The problem is that every App wants to be the center of attention, no one wants to give up that control. This is the problem not only with smart devices...
Many certified apps are also paid or require a subscription, which keeps users away from trying every option. Open source solutions exist, but most companies don't like them, so no device works on them unless you built them yourself. As of right now, smart homes are inaccessible.
I don't know what these companies need to do differently, but matter NEEDS to be quick and painless to setup to get normal people on board with buying smart home things, and all these connectivity errors and stuff not working despite doing everything the app is asking is just not cutting it. I dream of a future where you can have a house that does everything around you for you, and we have the technology to do that already, but there's way too much mucking about trying to get it working right now.
Issue is really just company just like doing its own thing and trying squeeze exclusivity. Maybe it will be better with more universal protocol like Matter. It's late but better than never. We just all hope there will be like smart home devices talking to same protocol in the near feature and making set-up painless all while being secure.
I just jumped into this smarthome thing. After a lot of digging I found Zigbee+Homeassistant to be the best solution and so far with 30+ switches around 50 plugs, bunch of motion and other sensors later I still think its the best solution.
yep, the issue is companies not wanting to support a standard but instead wanting to push their own exclusive apps ( for your data ) tldr, only support companies that support standards properly and don't buy garbage.
This is the ultimate example of that old XKCD comic of "We have too many standards, we need one that does it all. Result: there are now 15 competing standards"
After seeing this video i realized how painless home assistant actually is. I mean you can even automate using python to truly do anything you want and it. just. works.
I startet with Home Assistant just to bridge incompatible devices into HomeKit. I soon realised HA was the better platform. I still use HomeKit today, but only for a remote because of the way integrates into iOS
@@Lumcoinwhile HA is great, I am not sure “it just works” really applies. Things randomly just break ALL THE TIME. But, you can fix it. Which is awesome.
@@harmvzon because all smart locks work on wifi....there's at least three other protocols that don't have anything to do with Wifi or the cloud. And what thief do you know that is going to take the time to "HACK" into someones home just to unlock their door....rather than just kicking in the door in. Anyone smart enough to legitimately hack into someones home probabaly doesn't want any of their middle class stuff and makes more than most of us tinfoiling in here
You should probably talk about Homebridge, which can be run on any computer even a Raspberry PI. It allows a lot of devices not compatible with Homekit to work with Homekit with plugins. For example, my Gree heat pump/AC units have their plugin in there, so they can now be controlled by Apple Home. It even allows you to create "dummy switches" to facilitate automation implementation (especially with shortcuts) with the "Homebridge Plugin Command Dev". For example, you could create a dummy switch called "Night Time" switch that would turn on at sunset and turn off at sunrise. You can even specify a terminal-based command to execute when the switch toggles on or off, so if you want to call an API for something when that happens, you can!
Yeah I was disappointed to see this was just "throw out working things and spend a bunch of money on new ones" rather than "spend a little time and effort with some cool nerd stuff to make all your existing stuff work together"
The biggest problem with smart home is that companies want me to upgrade my light switches and cameras and light bulbs and whatever else I have every 3-5 years like a smart phone. No, just no! Even if their cloud services do stay online beyond the end of their security updates, I now have an ultra insecure network connected time bomb on my network. Some of us have enough know-how to VLAN the stuff, but the average smart home user shouldn’t need to be CCNA certified to ensure their smart home devices aren’t dangerous to their digital safety.
@@un_lucioUntil there aren't more updates for "your" specific product, and the servers go down, or the company goes bankrupt, so you end up with an insecure device or total e-waste
@@someoneelse3876 OH! Thank you for explaining why I see unexpected ULAs on my devices. In /theory/, they shouldn’t cause any problems because any device getting an IPv6 address from it will know it’s a local-only address (like RFC1918, but less gross) and so it won’t try to route traffic through it. I’d have thought the TV being on the network would have made all the Thread stuff “Just Work” earlier in the video - that’s surely why it does it.
Spot on. Unfortunately there are Matter presence sensors but no Homekit ones that I've found, and I don't want another sodding hub just for a presence sensor. 😐 If I'm missing an option, please anyone feel free to correct me!
Horst isn't the tallest person at LMG. That accolade goes to Lucas Nieuwenhout, the Labs' Electrical Engineering person, who is 6'7" (I think) and very hard to get in the same frame as Linus.
This entire video is exactly why I've only ever used one brand of smart home products. One brand, one app, and one (mostly) easy experience. It also helps that the only smart home device I have are smart bulbs and an LED strip for my desk.
*correct me if I’m wrong. The script states that you “need a thread router for matter”. That is incorrect, you need a thread border router for thread devices, but many matter devices still communicate via wifi.
@@rakshith-ravi Matter is the compatibility layer. Thread is the network layer. Something being Matter compatible means any Smart Home System (Alexa, HomeKit, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings are examples of this) can add the device. Right now, if you have a device that can only be added to Alexa, you can't add it to any other home system. That's why if you want things natively in the Apple Home app, you need a Made for Apple HomeKit device. These devices will talk to each other either using Zigbee or one of the other ones out right now, but you're basically locked into one Home system, and usually need a home hub for that specific system (HomePods for Apple HomeKit) Matter removes this block and lets you add any matter device to any home system. Thread is like WiFi/ZigBee/Bluetooth, etc. This is how the devices connect to each other and to the home hub. It's the mesh network underlying the home system. Matter over Wifi is just the product connecting to your home system using WiFi, and Matter over Thread devices connect via Thread (and that's why you need a Thread Border Router (which certain home hubs like Apple HomePods can act as), you most likely already have a WiFi router which is why it's usually not included as part of the conversation). Thread is a lot less power consumption, so you'd want this over WiFi for battery-powered stuff, etc
@@rakshith-ravi Matter is the compatibility layer. Thread is the network layer. Something being Matter compatible means any Smart Home System (Alexa, HomeKit, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings are examples of this) can add the device. Right now, if you have a device that can only be added to Alexa, you can't add it to any other home system. That's why if you want things natively in the Apple Home app, you need a Made for Apple HomeKit device. These devices will talk to each other either using Zigbee or one of the other ones out right now, but you're basically locked into one Home system, and usually need a home hub for that specific system (HomePods for Apple HomeKit) Matter removes this block and lets you add any matter device to any home system. Thread is like WiFi/ZigBee/Bluetooth, etc. This is how the devices connect to each other and to the home hub. It's the mesh network underlying the home system. Matter over Wifi is just the product connecting to your home system using WiFi, and Matter over Thread devices connect via Thread (and that's why you need a Thread Border Router (which certain home hubs like Apple HomePods can act as), you most likely already have a WiFi router which is why it's usually not included as part of the conversation). Thread is a lot less power consumption, so you'd want this over WiFi for battery-powered stuff, etc
@@rakshith-raviShane Whatley and Eric Welander have good videos on the subject. In summary, a thread network is a mesh. Battery powered devices usually are just “child devices” or endpoints. Mains powered devices are usually a “router” which just means that it becomes a junction in the mesh and is able to pass mesh network traffic to other devices in the mesh. A “border router” is a device that is able to connect the Thread mesh network to another TCP/IP network like your home network. It functions similar to a network gateway (which we commonly call a router) that connects your home network to your ISP’s network.
There are times I wish I had smart bulbs and smart locks and so on but then this video comes along and shows me that straight up, I wouldn’t have the patience to troubleshoot anymore. I used to buy my own modem and router for my Internet service to save myself a five dollar rent Fee but I got tired of having network issues and when I called my ISP they would tell me they couldn’t help because it wasn’t their router. I’ve got other things going on in the last thing I want to do is spend 30 minutes or more troubleshooting why my lightbulb isn’t on Wi-Fi.
