Home automation is presented as the future of technology with the possibility of automating an entire home. There are many accessories that work with this Apple technology but you have to find a way to centralize them. From the Cupertino company they offer the possibility of having the HomePod as a central home automation accessories and in this article we tell you everything you need to know about it.
Why have HomePod as a HomeKit hub
When you have many accessories in the home, it is necessary that they can be controlled remotely. In this way you can create automations and also grant access to trusted people. So when a guest arrives at your house they can have access to all your home automation products if you want this. Each of the accessories works independently and you can control them in the Home application on iOS, iPadOS or macOS but they are not related to each other.
This is why it is interesting to have them all centralized with specific hardware such as the HomePod itself. Thus all accessories can ‘communicate with each other’ and carry out the corresponding automation that we all want. In this way, for example, the functions of the movement sensors can be combined with the light bulbs themselves, among many other automations that we will see.
Requirements required for configuration
Having all the products configured with the HomePod requires a series of prior considerations. The most important is to have two factor authentication enabled on the linked Apple ID as well as the iCloud keychain. In this way, the operating system guarantees that you are the person who really has access to all the accessories in the home, preventing someone totally outside the house from taking control. In addition, of course, all accessories must be linked to the Home application and is limited only to HomeKit products. This leaves the rest of the accessories compatible with Google Home or Alexa out of the equation.
Always the HomePod, which will be the device you have as an accessory center, must be connected and turned on. To this is added that it obviously has to be connected to the WiFi network where the rest of the HomeKit accessories are connected so that you can communicate with them without problems.
HomePod setup
If all the requirements that we have related in the previous section are met, the configuration is carried out automatically. It is not necessary to do any extra steps since the Home application when detecting the HomePod will make it the manager of the rest of the accessories. In the event that the HomePod is not configured automatically, you must check the iCloud login.
The same person who set up HomePod must have set up all compatible accessories. That is, you must make sure that both the HomePod and the accessories have signed in with the same Apple ID. In the event that one of them is not connected with the same ID, it is impossible for it to appear on the HomePod that you have just configured. If this is the case, you can always reset the affected accessories and reconfigure them with a common iCloud account.
The problem is that the HomePod does not have a screen to query the status of the accessories. This is reserved for the rest of the equipment that is integrated with your Apple account such as the iPhone, iPad and even the Apple TV.
Creating automations
Once you have all the accessories centralized in the HomePod, you can use the automations in the Home application. To do this you simply have to follow the following steps:
- Open the Home app.
- Scroll to the tab at the bottom called ‘Automations’.
- Click on the ‘+’ icon.
- Select the accessory that you want to automate and configure all the parameters that you want to synchronize between them.
At that very moment your action will be recorded and it will begin to act. It is important to note that automations can be performed from any device and there are also three different types:
- Automation at a specific time: the specific action will be executed at a specific time.
- Automation depending on who is at home: the environments will vary depending on whether someone enters or leaves the house.
- Depending on the action of the accessory: when an accessory is activated or deactivated, it will trigger a series of actions on other accessories.
In this way you can have your house as automated as possible so that with a simple touch or a voice instruction you will perform different actions.
