts, just dowloaded them to try out....only app I have an issue is home cam, it just doesn’t work when you have too many cameras in homekit...I have 19 Alro cams on homekit, when I open home cam it will only show one or two, every other cam says client unreachable... reached out to the developer a while back and he said app is only meant to handle 5 to 6 cameras with live feed, told me app is not for my type of scenario

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks for sharing. I didn’t know that. That’s a lot of cameras! 😃 I’ve got about 7 or 8 right now and home cam is still working fine for me so far.

[@aaronpearce1000]

Developer of HomeCam here, the limit isn’t due to HomeCam. It’s a limitation of the Arlo hub. It can only stream so many cameras at once. I’ve personally had 13 or more cameras all going at once in HomeCam.

[@Mr.Tec01]

@@aaronpearce1000 thanks so much for the input! just out of curiosity why can homekit show all 19 cameras at once...sure it’s snap shots but they up date every 30, 40 secs no problem, but with your app cameras don’t even load...for me only 2 to 3 load rest say client unreachable...also I have 3 arlo bridges to spread out my cams evenly...I don’t have 19 cams on one bridge

[@Mr.Tec01]

@@aaronpearce1000 what cams do you use if you don’t mind me asking

[@TheBradLloyd]

Great video Shane - I've downloaded HomePass and HomePaper as a result of this video!

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks for watching Brad!

[@mrkleverapps]

Many thanks for these tips. Is there any way to retrieve data from an Apple TV and/or HomePod - on what's currently playing as this is shown in Control Center? Looking for a solution to get such data for further usage / display on another device.

[@ShaneCreates]

I’m not sure of a way to do that other than using control center on the other devices.

[@waynetibak1828]

Would you happen to know if the Homecam app would enable Ring live views? I have a Ring doorbell and 2 indoor cams and I’m annoyed they don’t offer live views. Would I be able to circumvent this by using Hoobs and this app in order to then use a tv to view my cameras?

[@GD99-p7u]

Very informative- dipping into HomeKit and will try a couple of these Apps. Right now I just have a couple led strips and bulbs - but looking to expand with sensors and plug-ins Some of the apps appear to have overlap so would they cross wires if you tried to do an automation in one and a similar automation in another?

[@ShaneCreates]

They all are actually just accessing your HomeKit information. So if you create a new automation in one, you should see it appear in another. Hope that makes sense.

[@XweienX]

Hi Shane, just discovered this video after watching tons of your others. Great content for people who want to start a Homekit home on a budget like me (Aqara FTW). Quick question, if I setup detailed automations on one app (Home+), does it also get backed up in another (controller)? It'd be sad if I set up half of the automations in one and half in the other and when I need a restore (touchwood) I only get half back.

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks for watching!! Yea so you are giving these apps access to your HomeKit data/framework. So, essentially, it's the same in all the apps. That's why when you create a new automation in one, it still appears in another or in the Home app.

[@markcannan378]

Hi Shane. Following on from this video, Just interested to know which app you are using day to day for HomeKit? Is it the native HomeKit app or one of the ones mentioned in this video?

[@ShaneCreates]

I use the native home app for day to day use. But I keep all the others in my "tool belt" and use each for different things when needed.

[@ReasonQuest]

SO informative and helpful. Thank you for doing the research. I learn a lot from you--stuff I wouldn't otherwise know.

[@ShaneCreates]

I’m glad the channel is helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@271830066]

I just bought Signal, but I can not get it to work with my other homekit sensors. Like if a door is open it will flash my lights. Does this work with other device like sensors

[@VitoAD]

Great video as always. I have several of the apps you mentioned in this video. Then one thing I would like to see is the Signals app be exposed to HomeKit automations. It makes so much sense to be able to set up a signal for sensors like water link sensors, temp and humidity. Often there are times where you can miss the notification. But have all your lights start flashing will get your attention. Just one question, is there an easy way of getting all your devices HomeKit codes without have to scan all the codes from the devices or the documents that came with the device to add them to HomePass?

[@mattcorey3145]

Hi! I'm the developer of the Signals, and I completely agree the Signals would be great if combined with HomeKit automations -- unfortunately, it's not something that Apple allows on iOS yet, although it's getting very close. I'm hoping it will be made possible in iOS 15 this year 🤞 This sort of thing could be possible on the Mac, and I do have plans to bring Signals here - unfortunately, it's not a solution that could work for everyone

[@VitoAD]

@@mattcorey3145 thank you for the information hopefully iOS15 we will see it possible. In the mean time I have a crazy idea that I am going to try. This is important to me as I did have a leak and thanks to a water leak sensor and Weathertech sink mat my brand new cabinet wasn't ruined. I might have missed the notification if I wasn't on my iPad at the time.