I use smart lights, a smart lock, and a smart thermostat with presence/temp sensors in most rooms. I made sure to buy models that supported HomeKit, so they all integrate well and are pretty reliable. There are extra features in the Hue app that make it nicer for setting colorful lights, but adjusting on the fly works well in the Home app. Word of warning: don’t pair a Hue Bridge to your ROG Ally. That was an hour of madness.
I have Philips Hue since 2018 and never replaced a thing, they work pretty well specifically now that I’ve routed some automation thru homeassitant and NodeRed. I also have a ZigBee dongle to handle all other brands of devices (mostly sonoff and ikea) and it works really really well. Quite stable I’d say. Even integrated with the Hyperion Project for the TV ambilight and couldn’t be happier
I have an HomeKit/Apple Home setup and it all works great. I found that good WiFi is essential as are multiple HomeHubs and Thread Boarder Routers for reliability. I’ve hardwired (CAT6) my 2x AppleTV 4K (non thread model) and have 2x HomePod Mini’s and 3x HomePod (1st Gen). I always try and keep my AppleTV’s as my primary HomeHub. A task that will become a lot easier in iOS 18 with the ability to select your preferred hub (at last being added). I have Aqara, Eve, Nanoleaf devices and an LG TV all running natively within Apple Home, along with HomeBridge bringing in my Nest Thermostat, Nest Protect Smoke Alarms and a Panasonic TV. I’ve also got 3x Aqara Cameras using HKSV as well.
It's not just on apple. Android also has the same problems. Especially when you are just starting. There are some that needs a hub for it to work. Bought a wireless switch because I didn't want to fiddle with the actual electrical panel switches, those needed a hub... only them. And as I was starting I bought a different brand than what I am using generally now, but later found that they didn't have other smart devices like plugs, switches, etc. so I had to switch to a different brand that had those. But I am still using the first ones I bought ass the lights we're actually better, now I use Google home on my phone as a bridge and set-up smart automatic, so I tell this device to also switch on if I switch this other ones. So even if I use the branded switch, it can also turn on the other branded switch automatically. It gets kinda confusing sometimes as I set up scheduled on and off for some of them, and I either use the branded app and/or the Google home app. Don't get me started trying to use Samsung's smart home type set-up as I tried it two times, and I am reminded every time why I didn't use Samsung's smart home feature. As I could not figure it out. Would love to figure out how I can make it work locally without the internet, but couldn't.
My devices are -Aqara U100 lock -Aqara G4 doorbell - Apple TV4k - Nest Thermostat -Nest cameras -Starling hub - HomePods -Lutron caseta switches - then random smart plugs and light strips throughout the house. For me personally, Aqara devices are going to be one of your best bet for HomeKit. The U100 lock is hands down the best. The Aqara G4 doorbell isn’t the greatest video quality wise but does have nice features. Apple TV4k is a must w/ HomeKit. If you have a HomeKit doorbell it will show a live feed to the TV and you can answer it through the tv if it’s rung. If you’re willing to spend extra for NEST devices, getting a Starling Hub works great to use the devices in HomeKit.
@@hikkamorii I think that depends a lot on the devices you want to connect. In my parents home, with solar, a car charger and a lot of smart blinds and some thermostats, anything was detected via bluetooth and wifi effortlessly. All I had to do was add the detected device to the home assistant in one click. Except for the car charger I had to install HACS, but that wasnt much of an issue as its well documented. I run hass in a docker container with watchtower on an external drive of a raspberry and everything just works flawlessly.
I exclusively use IKEA smart home products for my home. I have the hub and add all devices to the IKEA home smart app, and once integration with Apple HomeKit was enabled, it all appeared in Apple HomeKit. So I usually add the devices in the IKEA app, but use Apple Home exclusively to control everything. Sometimes you may need to correct room config for the added devices as it doesn’t always import it correctly from the IKEA app, but for the most part it works really really well and I am super happy with it. I have IKEA bulbs, motion sensors, door/window sensors, water leak sensors, buttons and switches and it all works pretty good, and I don’t think you can get smart home devices cheaper than IKEA? (don’t quote me on that, as you probably can? But IKEA is a cheap entry into smart home-ing!)
Thank you for not trying to gaslight me into pretending that IPv6 isn't a nightmare. Also, nice touch with the iOS 6 UI elements in the beginning. Also also, I hate all of this so-called 'smart' tech. Just give me a nice internal web server for configuration any day of the week.
IPv6 “the protocol” is fine. IPv6 implementations, documentation, and support, well… Lets just say I have less kind words for them. There’s nothing wrong with the spec itself, manufacturers just insist on half assing it and treating it like a second class citizen, so people don’t use it, which just makes them hesitant to improve it… Apalrd is a TH-camr that does some really great IPv6 content if you want to learn some
@@almc8445 It may be "fine" from a technical and future-proofing perspective, but dealing with devices on the network thanks to those ludicrous addresses and the horribly complicated process of configuring DHCP reservations is still awful. That said, I understand the protocol's importance and maybe I should have configured DNS properly so I wouldn't need to rely on IP addresses, but it's still a needless complication for me (in a sense) because everything I manage works just fine under IPv4. Thanks for the recommendation, though, I'll check it out. I still hate IPv6.
yep. ill never understand this crap either. Are you so trusting tech you want a smartlock because a house key takes too long to use??? I understand dimmer switchesis nice but besides that? Its faster to just use a switch. Right now i type this comment through my phone to an app on my htpc. But a keyboard at a desk is faster obvoiusly.
This vid is representative of the state of Matter. Home automatization is rather easy. Only significant friction is setting up a 2.4 GHz network, when required. Other than that, for smart lamps, it takes a few simple steps to follow, when dealing with a mature solution (having already worked out the kinks).
@@toseltreps1101 , obviously, similar benefits, even better, to using a remote rather that getting up to interface with your TV. Being able to have a whole room, house, turn off when you leave, automate changes, simply modulate intensity, colors and status (ON/OFF) via simple commands (e.g.: voice, smart switches, light sensors) is evidently advantageous.
I have a fairly comprehensive smarthome setup (using Home Assistant), and of all the things in it the most useful is the ability to fall back to 'dumb' operation when your router or smarthome hub needs a reboot. (The second most useful one is my bathroom light turning on to red at night, so I can take a midnight dump without losing my night vision.)
My experience is that, as much as possible, to stay in one ecosystem for each home you're trying to automate. For instance, my parents' beach house has all Google/Nest smart appliances, including mesh WiFi, thermostats, and Yale/Nest door lock. Next year I'm going to add a video doorbell. It works (although I do get occasional messages that one or more WiFi hubs are offline, but when I get there everything is still working). Since we rent it out on the summer rental market the fact that it works all remotely is peace of mind. My own house is HomeKit or Ubiquiti only, which is why I'm only very slowly adding things to it. My parents' house is all Amazon (including Ring). Once Matter becomes more ubiquitous and the problems ironed out, I may start to use other smart devices.
I tried to go with all tplink, emporia, eufy, and govee to keep it as simple as possible. light bulbs, switches, and outlets are all tplink, energy monitoring, EV charging, and smart plugs are emporia, eufy is cameras and door locks, and govee is accent lighting. I have random devices around the house as well, but 90+% of my smart home is these 4 brands - which all work with alexa and home assistant - plus their native apps are decent as well. I am still trying to get home assistant working, but in the meantime, I have voice control over the entire house with at least one echo dot in every room (some have multiple - like the master bedroom for stereo effect of sleep sounds) - which also allows for whole home audio for parties.
And thats why I use Home Assistant as a bridge. Every device matter, HomeKit or whatever goes in there and the HomeAssistant then exposes these Devices to Apple Home. Many Automations run in HomeAssistant but all location based ones in Apple Home. Works like a charm.
Rather than change over to matter, I’ve had a Raspberry Pi running with Homebridge for the past few year that has worked great for non HomeKit supported bulbs. Carried out a bit of an upgrade last Christmas too, so includes now all my outdoor lighting, radiator valves, EV Charger, LG TV’s, smart plugs, Ring cameras and Alarm, all controlled within the Home App.
