Hi, my name is @dohpaz42@lemmy.world and I am a HomeKit user.

My draw to HomeKit is the ecosystem, and its ease of use for me and for my kids (we are all iOS users).

I have been reading about the differences between both Home Assistant (HA) and HomeKit (HK), and I do like the idea of having more control over everything, and exponentially more devices available to me through HA.

In fact, what inspired my research is to look for an alternative to myQ for my garage door opener. And while I have found ratgdo that can do everything myQ can do, and more, it’s my basic understanding that HK support is not as great as HA.

I do understand that to use HA, I will need something to use as a dedicated hub; I have a few Pis running in my house already that I could easily make into a dedicated hub. So that’s not an issue.

I am also tech savvy, but I do not wish to spend all of my waking hours tweaking things. More importantly, I want to know if my kids can easily use HA devices without them having to be tech savvy.

Can HA be set up in a way that my kids can just point and click using apps on their devices? Can anybody help show me (screenshots, videos) what that might look like?

Thank you in advance.

  • Seefoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    HA integrated with homekit well. I like to tinker, but hate doing interface/dashboard work. I did find an auto dashboard for HA which has made our lives easier. My long term hope is to use a voice assisstant for the rest.

    Since it sounds like youre handy already, i would really dig into the dashboard side since that will dictate how easy it is for your family to use.

  • mbirth 🇬🇧@lemmy.mlEnglish
    10·
    7 days ago

    ¿Por qué no los dos? Make Home Assistant your master automation system because it supports a huge amount of devices. And then expose those to HomeKit using the HomeKit Bridge service.

    This makes all compatible devices (i.e. everything HomeKit can interpret) show up in Apple Home, too.

    That’s how I do it, so I can ask my HomePods to turn lights on and off or lower the blinds.

  • ohshit604@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    8 days ago

    I don’t use Home Assistant personally as I also use Apple products, if you read into Homebridge it’s a piece of software that turns smart devices that are not HomeKit enabled devices into HomeKit enabled devices, and enables new functionality to devices that are already HomeKit enabled. Definitely worth considering.

    This was significantly cheaper than converting all my Apple products into android products.

    To quickly spin it up I would suggest reading into Docker and Docker compose, docker takes applications and containerizes them and lets them run over your network.

  • Tolstoy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    7 days ago

    Never touched HK but a buddy of mine uses it only. AFAIK HK compatibility is expensive compared to cheap HA integrations. Even hardware not specifically for HA can be integrated like Tuya products with “local Tuya” so the availability is huge compared to HK. Getting into HA takes a bit time but it’s worth it.

    There is an HA app on android and iOS where you can create widgets for all kind off stuff ranging from switches over sensors to scenes and automations. Or you can create multiple dashboards for each kid with their own layout.

    It’s at least worth a try.

  • darkan15@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    8 days ago

    There is a recent video by DB Tech of him talking about his HA setup and how he did setup tablets in different rooms to manage devices, including his kid’s room.

  • rouxdoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    8 days ago

    Regarding your myQ, get away if you can. You can find an inexpensive HK device from Meross that will likely work for you.

    If you want to use HA then you will end up migrating all of your HK devices to be paired with HA and then you can bridge them all (and more) back to HK so your family does not have to learn anything new.