[@Jaspermoises1835]

@@mattcorey3145 great app. I know we can’t access it for automations directly in HK but is it possible to right a Siri Shortcut that will trigger the Signal? I thought that Shane made a video on how to do this but I can’t find it. Thanks again and keep up the great work.

[@snoogcity]

Great video brother

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks for watching!

[@tomlawson2330]

Hey Shane! Another awesome and very helpful video! Keep up the good work dude! 👍🏼

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks Tom!

[@cbasacik]

Good introduction to third party Home apps. Thanks Shane !

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks for watching!

[@vskal]

Nice video Shane. I use Homemanager on my iphone to have remotely access my Homebridge server. It is something like 5 Euro and you can do pretty much everything with it (update, restart, configure plug-ins).

[@ShaneCreates]

Nice tip! I might have to check that one out. Thanks for sharing!

[@NotYourAvgJoe24]

Hey Shane, is there a way I can get my Google nest thermostat to come on 30mins before my alarm goes off? My morning alarms are varied from 0300 to 0630 so would be great if there’s an easy fix as opposed to changing it every night

[@Pinefenario]

Nice video! Question with these HomeKit apps the automations aren’t running on the HomeKit hub? So do you need to keep your phone running and unlocked in order to use these automations?

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks Martijn. No, these are still homekit automations and everything still runs from your homekit hub.

[@LCopJunior]

I tried the color feature for Signal and didn't work for me. Anything extra I have to do? Thank you.

[@ShaneCreates]

I don’t know, it works for me. Just make sure you toggle on “use color” and then choose the color for each effect and/or finish state.

[@LCopJunior]

@@ShaneCreates ok, I will try again on different lights that have that feature from the ones I tried this evening. Thank you.

[@LCopJunior]

Thank goodness the creator of the app is looking into it for me. Again Shane, great video.

[@ShaneCreates]

@@LCopJunior gotta love great customer support! 👍🏻

[@LCopJunior]

@@ShaneCreates indeed man. He got to me quick and can't wait for the update. YOU ROCK!!!!

[@BuckNastty]

Thanks for the video Shane.

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks for watching!

[@JoJo-ve9rl]

Hi Shane none of these apps allows us to use the brightness sensor of the aqara motion sensor ? I need that to start automatically my light according to the brightness level of my living room...

[@ShaneCreates]

No, unfortunately the Aqara motion sensor doesn’t expose that light sensor to HomeKit. So it won’t show in any HomeKit app.

[@JoJo-ve9rl]

@@ShaneCreates too bad....thanks for the reply ! And thanks also for your great channel !!!

[@dirkvanhemelrijck9879]

Hi, can you tell me why I cannot connect my Hue lights with my HomeKit? It tells me to push the middle button but it tells me that it cannot find it?

[@opiatesmile]

It kind of feels like Home Controller and Home+ seem to have a lot of overlapping functionality. Is there any reason to have both? Also, if I were to get homepass now, would it already have all of my codes in it by connecting it to my apple account or would I need to manually add each one? Thanks!

[@ShaneCreates]

Correct, Controller and Home+ do have overlapping functionality. I've used Home+ for a long time and the developer has continued to add great functionality, like automation folders, backup and restore, etc. In fact, I used the Home+ app for a long time on my wall-mounted iPad, just because I really liked the design of it. My main reason for jumping into Controller is because it's available on the Mac and I wanted to try out the logging feature some. Regarding HomePass, the app can detect your current accessories and all the information such as rooms, etc. but you DO still have to enter the code manually to save it. And that is simply a restriction of HomeKit... apps do not have the ability to access the device codes.

[@opiatesmile]

@@ShaneCreates Thanks!

[@poolplayer322]

Does anyone have a good solution for using smart switches with smart light bulbs? I bought Meross switches which work great but I would also light colored lighting in certain areas. I'm finding the smart switches cut power to the Meross smart lights when they are pressed. Thanks in advance!