When I found out about smart bulbs and outlets I was super excited. I too ran into the Issues Jon & Jake did during setup. I had the get the app & then add the devices to home app. It took me 30 minutes to add ONE bulb. Im a It Admin so I know my way around tech, but this is frustrating during the beginning setup. I found the best product need to support home kit it makes the process go by so much easier. So fat I have 2 bulbs & 2 outlets that are awesome when they work. mine are set to turn off when I leave & turn on when I arrive also I set the HomePods to play music once I arrive as well. Last but not least the 2.4 is a pain to, if you dont have you own router outside of what your ISP gives you, its a nightmare & you have to split the networks and hope it works then without effecting your router performance. Theres a lot of head wind to doing a HomeKit setup. If you are not persistent, it a huge under taking.
aqara ecosystem works fine with apple. I have 5 sensors and 2 cameras from aqara, they are fantastic, works every time. For lights I prefer smart switches, I installed 12 sonoff devices with tasmota firmware, so I’m rocking with matter, apple homekit and google home are mates at my home.
The matter hub does not need to be on the same 2.4ghz netwok for wireless devices, just the same vlan IPv6 can work locally, there is no need for support from the ISP for outbound internet connections for matter
The time I’ve spent with home bridge and home assistant just to get everything working in the Apple home app… Matter makes all of that time seem like a waste. I should’ve just waited. Love that they’ve finally figured this all out. The only thing I’d say about this video and complaints of spending all day on it is to just start slow with smart home. Automate a light here and there as a use comes up. Eventually everything will get there and it won’t feel like it was much work.
That intro just made me want my glass and skeuomorphic buttons back. PLEASE can we get amazing looking UIs again on these OLED bezelless displays?? I miss enjoying using my technology instead of “putting up with it”.
I've experimented with a lot of types of smart products starting with the usuals - bulbs and power plugs. However, the single best thing I've done in the 2-3 years of my having this stuff is in a bedroom corridor I have that for some bizarre reason has no lights in it nor any source of natural light. Get up at night for the bathroom and you're in the dark. I have motion sensors pointing either way in the corridor which trigger an led strip I have along the floor (yes, inspired by airplane safety) along with lights in the adjoining room. So, if you're walking from the front of the house, or from the bedrooms - either end of the corridor - you get the light. It's an actual real-life quality of life improvement and it cost a fraction of gettin an electrician to put in lights and switches due to the design of the house.
A lot of people do have Philips Hue already. If you have a modern hub, square one, then you can also connect NON Philips matter devices to it and effortlessly get them into HomeKit that way without the need for multiple other hubs. Works with other brands of zigbee devices too! Good to know when choosing products. Also, for many other things there is Homebrigde! This make unsupported stuff show up in HomeKit like my Samsung tv, my Glue smart lock and my UniFi protect cameras getting face recognition and HomeKit secure video this way! Yes now UniFi protect also support face recognition but it doesn’t ring on HomePods or pop up on Apple TV without the awesome homebridge integration.
That last point really sums up smart homes. It’s not just a brand, or a protocol, it’s a mess with everything. I’ve tried so many setups and WiFi settings, pairing, random disconnects - everything is just terrible and it honestly seems to be just as bad as it was when I first started adding this stuff 6 years ago.
As an iPhone user I've added some smart home components piecemeal because I Apple Home kit hasn't been readily compatible with the smart home devices I've wanted to buy. It feels a bit disjointed to use several apps to control those devices, but seeing this video confirms that separate apps is probably the best option for me.
Im working at a bigger lighting manufacturer where we now also build matter devices. My department is the smarthome and controls team.I can tell you matter already had a huge impact in the iot and smarthome market. But in my opinion it need 2-3 years more to be fully working.
I have a combination of Lutron smart switches, Hue bulbs, and Meross smart switches. Aside from needing to power cycle the Meross switches every now and then, I've had a pretty good experience. If you're willing to shell for the Homekit compatible stuff, it can work quite seamlessly.
I find that homekit works flawlessly if i just buy products made for it. Products that specifically have the sticker on the box. No issues with Aqara products so far. Things get wonky if venture out, Govee outdoor lights for example has alotta issues in homekit.
we have fairy lights set to a timer also, they're on a tp-link smart plug! it's set and forget and just works, i've had really good luck with tp-link in general. dunno about the brand mentioned in the video here x.x
My circa 2010 Time Machine and only barely newer Airport Extreme units conveniently offer LAN-only IPv6. This enables devices on the internal network to get an IPv6 address from the DHCP server in the router and communicate with all the other devices on the network, but the IPv6 does _not_ leak onto the greater internet via the WAN interface. I find it hard to imagine that any new routers made in 2024 wouldn't offer similar functionality. It is NOT, however, a surprise that such settings are hidden. 🤣
I have around 40 devices in the Home app, like one of them is actually HomeKit certified. Most of the rest are zigbee through a Hubitat hub and connected through Homebridge. Full local control and open standards, if the manufacturer of my zigbee hub ever goes under I'll just migrate them to a new one. I can also do more advanced automation and have virtual switches in Home.
It depends on the products. Really the ones with hubs have been the best. I have Lutron for my wall switches and Phillips Hue light strips and have no issues
Shane Whatley has been helping us all build out HomeKit based smarthomes that work with the iPhone WITHOUT getting into Home Assistant (better but not for the technically simple). While he has touched on some 3rd Party bridge solutions like Hoobs, HomeBridge, and Homey, he’s kept it HomeKit and/or Matter native for the most part.
i have an extensive home system, every bulb and switch in every room is Philips Hue, I have 20+ Meross smart plugs, motion sensors in every room. All connected to homekit. I have not upgraded to Matter - nor will I as I don't want to have to set every device up again. The system works 99.9% of the time. Every now and then the Hue system hub decides to have a think for a few minutes which can be frustrating for my family when the switches and bulbs don't work as expected but the meross plugs are very reliable. Being able to turn all 20 of my retro consoles on with Siri voice control is still very satisfying indeed. It is a pain to set up that's true. But until Matter has matured - i'll stick with the old ways.
I have a all Philips hue setup and have only ever had issues with the sync box, never the lights. Matter was a nice addition that allowed me to use home kit more readily though I find myself just using the hue app or my hue switches more than anything for their reliability! Edit: While its great and i love it, the downside is the price, Facebook marketplace and some luck made it much cheaper for me though lol
A seamless and efficient smart home ecosystem is still a distant dream. Currently, we have a collection of random control apps for different brands, which is especially problematic for Apple users. Even with Matter and Thread, these solutions aren't widely available globally, and when they are, they can be two to three times more expensive than in the USA.
I'm building a house and each socket and switch has a power supply and a so-called stair switch plus a data cable. I know there are a lot of cables, but everything is managed from one place and I have no problems with Wi-Fi connectivity. Datacable receives a signal from the infrared presence sensor and if the device is analog, the staircase switch is turned on, and if the device is digital, a signal is sent via WiFi, that's why everything works because I have reduced digital devices on WiFi to a minimum.
video definitely highlights how fragmented and inefficient Matter as a standard is right now still. But even for Apple home users, there are much better ways to obtain pretty much all the functionality (and more honestly) for the type of products used here, while also gaining on physical device options. instead of focusing on individual devices that work with HomeKit, you need to focus on which smart home HUBS work well with HomeKit. one smart home Hub that would have been perfect for this situation would be Hubitat. it's relatively inexpensive, and it allows you to leverage mature smart home protocols like Z-wave and Zigbee to populate your device needs while being able to control them all in one place within Apple home. so instead of being limited to a handful of matter devices for each category, you can use Z-wave AND Zigbee devices to broaden the options you have. best part is Hubitat is not cloud dependent nor does it require an internet connection at all honestly and it keeps your network clutter free as none of these devices require Wi-Fi, the only requirement is that you put your hub on your local network.
