I'm thinking about picking up a few home pod mini's to test out the thread protocol. If I Have a home pod mini in the same room as an iPhone or other apple device that has Siri will the Home pod mini respond over the other devices or is it whichever one hears you?
Which ever hears you
1 Like
kind of a dumb way to word my previous question but I think amazon tv has an option to give it priority over other Alexa devices in the same room. Curious if Home pod has something like it.
That I can't answer as I don't have an apple TV to compare but there is no priority option. When 2 homepods are in stereo, you look at one and say something and other one across the room reacts, go figure 
1 Like
Yeah there is really no good answer as sound bounces around a lot and determining the distance of the source of the sound is very difficult. Alexa has a feature that tries, and is decent but often messes up still, especially in an open floor plan house. I would just recommend deafening all devices that you do not want to respond, say for instance one of the speakers in a stereo pair.
2 Likes
There's this:
Which device responds to āHey Siriā
When you say āHey Siriā near multiple devices that support āHey Siri,ā the devices use Bluetooth to quickly communicate with each other and determine which one should respond to the request. The device that responds is the one that heard you best or was recently raised or used.HomePod responds to most Siri requests, even when other devices that support āHey Siriā are nearby. To use Siri on a specific device, raise to wake that device or press the button to use Siri, then make your request.
Also for the Home Automation, Apple designates one device to be the "hub" and the rest are secondary/failover.
1 Like
Make sure you have some Thread HomeKit devices to act as routers. HomePod mini's are border router. Limited choice so far but latest versions of EU (not UK) Energy plugs are routers and the NanoLeaf bulbs. The latest Eve Window/Door sensor is an end device not router and Eve Aqua will get a Thread firmware update soon also an end device as battery powered.
1 Like
Picked up 10 nanoleaf essentials a19 bulbs, Apple store 2hr delivery is way too easy getting addicting. I'm going to try and put them into a group and see if they will all turn on at the same time. I seen a video of thread protocol was pretty impressive probably the same as zigbee it's all wifi 
I seen all my Apple tv's except one in standby mode. I hope I can designate the Homepod to be the hub for thread protocol. Going to find out in a bit
1 Like
I think you can but let us know!
Apple doesn't let you pick which HomeKit hub is "Connected", and you will notice the Connected hub will change constantly.
The good news, you don't care. All of the hubs are active when it comes to communicating and controlling devices (via BLE or Thread). The "Connected" hub is just the one that is actively updating the HomeKit database in iCloud.
2 Likes
Full disclosure, while my home is 100% device control and automation with Hubitat and then just front end control with HomeKit, I am setting up my mom's house soon and it will be 100% Apple with all Apple hub paired Thread devices. Not going to pick something complicated like HE to create a tech support nightmare for me. 
2 Likes
I mentioned this in an earlier thread but it really isn't that bad especially if you can remote in... so hookup a RaspberryPI and a VPN like WireGuard. Of course accessing Apple stuff makes it easy too I guess. Just that the routines aren't that sophisticated.
1 Like
Agreed, but moms doesn't need any of the sophisticated rules or routines.
I already have a business router at her house with full VPN remote access. Maybe I will do HE, who knows. 
1 Like
Added a few Homepod mini's your right it does =WoW!! In so many ways. Thread protocol seems legit
2 Likes
Should we be concerned that homebridge will one day not be allowed as an "unsupported" bridge device to the HomeKit ecosystem? Oy. That would be bad.
1 Like
The sophistication isn't for her - if you play your cards right the automation should be background stuff as much as possible. Lights turn off after a certain amount of inactivity, turn off/on based on sunrise/sunset. Water leak alerts etc. My Tech-phobic aunt really likes the smartthings single button to turn on/off a lamp. Very simple and non-threatening.
I donāt think so, Home Bridge uses Appleās published API integration spec. Itās not reverse engineered.
2 Likes
Alright your thread just convinced to get one to try out on my setup. I have been looking to localize things and the only thing left on my setup that is seemingly unnecessarily cloud based is the voice processing of the echos.
2 Likes
Iām pretty certain youāre using Appleās cloud when using Siri, but local control otherwise. I originally set this up in my house because we all have iPhones and the HE dashboards are to complicated for my wife and daughters, Alexa dashboards are just terrible/ awkward and too simplistic, and I trust Google even less than Amazon so I didnāt even look at that. I just wish Homekit used a slider for color temperature. I hate the guessing when setting up automations in Homekit.
1 Like
