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.

  • mgrimace@lemmy.caEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    Hi, I’m a HA and HK user personally, and it doesn’t at all have to be an ‘either-or’ scenario.

    First, and foremost, RatGDO works exceptionally well with HK with the native homekit firmware: https://github.com/ratgdo/homekit-ratgdo. It’s rock solid and responsive, and I’ve been using the original RatGDO device since the whole API fiasco years ago.

    Second, HA (or alternatively Homebridge), can both be used to connect non-homekit devices into the homekit ecosystem. That was my primary use-case of HA. For example, our hodge-podge collection of Govee light strips, Doorbell, Tuya switches, and Lifx bulbs are all in our Home apps. The kids + spouse don’t know any different, it’s all just in Home and responds to ‘hey siri’, including the garage… There’s various plugins for many devices, and with the homekit addon, you just pipe all your devices right into HK.

    Then, with HA, you get the added bonus of your own Dashboard. For example, I use this to see what’s playing on the various screens around the house. You can also do more complex automations, which can include services you don’t hook into HK like your kids minecraft server, etc.

    The point being, you don’t have to choose one or the other, HA was incredibly useful for me to get stuff INTO homekit, and for the family that might be all they interact with. While you on the backend get more control tothen tinker with the automations, etc.