Although they’re so damn expensive, I went with Philips Hue and never had a single issue. I have a single hue hub and multiple hue products throughout my house. They all work. They just work. Installation was very easy and whenever I need to add a new product, it only takes a second to add it.
I used to have 4 smart plugs, bulbs, and more going on with google home minis. At some point, we realized we were more frustrated with the smart home stuff than just turning on the lights manually. For now, the only smart stuff we have is one on my balcony to turn the fairy lights on at night
I invested in my smart home setup a few years back, and TP-Link Kasa with Google Home/Assistant/Gemini has worked overall for all my lights using their plug adapter but one which is a bulb adapter(smart bulbs don't get bright enough) on my carport, and a smart smoke alarm, which are smart life branded. then for my speakers I stuck mostly with the official Google Home Hubs, and mini's in my greatroom, mancave, front living room, and bathrooms, but in the bedrooms Lenovo Smart Clock essentials, and Smart Clock 2 with wireless charge base have worked well, now if Google would stop taking away features like the night lights on the Lenovo clocks via voice that would be AWESOME!!
I feel like a lot of the reason setting up Matter is hard is not because of the standard itself, but because how much ISPs and router manufactures hate IPv6 even though it has existed for 28 years and is just a better standard than IPv4.
My experience is that i had to give up on matter and homekit and moved everything to Alexa/Google Home instead, much easier to setup and control. If you’re really set on having HomeKit just setup a Homebridge server on anything, even a raspberry pi, inside there you connect your smarthome stuff, then create the homekit config and add it to your iPhone, the only issue is that not every smarthome device works easily with third party APIs, like Samsung API require your homebridge to be exposed on the internet to access it because the signal jumps from their servers to your device instead of going on your home network only, and that’s another can of worms you don’t wanna open because you need a HTTPS certificate and you need to secure your network from external access.
How long do you think it’ll take them to iron things out? I’m not in the market for a smart home system right now but I will be in 3-4 years from now. And I’d like to maintain all devices through just one app and preferably they connect to a home server rather than some cloud. Is this possible?
when apple smart home devices work, they work amazingly well, but when you make one change, like a router, sure most of it works no problem and I bet some people have no problems switching it, I sure have, but my last router, I had a problem with one of the home pod mini's where restarting wouldn't have it turning lights on and off or doing anything unless I tell it which room. fixed it eventually with removing it and reading it. but even that didn't work straight away.
It's generally incorrect that the phone, device, and hubs all need to be on the same 2.4ghz network. A ton of devices ONLY have 2.4ghz hardware, so that's one thing - but the phone you're setting it up on and the hub shouldn't matter. Most home routers will share broadcast/discovery packets across your entire network. Most home users do not have different subnets between those Wi-Fi groups. The only exception would be if you had an isolated network for IOT devices (in which case, yes, they should be all on the same network).
This is the reason of why I refused to buy any matter devices that worked through WiFi. Thread may be cumbersome, but I have saved myself the hassle of needing to use 2.4GHz networks just for IoT devices, with all the requirements that come from it. All my plugs and lights run through Thread currently and I haven't had any issues with them whatsoever. (I gave up on making my stuff work through Google Home though, so it's currently running on Apple Home and Home Assistant only).
I use a couple of philips hue lights, definitely not as much or as fancy, but it took like 15min from starting to unbox the stuff until everything was installed and talking to each other
Thanks for this heads up. I've been wanting to set up a smart home, and just assumed it was as easy as it should be. This is a warning that I should be selective on what I buy.
Wiz bulbs are so chatty on the network. I’ve basically relegated them to on off lights because you can set it up to double switch to a different scene. So it’s always on super dim on the first switch and 50% when you toggle it. I’ve switched to Phillips hue everywhere else and it’s magically consistent but the price is brutal. With the bridge tho they don’t clog up my bandwidth with a ton of back and forth like the wiz bulbs did so that’s a plus.
I tried to connect the Nanoleaf matter bulb to my apple home , it worked flawlessly for a day and then just wouldn’t work properly. It dropped connection almost every time. I have an apple tv 4k with Ethernet as my thread border router. Also fun fact the Wiz branded light in India doesn’t support matter so that was a bust. I ended up paying a good sum for Hue and it’s great . Never once did it drop a connection . That’s my 2cents
Last week I had the connection issues with a new nest protect, and the solution was enabling ipv6 and forcing 2.4ghz WiFi. If only I had seen this video then I could have saved hours of frustration!
So I actually Setup a Homebridge on a raspberry Pi. Here you can get a lot of custom configs for products that are normally only Google or Alexa compatible. I have the Govee TV Lights (Ambilight thingies) and they actually run over my homebridge on the Raspberry Pi. I can use Siri Voice Recognition and everything. I‘ve also reverted to using Shelly Switches instead of changing the Lightbulbs everywhere. They have a custom firmware for the Homekit and I can control every lightswitch and therefore even my „dumb“ lights the same way
The problem is that every App wants to be the center of attention, no one wants to give up that control. This is the problem not only with smart devices...
Many certified apps are also paid or require a subscription, which keeps users away from trying every option. Open source solutions exist, but most companies don't like them, so no device works on them unless you built them yourself.
As of right now, smart homes are inaccessible.
Very important to decide on one Brand with the biggest selection of products you want to use.
I don't know what these companies need to do differently, but matter NEEDS to be quick and painless to setup to get normal people on board with buying smart home things, and all these connectivity errors and stuff not working despite doing everything the app is asking is just not cutting it. I dream of a future where you can have a house that does everything around you for you, and we have the technology to do that already, but there's way too much mucking about trying to get it working right now.
Issue is really just company just like doing its own thing and trying squeeze exclusivity. Maybe it will be better with more universal protocol like Matter. It's late but better than never. We just all hope there will be like smart home devices talking to same protocol in the near feature and making set-up painless all while being secure.
I just jumped into this smarthome thing. After a lot of digging I found Zigbee+Homeassistant to be the best solution and so far with 30+ switches around 50 plugs, bunch of motion and other sensors later I still think its the best solution.
yep, the issue is companies not wanting to support a standard but instead wanting to push their own exclusive apps ( for your data ) tldr, only support companies that support standards properly and don't buy garbage.
This is the ultimate example of that old XKCD comic of "We have too many standards, we need one that does it all. Result: there are now 15 competing standards"
4:33 "No, you're Jake!"
im disappointed to announce that got me.
Home Assistant is the only Smart Home app that’s worth it
After seeing this video i realized how painless home assistant actually is. I mean you can even automate using python to truly do anything you want and it. just. works.
I startet with Home Assistant just to bridge incompatible devices into HomeKit. I soon realised HA was the better platform. I still use HomeKit today, but only for a remote because of the way integrates into iOS
I was also thinking about him just using a PI with HomeAssistant and a HomeKit bridge
That way I connected all my non HomeKit stuff to it
I second this, with HA everything seems so seamless compared to having to setup everything in a ton of Apps.
@@Lumcoinwhile HA is great, I am not sure “it just works” really applies. Things randomly just break ALL THE TIME. But, you can fix it. Which is awesome.
a smart home is now a dumb home, because one man's software is another man's nightmare.
Bars
The ole printer shotgun combo never fails.
It's not a dumb home, it's a stupid home. Dumb home would at least does what you tell them to do
With how easy it is to hack into someone’s wifi, it’s indeed quite stupid. Especially the smart lock.
@@harmvzon because all smart locks work on wifi....there's at least three other protocols that don't have anything to do with Wifi or the cloud. And what thief do you know that is going to take the time to "HACK" into someones home just to unlock their door....rather than just kicking in the door in. Anyone smart enough to legitimately hack into someones home probabaly doesn't want any of their middle class stuff and makes more than most of us tinfoiling in here
Home Assistant is the GOAT.
