We use Alexa for voice control, but Homekit for hand held control on phone, or also voice control via a watch is amazing. I love the dashboard with the little widgets across the top. The iOS16 app changed it up a bunch but I am getting used to it. I can just pop open the Home app and get a view of the whole house in one place.
Purely used as a dashboard and to turn devices on/off in my house. All automations stay in Hubitat whenever possible. I tested a few automations inside HomeKit but found them to be flakier than HE. Very happy with the integration so far.
I can't get that to mine either. Followed the directions, but it never shows up. I'm on V16.
Primary usage: Emulating my Wyze devices that I can't get into Hubitat, but can get into HomeKit, via virtual devices and automations in HomeKit and not paying for IFTTT.
Secondary: Cleaner UI for family members.
Four primary uses for me:
1 - in my car with CarPlay so I don't have to pay Chevy for Alexa integration
2 - control devices in home via my Apple watch
3 - on my balcony to control devices where I have an Apple HomePod but no Alexa device
4 - while watching TV via AppleTV using the remote which is better than yelling at Alexa
[EDIT]Forgot to add that I also use it for presence using a virtual switch
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Does the Chevrolet implementation of CarPlay differ than other manufacturers? I don't see HomeKit listed as an app in my Mazda...
In my case itâs using SIRI on CarPlay.
CarPlay pretty much looks the same regardless of the car; it's just the size of the interface that differs from model to model.
Yeah, Siri is the main way to use HomeKit in CarPlay. One notable exception (the only one I know of) is garage door openers. A garage door tile appears in the CarPlay screen when you're close to your home. Since the HomeKit integration in Hubitat doesn't support garage doors, you probably won't see this tile.
Thatâs interesting. My Genie connects directly to HomeKit but I donât remember seeing that tile. Iâll have to look further.
Edit: I stand corrected. It connects to Siri and makes shortcuts. Be nice if it did put a tile on the screen.
$79.99 or $159.99 for 2 @ costco currently.
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I don't know if there's a setting to make that appear (don't think there is); it just shows up for me automatically. It usually pops up about a block away from home on the CarPlay split screen (the one with the map on one side and the music on the other). The garage tile appears in the bottom right corner of that screen. Something like this:
(not my actual screen)
For completeness, I'll note that I'm currently bringing the garage door into HomeKit through the Maker-API Homebridge plugin.
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Wow, how do you get the split screen? I'm new to CarPlay so still learning that.
The icon in the lower left-hand corner. You should be able to toggle between the standard home screen view and the dashboard-type view in the screenshot.
That's my favorite part of the homekit integration (using homebridge for that specific garage combo)
Lots of open box/refurb HomePod Minis on eBay for $59-$75 lessens the pain too. I'm close to replacing 8 Echos with HomePod minis myself. We will miss the Echo Show in the Kitchen though, so it might be the last to go.
AND I do need a Siri-based replacement for EchoSpeaks. That's kind of big for me.
The HE/Homekit integration inspired me to leave ST and come here. I was looking for better reliability, near 100% local automation, hopefully resulting in a better experience overall. I really wanted to leverage Homekit and Siri.
I'm still coming up to speed on so many things but so far I am not adding any devices to Homekit directly, everything is shared from HE via the integration
A few keys for me were to:
- Use the HomeKit app exclusively as my UI
- Use Homekit for presence (got tired of fighting with other flaky options)
- Talk to Siri to run HE automations
Until something better comes along here's what I'm doing for Siri:
- For each HE automation (rule) I'm creating a momentary virtual switch in HE
- The trigger to run the rule is the switch turning on
- On the iPhone, set up a Shortcut that turns on the virtual switch (which immediately turns off, so it acts like a trigger and is ready to go again immediately)
It's a fiddly workaround but it's pretty straightforward and working well so far.
As for the presence configuration, I set up the same kind of thing with virtual switches in HE:
- One virtual switch in HE for each of Home, Away, Night
- Automations in Homekit turn on the appropriate switch in Homekit when physical presence changes which maps to HE
- Inside HE I have automations to turn off the other virtual "presence" switches when one of them changes so I basically end up with mappers that go in both directions
- HE also turn on the appropriate "mode" when these switches change so I can still use
Modein HE
This one is definitely clunky and I wish there was a better solution but it's working.
I am using an AppleTV 4k as my Homekit hub and want to get a Homepod Mini to put in the kitchen to use in addition to my iPhone.
Next I want to set up a Pi 4 with Homebridge and see what other options that opens up. I would like to start by getting my Wyze cameras into Homekit using that.
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You can use the âvirtual presence with switchâ. That way Apple Home can use it as a âswitchâ when your presence changes, but Hubitat can also use it as a âpresenceâ device.
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It might not be clear, but using the "hybrid" presence driver (âvirtual presence with switchâ) allows all the Rules to live on Hubitat, instead of having to make a zillion Automations or Shortcuts on Apple.
Then just add Mode to HomeKit as a display/status/sensor. It puts the 'calculation' of mode in one and only one spot. Trying to sync two systems, is often cause for problems long term. There's nothing wrong with doing it on Apple, but their "rules engine" is very cumbersome above 10 of them, I feel. And I have exactly 10 on my Home app 
But I have fun/silly stuff.. I let myself know that I'm at my Kid's school... only because I wanted to learn how to add locations other than Home.
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