Apple Wants to Control Your Entire Home

You might remember that about a year ago, Apple announced an ingenious way to control and monitor your in-home accessories. Dubbed HomeKit, it is defined by Apple as “a framework in iOS 8 for communicating with and controlling connected accessories in a user’s home.” It is Apple’s way of bringing home and appliance control right to your smartphone.

While this concept might seem a bit futuristic and optimistic, HomeKit is actually coming to fruition fairly quick. This past Wednesday, a HomeKit support page appeared on Apple’s website, confirming that HomeKit was on the way. In the same vein, manufacturers like Lutron, iHome, Elgato, Insteon, and Ecobee, all released HomeKit-compatible products like smart sensors, smart lights, and even a smart thermostat.

What we do know about Apple HomeKit thus far is somewhat basic. First, it seems as though Apple TV will act the home base for Apple HomeKit, though it is not necessarily a requirement. An Apple TV gives the user the ability to control devices away from home, and therefore acts as a sort of extra (but not required) hardware for HomeKit. There’s even talk that you might be able to eventually group your HomeKit accessories into homes, rooms, and scenes. This would allow for the ultimate customization straight from your device. The kicker is that you can use Siri to perform actions in your house.

Not everyone thinks, though, that Apple HomeKit will take off immediately with consumers. “People are interested in convenience and easy-to-use things. Convenience and easy-to-use aren’t necessarily equivalent to a lot of the existing connecting home products…you can’t buy one product and make your home smart,” said Frank Gillett, a technology analyst at Forrester Research, to Business Insider.

Regardless, you may soon find yourself controlling all of your home’s appliances right from your iPhone! For now we will wait with bated breath to see who joins in on the competition and manufacturers products that work with Apple HomeKit. And with all the news from this year’s WWDC, there is certainly much more on the horizon for HomeKit. Stay tuned for a HomeKit update!