Take Control of Apple Home Automation

Manage your smart home with Apple’s HomeKit platform

Version 1.5, updated February 22, 2023

Thanks to Apple's HomeKit platform, you can easily configure smart home devices (such as light bulbs, outlets, thermostats, sensors, cameras, and door locks) from a variety of manufacturers to behave exactly as you need them to; integrate them with a hub such as a HomePod or Apple TV; and control them with an iOS/iPadOS device, a Mac, an Apple Watch, Siri commands, or automated programming. This book gives you all the information you need to get started.

"Smart home" devices are everywhere these days—you can buy internet-connected light bulbs, thermostats, door locks, sensors, and dozens of other products. But these devices aren't very smart on their own. Apple's HomeKit platform offers a way to integrate, monitor, control, and automate smart home devices from a wide variety of manufacturers. Using the built-in Home app on a Mac or iOS/iPadOS device (perhaps along with third-party apps), you can connect to your various smart devices, see what they're up to, control them, and even get them to operate on a schedule or respond to changing conditions in your home automatically.

Even with HomeKit, however, home automation can be a daunting prospect. That's why TidBITS Managing Editor Josh Centers wrote Take Control of Apple Home Automation. The book walks you carefully through every step of the process, showing you how you can start with a basic system that costs less than $50 and work your way up to as much complexity as you want or need. And you don't have to be a computer geek to simplify and improve your life with HomeKit-compatible products. Even if you don't know a wire nut from a macadamia or which end of a screwdriver to stick in a socket (spoiler: neither!), Josh's thorough advice will enable you to work wonders in your home.

In this book, you'll learn:

• The most common home automation myths (and why you shouldn't worry about them)

• How to choose HomeKit-compatible devices that meet your needs, and which products you might want to avoid

• Exactly what HomeKit is, what it does, how it works, and what its limitations are

• Why you need a hub (in the form of an Apple TV, HomePod, or iPad) and how to set it up

• Important safety rules for working with electrical products, especially those that require wiring

• How to install advanced accessories such as a smart switch, thermostat, or door/window sensor—including illustrated, step-by-step instructions

• What Apple's Home app for Mac and iOS/iPadOS does—and how to configure homes, zones, rooms, accessories, services, and scenes

• Tips for controlling your smart home using a Mac, iOS/iPadOS device, Apple Watch, HomePod, or Siri

• Ways to automate your smart home using schedules, sensors, geofencing, and other tools (without making your house seem haunted)

• The best ways to troubleshoot home automation problems

This book was sponsored by Elgato (the original makers of the Eve line of HomeKit devices, which spun off into a separate company in 2018), so many of the examples feature Eve products, although nearly all the advice in the book is applicable to HomeKit products from any manufacturer. (You'll also read about working with Philips Hue bulbs, ecobee thermostats, and numerous other devices.)

If you're an Apple user who's interested in joining the smart home revolution—or adding even more smarts to your existing setup—this book is the ideal guide.