How much do you “trust” homebridge will stick around

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1st, I’d like to thank you all for answering all my questions. I just moved and have a blank slate and you’ve all really helped.

If you’re Apple centric and have used HomeKit you almost cant imagine using another ui, it really is fantastic.
I’ve planned my home around homebridge, ikea blinds, pico remotes, ring, genie garage (no choice), zigbee to homebridge sensors.

All and all I’m looking at $3-$4k which is A LOT of money for me. Id be pretty devastated if homebridge didn’t atleast last 5 years.

In your opinion, how long do you see homebridge lasting? I’ve seen some pretty expensive things like $3k water systems dependent on homebridge, I’d be absolutely devastated..I’m rambling :joy: thoughts?
thank you again

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I think the only people that could give you a meaningful answer work for apple, and I doubt they’ll ever say much.

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Do you have any experience using picos through homebridge or Hubitat? I was told they’re “slow” . Like pico to a zwave switch isn’t instant, it’s noticeable

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I think what you’re referring to is the delay that occurs when using a pico to control Lutron switches via Hubitat.

Picos can be directly associated with Caseta switches and dimmers in the caseta app, which would allow you to control the caseta stuff without delay.

If you want to use picos to control anything else connected to Hubitat (z-wave, zigbee, lan, whatever), there shouldn’t be any delays there either.

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Got it, so I don’t want to control lutron devices with picos via the integration? thx. Are the wired dimmers also exposed via the integration? Can I disable the relays and use them for smart bulbs? Do the dimmers allow hold and double press?
Thank you in advance

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Yes, the wired caseta devices are exposed to Hubitat in the Lutron integration. But the physical buttons on a caseta switch will always turn the load on and off, and there’s no hold or double tap function that can be used for other automations.

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Thank you. So I could set the lights to come on at let’s say 50%

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With a caseta dimmer, the top button always turns on to 100%. Button #2 is hold to fade up, #3 is hold to fade down, and the bottom button is off.

Using motion or other triggers from Hubitat, you could set dimmers to come on at whatever level you prefer.

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Thank you

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Re: your original question, I would think best anyone could guess is that the Apple Home app and HomeKit are likely to last at least another five years, and it’s unlikely Homebridge would stop working completely in that time period.

But it’s an unofficial integration, and there’s just so many variables that could tip the scale one way or another in terms of how likely it’ll be to stick around. I don’t think anyone could confidently predict anything :man_shrugging: . Except maybe Tim Cook :wink:.

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Thank you

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Homebridge will NEVER go away - it's open source and freely available for downloading etc etc. Source code will live on or get forked to something else. It's not an Apple product as far as I know.

What could happen is Apple stops allowing this kind of server to connect but it's hard to imagine why they would do that as it cuts out a largish section of home automation devices that they can claim are not really supported but take advantage of the fact that they are (if that makes sense).

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I understand

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Right, the code will never go away, but no one knows if apple might eventually come up with a reason that prompts them to somehow block it.

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Yeah I think if "Matter" starts to matter (bad pun) then maybe we could see something like that. On the other hand I just installed the "shairport-sync" airplay (v1) server on an RPi for a client that wanted the simple ability to stream via their iDevices. While it's certainly lacking a lot of cool features of Airplay2 it still works rather well...

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It could also be that by keeping Homebridge around acts as an alternative against "Matter". Apple does like to do things their own way. The other possibility is HB morphs into a Matter "bridge" for older devices etc etc.

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As someone who just finally got around to doing the MacOS Big Sur upgrade on my Macbook Pro, I would never say never about ANY Apple feature making it beyond the next upgrade cycle any more. The gaudy login screen wallpaper (that's not intended to be user-changeable) would surely make Steve Jobs roll over in his grave:

If that isn't bad enough, they did away with Mission Control a few versions ago and now removed all of the useful widgets (like calculator) from the notifications bar. Mac computers have had quick calculators in Mission Control or the notification bar for over a decade, and making someone dig for a standalone app every time they need to do a quick calculation is counter-productive to say the least. I just dropped $10 in the App Store for a third-party calculator tool that sits in the menu bar, because this simple function is a critical thing for me.

Sorry or the rant, but I would not put it past Microsoft, er, I mean Apple to do something wacky with good intentions like encrypt/sign HomeKit packets so that Homebridge cannot function any more in the very near future.....

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Yeah sure but there are already a bunch of certified devices out on the market so Apple would likely "AirPlay" it - release a newer version with more features and let the old stuff be just compatible enough.

I wonder how big the HomeBridge market really is? At a certain size it would be hard to ignore.

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Stay tuned for WWDC next week… you never know what new and exciting details might be revealed.

HomeOS maybe?

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Yup, your experience helps make the case, apple can do whatever they want, no one else can really predict what that’ll be.