You should probably talk about Homebridge, which can be run on any computer even a Raspberry PI.
It allows a lot of devices not compatible with Homekit to work with Homekit with plugins. For example, my Gree heat pump/AC units have their plugin in there, so they can now be controlled by Apple Home.
It even allows you to create "dummy switches" to facilitate automation implementation (especially with shortcuts) with the "Homebridge Plugin Command Dev".
For example, you could create a dummy switch called "Night Time" switch that would turn on at sunset and turn off at sunrise.
You can even specify a terminal-based command to execute when the switch toggles on or off, so if you want to call an API for something when that happens, you can!
Yeah I was disappointed to see this was just "throw out working things and spend a bunch of money on new ones" rather than "spend a little time and effort with some cool nerd stuff to make all your existing stuff work together"
The biggest problem with smart home is that companies want me to upgrade my light switches and cameras and light bulbs and whatever else I have every 3-5 years like a smart phone. No, just no!
Even if their cloud services do stay online beyond the end of their security updates, I now have an ultra insecure network connected time bomb on my network. Some of us have enough know-how to VLAN the stuff, but the average smart home user shouldn’t need to be CCNA certified to ensure their smart home devices aren’t dangerous to their digital safety.
Just look for stuff that has local control and doesn't need a cloud connection. Like most zigbee and zwave stuff, and shelly for wifi stuff.
🤔 what's the problem with software updates? It's mostly just a button to press, and it's pretty great that stuff keeps improving.
@@un_lucioreliance on a company to keep your home alive/secure for you lol
@@un_lucioUntil there aren't more updates for "your" specific product, and the servers go down, or the company goes bankrupt, so you end up with an insecure device or total e-waste
Just go with Zigbee / Matter+Thread. No way to brick your device, as there is no network connection.
Threads networking is based on IPv6 so its always required for anything using Threads
@@someoneelse3876that's fine tho, it shouldn't affect your network as it's a local only prefix
@@someoneelse3876 OH! Thank you for explaining why I see unexpected ULAs on my devices. In /theory/, they shouldn’t cause any problems because any device getting an IPv6 address from it will know it’s a local-only address (like RFC1918, but less gross) and so it won’t try to route traffic through it. I’d have thought the TV being on the network would have made all the Thread stuff “Just Work” earlier in the video - that’s surely why it does it.
@@someoneelse3876wait so it can’t interact with anything that is not HomeKit anymore?
I was super surprised that they didn’t know what IPv6 was given the whole techy nature of LTT
12:13 Yeah, in this case what you want is a _presence_ sensor rather than a motion sensor.
Exactly this 💯
Also excellent for figuring out if you have ghosts.
Spot on. Unfortunately there are Matter presence sensors but no Homekit ones that I've found, and I don't want another sodding hub just for a presence sensor. 😐
If I'm missing an option, please anyone feel free to correct me!
@@andrewdavidson665 Most homekit hubs support matter
I appreciate whenever people do videos about smart home; It's been such a mess even for a technical person like me.
Ikea lights are cheap and have a hub but work 100% with HomeKit
Works extremely well with HA as well
rare in canada
and this is why homebridge/home assistant are so nice
Home Assistant reigns supreme.
Dumb Home reigns supreme
1:04 I like how when he entered the shot, the operator had to adjust the camera angle. I feel you, I didn't expect him to be this tall either.
Horst isn't the tallest person at LMG. That accolade goes to Lucas Nieuwenhout, the Labs' Electrical Engineering person, who is 6'7" (I think) and very hard to get in the same frame as Linus.
This entire video is exactly why I've only ever used one brand of smart home products. One brand, one app, and one (mostly) easy experience.
It also helps that the only smart home device I have are smart bulbs and an LED strip for my desk.
*correct me if I’m wrong. The script states that you “need a thread router for matter”. That is incorrect, you need a thread border router for thread devices, but many matter devices still communicate via wifi.
Yes there's matter over thread and matter over wifi
What on earth. This is extremely confusing. Any resources you'd recommend to understand this better?
@@rakshith-ravi
Matter is the compatibility layer.
Thread is the network layer.
Something being Matter compatible means any Smart Home System (Alexa, HomeKit, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings are examples of this) can add the device.
Right now, if you have a device that can only be added to Alexa, you can't add it to any other home system. That's why if you want things natively in the Apple Home app, you need a Made for Apple HomeKit device.
These devices will talk to each other either using Zigbee or one of the other ones out right now, but you're basically locked into one Home system, and usually need a home hub for that specific system (HomePods for Apple HomeKit)
Matter removes this block and lets you add any matter device to any home system.
Thread is like WiFi/ZigBee/Bluetooth, etc. This is how the devices connect to each other and to the home hub. It's the mesh network underlying the home system.
Matter over Wifi is just the product connecting to your home system using WiFi, and Matter over Thread devices connect via Thread (and that's why you need a Thread Border Router (which certain home hubs like Apple HomePods can act as), you most likely already have a WiFi router which is why it's usually not included as part of the conversation).
Thread is a lot less power consumption, so you'd want this over WiFi for battery-powered stuff, etc
@@rakshith-ravi Matter is the compatibility layer.
Thread is the network layer.
Something being Matter compatible means any Smart Home System (Alexa, HomeKit, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings are examples of this) can add the device.
Right now, if you have a device that can only be added to Alexa, you can't add it to any other home system. That's why if you want things natively in the Apple Home app, you need a Made for Apple HomeKit device.
These devices will talk to each other either using Zigbee or one of the other ones out right now, but you're basically locked into one Home system, and usually need a home hub for that specific system (HomePods for Apple HomeKit)
Matter removes this block and lets you add any matter device to any home system.
Thread is like WiFi/ZigBee/Bluetooth, etc. This is how the devices connect to each other and to the home hub. It's the mesh network underlying the home system.
Matter over Wifi is just the product connecting to your home system using WiFi, and Matter over Thread devices connect via Thread (and that's why you need a Thread Border Router (which certain home hubs like Apple HomePods can act as), you most likely already have a WiFi router which is why it's usually not included as part of the conversation).
Thread is a lot less power consumption, so you'd want this over WiFi for battery-powered stuff, etc
@@rakshith-raviShane Whatley and Eric Welander have good videos on the subject. In summary, a thread network is a mesh. Battery powered devices usually are just “child devices” or endpoints. Mains powered devices are usually a “router” which just means that it becomes a junction in the mesh and is able to pass mesh network traffic to other devices in the mesh. A “border router” is a device that is able to connect the Thread mesh network to another TCP/IP network like your home network. It functions similar to a network gateway (which we commonly call a router) that connects your home network to your ISP’s network.
There are times I wish I had smart bulbs and smart locks and so on but then this video comes along and shows me that straight up, I wouldn’t have the patience to troubleshoot anymore. I used to buy my own modem and router for my Internet service to save myself a five dollar rent Fee but I got tired of having network issues and when I called my ISP they would tell me they couldn’t help because it wasn’t their router. I’ve got other things going on in the last thing I want to do is spend 30 minutes or more troubleshooting why my lightbulb isn’t on Wi-Fi.
I use smart lights, a smart lock, and a smart thermostat with presence/temp sensors in most rooms.
I made sure to buy models that supported HomeKit, so they all integrate well and are pretty reliable.
There are extra features in the Hue app that make it nicer for setting colorful lights, but adjusting on the fly works well in the Home app.
Word of warning: don’t pair a Hue Bridge to your ROG Ally. That was an hour of madness.
There are ISPs that dont support ip6 yet?!?!
Seems kinda wild in 2024 but yeah, mine also doesnt support ipv6 yet (cspire). Feels weird to have gigabit fiber but no ipv6 lol
Yep. Crazy right?
