Great job on explaining HomeKit. Thank you and keep up the great work!

2 Apple TV you get the picture great video

Going with the iPad wall mount solution. Great video!

Great tips and explanation! Thanks

Good info! Hubs, bridges, etc are the one thing I have more difficultly with getting my setup just right. Using an Apple TV as my hub currently but want to try two home pod minis instead or added to it rather.

Eric, great breakdown of using homekit hubs. I’ve been using an Apple TV 4K as my hub and it has been pretty solid for the most part.

Interesting. Looks like the Home app automagically set up the first HomePod I installed as my HomeKit hub-entirely unbeknownst to me. Not only that but it turns out I have about a dozen standby hubs, also all set up unbeknownst to me. Not surprising since I have accumulated multiple Apple TV’s and two pairs of HomePods over the years. Thanks for alerting me to the potential pitfalls in this arrangement! I’m pretty tech savvy and have been an Apple fanboy since my first Apple ][+ in 1980 but I never would have tumbled to this. Nice job. 👍

Thank you!

Really cool!

Another good video Eric. Thanks! Sorry for the forthcoming rant. I’m not looking to you for solutions...just using your ‘comments section’ to type a bunch of nonsense. 😏 I totally agree that the HomePod is a solid choice for use as a HomeKit hub. - The only (minor) issue I’ve had is when Apple was looking for a, seemingly random, password verification for the HomePod. It showed as a “some devices are not connected” message within all my HomeKit Apps, and could not be cleared from my iPhone. I finally got it to go away by using the HomeKit App on the iPad that I had used to do the original configuration of the HomePod. It was a really bizarre problem/issue, and did NOT affect how the whole system worked. It was just an annoying footnote at the top of the App. Anyway. The only ‘real’ issues I’ve seen with this whole HomeKit ecosystem... 1. Siri, residing in my HomePod, will not control my Living Room 4K AppleTV. She says she can’t find it. Dunno why. I’ve tried several different commands, using varied verbiage, to no avail. 2. Battery life on the door mounted garage door sensor for my Insignia controller is less than pleasing. After like 3-months of use it stopped giving me alerts of door activity, then about a week later it would do nothing within the App at all. Not really a HomeKit issue. More of a problem with the Insignia unit. While on that topic: Why in the hell would Insignia NOT use a ‘standard’ CR2032 battery? I would be totally be fine with swapping batteries more frequently (likely every 2-months) if it were due to battery-lifespan reasons - because the CR2032 is something used in a LOT more devices (including the ‘old’ AppleTV remote). The CR2032s are way cheap (about $1 each) & easy to find at a local store. Whereas the CR2450 they use is like $4-6 and more difficult to find. 3. One of my Lutron Caseta switches totally failed. Lutron is sending me an in-warranty replacement without any hassle. Just an inconvenience. Again, not a real HomeKit problem, more of a product/manufacturer issue. 4. Geofencing, and automations that are supposed to be triggered by ‘returning home’ are kinda spotty. I need to spend some time troubleshooting with all attached iPhones - but as of now it’s inconsistent. Also. The automations that are tied to ‘sunrise’ & ‘sunset’ seem to be less than consistent. Here endith the rant. Again. Good video. Thanks!

Eric, great video and topic of conversation. I'm currently using an Apple 4K TV (that is tucked away in an entertainment systems furniture). Your video makes me want to evaluate how things are set up. Also I notice that you have a Sonos bridge. We operate our Sonos speakers via the WiFi network. Have you found using the bridge making your Sonos experience better?

Eric, great video and thoughts. What was unclear is if you’ve made it a point NOT to use Bluetooth devices with your HomeKit setup, and your WiFi signal/mesh is very strong in all areas of the house, then placement of the hub shouldn’t matter as much because when you access accessories remotely, the hub is sending that signal across the WiFi network (like AirPlay). That is my setup and it’s extremely solid! Am I correct in my understanding of how the hub communicates with WiFi accessories such as smart switches?