[@ShaneCreates]

There still isn't a great solution for that, that I'm aware of (unless you use Phillips light bulbs paired with the Lutron Aurora). Because of this, I typically use smart switches everywhere that a switch is present, and reserve smart bulbs for accent lights (lamps, etc) when there is no switch to control the light. Nothing worse than someone hitting the switch and messing up your scenes and automations!

[@d.glassco8318]

Hi Shane. I have a few of these apps and find the rules to be strange in how they are listed. In the HomeKit app and the Home+ apps (for example), it lists my Front Door Lamp On, then Dining Room Lamp On, then a few others, then Front Door Lamp Off. Although I am trying to move away from WeMo switches to Eve, the WeMo app allows a concise rule, as in “6:15 pm to 11:30 pm”. I have over 40 devices, ranging from outlets to wall dimmers, wall 3 way switches, and basic wall switches. It’s a bit challenging to scroll through and find the on/off when they are separated. I guess my question is 2 fold: 1. Can I move these on and off listings to be back to back in any of these apps? 2. Is there an app for HomeKit that simply has the device, and then on/ off settings like this “5:00pm-11:00pm”? Thanks for all of your help D

[@smoulak8x8]

Hello Mr. Whatley, How do you create multiple conditions?I’ve tried Eve app and Home + app to create condition for motion sensor ( trigger automation during night hours with 2 lights off) and Home app still cannot accept this custom condition. In Eve app is changed to unknown and in Home + is deleted. Thanks for your help. Really appreciate your videos! :)

[@ShaneCreates]

You can add multiple conditions in the Home+ app, an I believe in the Eve app as well. Not sure what exactly is happening when you say changed to unknown or deleted. Are you trying to modify the automation in the home app afterwards? If so, I wouldn't do that. Just create the full automation in one of the other apps.

[@smoulak8x8]

@@ShaneCreates really appreciate your fast respond. Yes I made multiple conditions in Eve or in Home + and then I opened it in home app to check if all custom conditions were transferred. Because I hadn’t seen all conditions. I opened Eve or Home + one more time and everything was messed up. Thanks I’ll do it only in home+ :)

[@CreativeKolia]

Great one Shane !!!

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks for watching Nicolas!

[@milwaukeebrewer9264]

I grabbed Controller for its ability to create a duplicate of a scene. That feature is available without the paid upgrade.

[@ShaneCreates]

Ah yes, that is a great feature! Thanks for sharing!

[@karloberreiter]

Top Video. Top Hints. Thuns Up.

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks Karl!

[@k.antigonetrowbridge9038]

It has been 2 years….. any chance for an update on these apps and others?

[@ShaneCreates]

Actually yes… coming very soon. 😉

[@umutbayrak]

He Shane! Nice video bro. Don't you actually think these are all shortcomings of homekit that you are looking elsewhere now?

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks! No, not shortcomings of HomeKit...maybe shortcomings of the home app. I think it’s important to distinguish the difference. All the apps here are actually only accessing the HomeKit framework.

[@francocapaldo4623]

Thanks for this tips

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks for watching!

[@LCopJunior]

That HomePass is clutch!!

[@ShaneCreates]

Agreed!!

[@LCopJunior]

Now all I have to do is get busy and add more of my devices.

[@martindinicolino8227]

I can‘t find the signals video

[@ShaneCreates]

Used it in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4SkqYmNZqmMbKM

[@martindinicolino8227]

cheers!

[@rstr0up]

Look at my boy Shane flexing them guns. Gonna need bigger sleeves bruh! :)

[@ShaneCreates]

😆 💪

[@ashpole20]

BINGO! Great video as always Shane, I use all of those apps and the runners up! Excellent choice!

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks Michael! 😃

[@Bogdan-Xaine]

With Smart Things i am able to open garage door even from another country !! With homeKit is not possible

[@thesmartchap]

Great great great video

[@ShaneCreates]

Thanks Ross!

[@TheBionic40]

is it me or do these apps have a lot of overlap?

[@ShaneCreates]

Yes, there is some overlap.

[@olahansen]

Don’t you have a mirror?

[@eekns]

It’s so funny. People waste six dollars on a coffee and balk at paying for a service through an app. Developers like six dollar coffees, too.

[@ShaneCreates]

Haha exactly!! ☕️ 😃

[@foraddress7975]

The Eve app sucks for Energysockets, the info about energy consumption is really bad. No day, week, month or year totals. Don't reccomend this stuff!