North America is slower in everything
more so a security issue, much like windows 7 to windows 8. YES EIGHT
I have Philips Hue since 2018 and never replaced a thing, they work pretty well specifically now that I’ve routed some automation thru homeassitant and NodeRed. I also have a ZigBee dongle to handle all other brands of devices (mostly sonoff and ikea) and it works really really well. Quite stable I’d say. Even integrated with the Hyperion Project for the TV ambilight and couldn’t be happier
I love the vinyl display. That looks so good.
the subtle pan of the camera upwards after Johnathan walked into the frame was everything ❤😂
Jake & Jonathan: my two most favourite LTTers in one video! 💟
Great one by the way, thanks guys!
I have an HomeKit/Apple Home setup and it all works great. I found that good WiFi is essential as are multiple HomeHubs and Thread Boarder Routers for reliability.
I’ve hardwired (CAT6) my 2x AppleTV 4K (non thread model) and have 2x HomePod Mini’s and 3x HomePod (1st Gen).
I always try and keep my AppleTV’s as my primary HomeHub. A task that will become a lot easier in iOS 18 with the ability to select your preferred hub (at last being added).
I have Aqara, Eve, Nanoleaf devices and an LG TV all running natively within Apple Home, along with HomeBridge bringing in my Nest Thermostat, Nest Protect Smoke Alarms and a Panasonic TV.
I’ve also got 3x Aqara Cameras using HKSV as well.
It's not just on apple. Android also has the same problems. Especially when you are just starting. There are some that needs a hub for it to work. Bought a wireless switch because I didn't want to fiddle with the actual electrical panel switches, those needed a hub... only them. And as I was starting I bought a different brand than what I am using generally now, but later found that they didn't have other smart devices like plugs, switches, etc. so I had to switch to a different brand that had those. But I am still using the first ones I bought ass the lights we're actually better, now I use Google home on my phone as a bridge and set-up smart automatic, so I tell this device to also switch on if I switch this other ones. So even if I use the branded switch, it can also turn on the other branded switch automatically. It gets kinda confusing sometimes as I set up scheduled on and off for some of them, and I either use the branded app and/or the Google home app.
Don't get me started trying to use Samsung's smart home type set-up as I tried it two times, and I am reminded every time why I didn't use Samsung's smart home feature. As I could not figure it out.
Would love to figure out how I can make it work locally without the internet, but couldn't.
They didn't paywall the site, you just have to make an account. What an effortless video....
Login wall is still a wall that shouldn't exist
@@Sqaaakoi so how should youtube allow you to comment without a login wall.... you're not the brightest, are you?
My devices are
-Aqara U100 lock
-Aqara G4 doorbell
- Apple TV4k
- Nest Thermostat
-Nest cameras
-Starling hub
- HomePods
-Lutron caseta switches
- then random smart plugs and light strips throughout the house.
For me personally, Aqara devices are going to be one of your best bet for HomeKit.
The U100 lock is hands down the best. The Aqara G4 doorbell isn’t the greatest video quality wise but does have nice features.
Apple TV4k is a must w/ HomeKit. If you have a HomeKit doorbell it will show a live feed to the TV and you can answer it through the tv if it’s rung.
If you’re willing to spend extra for NEST devices, getting a Starling Hub works great to use the devices in HomeKit.
honestly i could watch jonathan and jake paint a wall, love their chemistry
Or just get home assistant and use that to make stuff work.
YES
While I agree that home assistant is a lot better, I don't think setting it up is that easy
@@hikkamorii I agree it does take a lot of work. The end result is very worth it though.
That’s what I did
@@hikkamorii I think that depends a lot on the devices you want to connect. In my parents home, with solar, a car charger and a lot of smart blinds and some thermostats, anything was detected via bluetooth and wifi effortlessly. All I had to do was add the detected device to the home assistant in one click.
Except for the car charger I had to install HACS, but that wasnt much of an issue as its well documented.
I run hass in a docker container with watchtower on an external drive of a raspberry and everything just works flawlessly.
home assistant -> homekit bridge problem solved. Homekit is an excellent front end for home assistant
I exclusively use IKEA smart home products for my home. I have the hub and add all devices to the IKEA home smart app, and once integration with Apple HomeKit was enabled, it all appeared in Apple HomeKit.
So I usually add the devices in the IKEA app, but use Apple Home exclusively to control everything.
Sometimes you may need to correct room config for the added devices as it doesn’t always import it correctly from the IKEA app, but for the most part it works really really well and I am super happy with it.
I have IKEA bulbs, motion sensors, door/window sensors, water leak sensors, buttons and switches and it all works pretty good, and I don’t think you can get smart home devices cheaper than IKEA? (don’t quote me on that, as you probably can? But IKEA is a cheap entry into smart home-ing!)
Thank you for not trying to gaslight me into pretending that IPv6 isn't a nightmare. Also, nice touch with the iOS 6 UI elements in the beginning. Also also, I hate all of this so-called 'smart' tech. Just give me a nice internal web server for configuration any day of the week.
IPv6 “the protocol” is fine. IPv6 implementations, documentation, and support, well… Lets just say I have less kind words for them.
There’s nothing wrong with the spec itself, manufacturers just insist on half assing it and treating it like a second class citizen, so people don’t use it, which just makes them hesitant to improve it…
Apalrd is a TH-camr that does some really great IPv6 content if you want to learn some
@@almc8445 It may be "fine" from a technical and future-proofing perspective, but dealing with devices on the network thanks to those ludicrous addresses and the horribly complicated process of configuring DHCP reservations is still awful. That said, I understand the protocol's importance and maybe I should have configured DNS properly so I wouldn't need to rely on IP addresses, but it's still a needless complication for me (in a sense) because everything I manage works just fine under IPv4. Thanks for the recommendation, though, I'll check it out. I still hate IPv6.
Seeing videos like this reinforces my decision to never deal with smart home garbage ever.
If you spend lots of money the lights can actually be a breeze.
That's it though.
Agreed. Whats wrong with a regular light switch? Never breaks, always works. no attack vector
yep. ill never understand this crap either. Are you so trusting tech you want a smartlock because a house key takes too long to use??? I understand dimmer switchesis nice but besides that? Its faster to just use a switch. Right now i type this comment through my phone to an app on my htpc. But a keyboard at a desk is faster obvoiusly.
This vid is representative of the state of Matter.
Home automatization is rather easy.
Only significant friction is setting up a 2.4 GHz network, when required.
Other than that, for smart lamps, it takes a few simple steps to follow, when dealing with a mature solution (having already worked out the kinks).
@@toseltreps1101 , obviously, similar benefits, even better, to using a remote rather that getting up to interface with your TV.
Being able to have a whole room, house, turn off when you leave, automate changes, simply modulate intensity, colors and status (ON/OFF) via simple commands (e.g.: voice, smart switches, light sensors) is evidently advantageous.
I have a fairly comprehensive smarthome setup (using Home Assistant), and of all the things in it the most useful is the ability to fall back to 'dumb' operation when your router or smarthome hub needs a reboot. (The second most useful one is my bathroom light turning on to red at night, so I can take a midnight dump without losing my night vision.)
My experience is that, as much as possible, to stay in one ecosystem for each home you're trying to automate. For instance, my parents' beach house has all Google/Nest smart appliances, including mesh WiFi, thermostats, and Yale/Nest door lock. Next year I'm going to add a video doorbell. It works (although I do get occasional messages that one or more WiFi hubs are offline, but when I get there everything is still working). Since we rent it out on the summer rental market the fact that it works all remotely is peace of mind. My own house is HomeKit or Ubiquiti only, which is why I'm only very slowly adding things to it. My parents' house is all Amazon (including Ring). Once Matter becomes more ubiquitous and the problems ironed out, I may start to use other smart devices.
Another amazing video. The consistency and freshness 👍👍🥰
One of the best TH-cam channels. Videos are always interesting and well put together. Well done!