Great explanation but I was hoping you would share how to CHANGE which device is used as a hub (especially as I have more than on HomePod and no control panel switch to make each one a hub or not) - can you explain how to do this?

Need a major overhaul of HomeKit

Apple need to design a stand alone hub like hue bridge. That talk to hue bridge and like devices. This is crazy

Is IOS 13 going to enable location awareness or the ability to use multiple hubs simultaneously so all Bluetooth devices have best connectivity possible at all times?

I have two Apple TV’s and a HomePod in my setup all active (ready for standby). It is my experience that each hub is a bluetooth Bridge and hence the eve devices I have at different ends of the home communicate via its closest hub. So disabling them could cause issues.

Where did you get that base for your HomePod? That’s awesome 👏🏻

So I’m not sure your thoughts about putting the home hub in a central location is accurate. HomeKit works over WiFi and Bluetooth. However if you have No wifi than no homekit accessories will work. That is especially true if you are trying to control tour devices outside of your network and away from home. So you’re better off putting it close to a router so it can communicate to other devices. However if a device is HomeKit compatible via bluetooth than yes putting it in a central location makes sense but considering that elegato is one of the most popular/one of few products that is Bluetooth I’d opt out. I have my Apple TV 4K behind a tv along with an Xbox and light strip and I haven’t had any signal interferences and have a wall mounted iPad as a backup.

We should be able to go in any iOS device and modify hubs. Tim Cook!

How do i disable a home pod from being standby due to poor location?

I’m just getting into HomeKit. I don’t understand why the location matters if HomeKit uses wifi? Wouldn’t the hub work just as well anywhere there’s strong wifi signal?

I’m new and a bit confused. I own a HomePod , you’re saying that the HomePod can be my hub for lights outlets etc? I do not need to buy an extra device (hub) correct?

When power fails, do Homekit hubs all reboot? Do we need power conditioners on AC power to keep clocks on schedule?

If I connect my Apple TV via Ethernet to a WiFi mesh (Netgear Orbi) will the accessories still be able to connect to it? Or does it have to be connected to the router?

I'm assuming that the problem of HomeKit hubs dropping off has been alleviated with Thread? Right now, I only have one HomePod Mini as my home hub, and it's fine as far as it goes. However, my Aqara bridge has an annoying tendency to drop off the network and need to be reset. I'm thinking of getting a second Mini, which hopefully will provide a more robust connection via Thread capability. If you happen to see this comment, I'd love to hear what you think.

How do you disable the HomePod as a hub? My Apple TV is connected via Ethernet so I’d like to use that all the time

Hi, can i set up two iPad as a home hup? if yes, how can i set it up. thank you

Good explanation 0000000 setup

How does one disable a HomePod acting as a hub?

Actually i don't really want to disability it i want to control the order of things, can you help???

One hub vs multiple? Feel like when multiple hubs are on standby it makes homekit changes slow Think using an apple tv with an ethernet can't be beat?

Can you make a video « How to install homebridge on a mac ? » I tried but i have problems with permissions...

Did I miss something? I didn’t see where how to set up a device as a home kit hub.

How can you pick…which device is the HomeKit hub when you have several?

Can you use this motion sensor with the hue hub?

apple tv gen 3 also support most of the features,

"Far away from any wifi router" Shows pic of homepod next to wifi router 🧐

I’ve determined that I’m going to use an Apple TV 4K as my primary hub. As good as the HomePod is at being a speaker it is not very good at being anything else when compared to something similarly priced like an Echo Show 2.

I got 7 HomePods

Wow! My Apple TV is a HomeKit Hub! Didn't know that. I thought it "had" to be an Apple Pod.

I have multiple hubs showing but this system is not user friendly

that's just stupid that apple uses direct wifi from the hub instead of using your wifi network

Bluetooth homekit accessories just don’t make sense

So many devices... so many outlets... and such unreliability. 🔌

Homekit hub is not the same as a Hue Hub and its coverage limitations. You WiFi coverage is the only thing that matters for HomeKit

Apple is so far behind what I am getting from echo, hue bridge and smartkit