I have the hubitat C-8 and use it to populate devices in my iOS Home app. I have seen that people mention you need an apple device to magically enable remote capabilities with it (ok, I want that so that's ok!). But what else does it give me? If I had the apple tv 4k and NO hubitat, would I have the same capabilities? I can't understand any other benefit besides allowing remote control. Thanks!
Besides adding Apple Home use while away from home a home hub enables running Apple automations and access to Matter devices. Future support of Matter in Hubitat is in beta testing now.
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Exactly. The Apple TV 4K is one of the Apple devices that has the Thread radio in it, and so it can function as a thread boarder router and thus allow you to connect Matter end devices that communicate only via Thread. My understanding from those that have an Apple device like the Apple TV 4K or HomePod have had the best experience with connecting Thread based devices.
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You would not be able to use any z-wave or zigbee devices, and would be limited to using devices officially certified to work directly with HomeKit unless you have a secondary server like Homebridge or Home Assistant running.
The Apple Home app’s automation flexibility/complexity is also much more limited than Hubitat’s, although that’s not necessarily a problem for everyone.
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If you have a place you might like an Apple TV streaming device that is your other benefits. If not then maybe it would be better to get a Home Pod mini (cheaper)? I thought I would have no use for it but it sits on my desk and I use it to play music sometimes, it is a great little speaker. I mainly bought it for the same reason, to allow remote HomeKit access.
I started thinking I was going to be all-in on HomeKit. But I didn't want a ton of wi-fi devices and the Thread options were (and still are) sparse. So I decided that I'd use Z-Wave for lighting (kinda like a poor man's Lutron Caseta LOL but I didn't like the original Lutron switches). But then, there was a world of stuff that was available beyond lighting and I just kept expanding the Z-Wave and my mesh is as solid as can be. I can expose things to use in the Apple Home app but run automations on Hubitat. I'm really happy with this setup.
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