I tried to go with all tplink, emporia, eufy, and govee to keep it as simple as possible. light bulbs, switches, and outlets are all tplink, energy monitoring, EV charging, and smart plugs are emporia, eufy is cameras and door locks, and govee is accent lighting.
I have random devices around the house as well, but 90+% of my smart home is these 4 brands - which all work with alexa and home assistant - plus their native apps are decent as well.
I am still trying to get home assistant working, but in the meantime, I have voice control over the entire house with at least one echo dot in every room (some have multiple - like the master bedroom for stereo effect of sleep sounds) - which also allows for whole home audio for parties.
And thats why I use Home Assistant as a bridge.
Every device matter, HomeKit or whatever goes in there and the HomeAssistant then exposes these Devices to Apple Home.
Many Automations run in HomeAssistant but all location based ones in Apple Home.
Works like a charm.
Rather than change over to matter, I’ve had a Raspberry Pi running with Homebridge for the past few year that has worked great for non HomeKit supported bulbs. Carried out a bit of an upgrade last Christmas too, so includes now all my outdoor lighting, radiator valves, EV Charger, LG TV’s, smart plugs, Ring cameras and Alarm, all controlled within the Home App.
When I found out about smart bulbs and outlets I was super excited. I too ran into the Issues Jon & Jake did during setup. I had the get the app & then add the devices to home app. It took me 30 minutes to add ONE bulb. Im a It Admin so I know my way around tech, but this is frustrating during the beginning setup. I found the best product need to support home kit it makes the process go by so much easier. So fat I have 2 bulbs & 2 outlets that are awesome when they work. mine are set to turn off when I leave & turn on when I arrive also I set the HomePods to play music once I arrive as well. Last but not least the 2.4 is a pain to, if you dont have you own router outside of what your ISP gives you, its a nightmare & you have to split the networks and hope it works then without effecting your router performance. Theres a lot of head wind to doing a HomeKit setup. If you are not persistent, it a huge under taking.
aqara ecosystem works fine with apple. I have 5 sensors and 2 cameras from aqara, they are fantastic, works every time. For lights I prefer smart switches, I installed 12 sonoff devices with tasmota firmware, so I’m rocking with matter, apple homekit and google home are mates at my home.
The matter hub does not need to be on the same 2.4ghz netwok for wireless devices, just the same vlan
IPv6 can work locally, there is no need for support from the ISP for outbound internet connections for matter
The time I’ve spent with home bridge and home assistant just to get everything working in the Apple home app…
Matter makes all of that time seem like a waste. I should’ve just waited. Love that they’ve finally figured this all out. The only thing I’d say about this video and complaints of spending all day on it is to just start slow with smart home. Automate a light here and there as a use comes up. Eventually everything will get there and it won’t feel like it was much work.
That intro just made me want my glass and skeuomorphic buttons back. PLEASE can we get amazing looking UIs again on these OLED bezelless displays?? I miss enjoying using my technology instead of “putting up with it”.
As a 10-year daily driver of iOS 6, I second this sentiment quite strongly.
I've experimented with a lot of types of smart products starting with the usuals - bulbs and power plugs. However, the single best thing I've done in the 2-3 years of my having this stuff is in a bedroom corridor I have that for some bizarre reason has no lights in it nor any source of natural light. Get up at night for the bathroom and you're in the dark.
I have motion sensors pointing either way in the corridor which trigger an led strip I have along the floor (yes, inspired by airplane safety) along with lights in the adjoining room. So, if you're walking from the front of the house, or from the bedrooms - either end of the corridor - you get the light. It's an actual real-life quality of life improvement and it cost a fraction of gettin an electrician to put in lights and switches due to the design of the house.
A lot of people do have Philips Hue already. If you have a modern hub, square one, then you can also connect NON Philips matter devices to it and effortlessly get them into HomeKit that way without the need for multiple other hubs. Works with other brands of zigbee devices too! Good to know when choosing products.
Also, for many other things there is Homebrigde! This make unsupported stuff show up in HomeKit like my Samsung tv, my Glue smart lock and my UniFi protect cameras getting face recognition and HomeKit secure video this way! Yes now UniFi protect also support face recognition but it doesn’t ring on HomePods or pop up on Apple TV without the awesome homebridge integration.
5:39 that is a sick Record wall...I really like that idea!
I love this Channel! Jonathan does good work on this channel!
I fear smart home stuff, and watching is the best part! Great work JH
That last point really sums up smart homes. It’s not just a brand, or a protocol, it’s a mess with everything. I’ve tried so many setups and WiFi settings, pairing, random disconnects - everything is just terrible and it honestly seems to be just as bad as it was when I first started adding this stuff 6 years ago.
As an iPhone user I've added some smart home components piecemeal because I Apple Home kit hasn't been readily compatible with the smart home devices I've wanted to buy. It feels a bit disjointed to use several apps to control those devices, but seeing this video confirms that separate apps is probably the best option for me.
Love this. Thanks for doing a story about smart home. Do more!!!
Im working at a bigger lighting manufacturer where we now also build matter devices. My department is the smarthome and controls team.I can tell you matter already had a huge impact in the iot and smarthome market. But in my opinion it need 2-3 years more to be fully working.
it definitely is still in Beta stage, it's even lacking in device types, much less the corresponding protocol build out for those.
I have a combination of Lutron smart switches, Hue bulbs, and Meross smart switches. Aside from needing to power cycle the Meross switches every now and then, I've had a pretty good experience. If you're willing to shell for the Homekit compatible stuff, it can work quite seamlessly.
I’ve just had an offer accepted for a house, this couldn’t have been more perfectly timed and very eye opening.
Nice job man!
I find that homekit works flawlessly if i just buy products made for it. Products that specifically have the sticker on the box. No issues with Aqara products so far. Things get wonky if venture out, Govee outdoor lights for example has alotta issues in homekit.
“Hey Siri, living room lights neon carrot” best relaxing natural color for hanging out imo
we have fairy lights set to a timer also, they're on a tp-link smart plug! it's set and forget and just works, i've had really good luck with tp-link in general. dunno about the brand mentioned in the video here x.x
This channel truly is the step child of lTT. Matter extreme upgrade!
Johnathan sounds like a Muppet next to Jake's epic voice
I’ve just got to say, I love that album wall!
My circa 2010 Time Machine and only barely newer Airport Extreme units conveniently offer LAN-only IPv6. This enables devices on the internal network to get an IPv6 address from the DHCP server in the router and communicate with all the other devices on the network, but the IPv6 does _not_ leak onto the greater internet via the WAN interface. I find it hard to imagine that any new routers made in 2024 wouldn't offer similar functionality. It is NOT, however, a surprise that such settings are hidden. 🤣
I have around 40 devices in the Home app, like one of them is actually HomeKit certified. Most of the rest are zigbee through a Hubitat hub and connected through Homebridge. Full local control and open standards, if the manufacturer of my zigbee hub ever goes under I'll just migrate them to a new one. I can also do more advanced automation and have virtual switches in Home.
It depends on the products. Really the ones with hubs have been the best. I have Lutron for my wall switches and Phillips Hue light strips and have no issues
Shane Whatley has been helping us all build out HomeKit based smarthomes that work with the iPhone WITHOUT getting into Home Assistant (better but not for the technically simple). While he has touched on some 3rd Party bridge solutions like Hoobs, HomeBridge, and Homey, he’s kept it HomeKit and/or Matter native for the most part.
i have an extensive home system, every bulb and switch in every room is Philips Hue, I have 20+ Meross smart plugs, motion sensors in every room. All connected to homekit. I have not upgraded to Matter - nor will I as I don't want to have to set every device up again.
The system works 99.9% of the time. Every now and then the Hue system hub decides to have a think for a few minutes which can be frustrating for my family when the switches and bulbs don't work as expected but the meross plugs are very reliable. Being able to turn all 20 of my retro consoles on with Siri voice control is still very satisfying indeed.
It is a pain to set up that's true. But until Matter has matured - i'll stick with the old ways.
I use home bridge on a raspi and it works flawlessly with my existing devices whether or not they support Homekit / matter.
I have a all Philips hue setup and have only ever had issues with the sync box, never the lights. Matter was a nice addition that allowed me to use home kit more readily though I find myself just using the hue app or my hue switches more than anything for their reliability!
Edit: While its great and i love it, the downside is the price, Facebook marketplace and some luck made it much cheaper for me though lol
How's the M3 imac holding up after 7 months?
LOVE IT!
NGL i have to use home assistant with home bridge. Works okay. but a hassle to setup.
It's way better these days
The best solution though is to never buy any smart home garbage
A seamless and efficient smart home ecosystem is still a distant dream. Currently, we have a collection of random control apps for different brands, which is especially problematic for Apple users. Even with Matter and Thread, these solutions aren't widely available globally, and when they are, they can be two to three times more expensive than in the USA.
I'm building a house and each socket and switch has a power supply and a so-called stair switch plus a data cable. I know there are a lot of cables, but everything is managed from one place and I have no problems with Wi-Fi connectivity. Datacable receives a signal from the infrared presence sensor and if the device is analog, the staircase switch is turned on, and if the device is digital, a signal is sent via WiFi, that's why everything works because I have reduced digital devices on WiFi to a minimum.
Actually pretty happy with my Aqara, Eve and Nanoleaf Stuff. Works mostly fine.
video definitely highlights how fragmented and inefficient Matter as a standard is right now still. But even for Apple home users, there are much better ways to obtain pretty much all the functionality (and more honestly) for the type of products used here, while also gaining on physical device options. instead of focusing on individual devices that work with HomeKit, you need to focus on which smart home HUBS work well with HomeKit. one smart home Hub that would have been perfect for this situation would be Hubitat. it's relatively inexpensive, and it allows you to leverage mature smart home protocols like Z-wave and Zigbee to populate your device needs while being able to control them all in one place within Apple home. so instead of being limited to a handful of matter devices for each category, you can use Z-wave AND Zigbee devices to broaden the options you have. best part is Hubitat is not cloud dependent nor does it require an internet connection at all honestly and it keeps your network clutter free as none of these devices require Wi-Fi, the only requirement is that you put your hub on your local network.
Video was great. But, extra love for the Prozzak Hot Show artwork in the background!
Although they’re so damn expensive, I went with Philips Hue and never had a single issue. I have a single hue hub and multiple hue products throughout my house. They all work. They just work. Installation was very easy and whenever I need to add a new product, it only takes a second to add it.
I used to have 4 smart plugs, bulbs, and more going on with google home minis. At some point, we realized we were more frustrated with the smart home stuff than just turning on the lights manually. For now, the only smart stuff we have is one on my balcony to turn the fairy lights on at night
I invested in my smart home setup a few years back, and TP-Link Kasa with Google Home/Assistant/Gemini has worked overall for all my lights using their plug adapter but one which is a bulb adapter(smart bulbs don't get bright enough) on my carport, and a smart smoke alarm, which are smart life branded. then for my speakers I stuck mostly with the official Google Home Hubs, and mini's in my greatroom, mancave, front living room, and bathrooms, but in the bedrooms Lenovo Smart Clock essentials, and Smart Clock 2 with wireless charge base have worked well, now if Google would stop taking away features like the night lights on the Lenovo clocks via voice that would be AWESOME!!
I feel like a lot of the reason setting up Matter is hard is not because of the standard itself, but because how much ISPs and router manufactures hate IPv6 even though it has existed for 28 years and is just a better standard than IPv4.
Honestly that is why I did hue lighting, nest, and harmony. That’s like all you really need.
Home Assistant + Home Bridge works perfectly for me.
My experience is that i had to give up on matter and homekit and moved everything to Alexa/Google Home instead, much easier to setup and control. If you’re really set on having HomeKit just setup a Homebridge server on anything, even a raspberry pi, inside there you connect your smarthome stuff, then create the homekit config and add it to your iPhone, the only issue is that not every smarthome device works easily with third party APIs, like Samsung API require your homebridge to be exposed on the internet to access it because the signal jumps from their servers to your device instead of going on your home network only, and that’s another can of worms you don’t wanna open because you need a HTTPS certificate and you need to secure your network from external access.
Matter and home assistant helps a lot.
How long do you think it’ll take them to iron things out? I’m not in the market for a smart home system right now but I will be in 3-4 years from now. And I’d like to maintain all devices through just one app and preferably they connect to a home server rather than some cloud. Is this possible?
when apple smart home devices work, they work amazingly well, but when you make one change, like a router, sure most of it works no problem and I bet some people have no problems switching it, I sure have, but my last router, I had a problem with one of the home pod mini's where restarting wouldn't have it turning lights on and off or doing anything unless I tell it which room. fixed it eventually with removing it and reading it. but even that didn't work straight away.
Jake: “Me-Ross”
Jonathan: “No, You’re Jake!”
4:12 aaahh that’s some good album theeeereeee 🤩
It's generally incorrect that the phone, device, and hubs all need to be on the same 2.4ghz network. A ton of devices ONLY have 2.4ghz hardware, so that's one thing - but the phone you're setting it up on and the hub shouldn't matter. Most home routers will share broadcast/discovery packets across your entire network. Most home users do not have different subnets between those Wi-Fi groups. The only exception would be if you had an isolated network for IOT devices (in which case, yes, they should be all on the same network).
This is the reason of why I refused to buy any matter devices that worked through WiFi. Thread may be cumbersome, but I have saved myself the hassle of needing to use 2.4GHz networks just for IoT devices, with all the requirements that come from it. All my plugs and lights run through Thread currently and I haven't had any issues with them whatsoever. (I gave up on making my stuff work through Google Home though, so it's currently running on Apple Home and Home Assistant only).
I use a couple of philips hue lights, definitely not as much or as fancy, but it took like 15min from starting to unbox the stuff until everything was installed and talking to each other
I knew seeing you in the background of that tech upgrade at some apple-ish smarthome improvements ;)
Thanks for this heads up. I've been wanting to set up a smart home, and just assumed it was as easy as it should be. This is a warning that I should be selective on what I buy.
Wiz bulbs are so chatty on the network. I’ve basically relegated them to on off lights because you can set it up to double switch to a different scene. So it’s always on super dim on the first switch and 50% when you toggle it.
I’ve switched to Phillips hue everywhere else and it’s magically consistent but the price is brutal. With the bridge tho they don’t clog up my bandwidth with a ton of back and forth like the wiz bulbs did so that’s a plus.
I tried to connect the Nanoleaf matter bulb to my apple home , it worked flawlessly for a day and then just wouldn’t work properly. It dropped connection almost every time. I have an apple tv 4k with Ethernet as my thread border router. Also fun fact the Wiz branded light in India doesn’t support matter so that was a bust. I ended up paying a good sum for Hue and it’s great . Never once did it drop a connection . That’s my 2cents
Lutron light switches are great.
Last week I had the connection issues with a new nest protect, and the solution was enabling ipv6 and forcing 2.4ghz WiFi. If only I had seen this video then I could have saved hours of frustration!
So I actually Setup a Homebridge on a raspberry Pi. Here you can get a lot of custom configs for products that are normally only Google or Alexa compatible. I have the Govee TV Lights (Ambilight thingies) and they actually run over my homebridge on the Raspberry Pi. I can use Siri Voice Recognition and everything. I‘ve also reverted to using Shelly Switches instead of changing the Lightbulbs everywhere. They have a custom firmware for the Homekit and I can control every lightswitch and therefore even my „dumb“ lights the same way