HomeKit is Apple's home automation platform for controlling smart home products with iOS apps and Siri voice commands. With the Home app, you can quickly and securely manage all your HomeKit accessories. Ask Siri to turn off the lights from your iPhone. See who's at the front door on your iPad. Control things remotely with the help of Apple TV. The Home app makes all your connected devices work harder — and smarter — for you.
The Mysa team has been hard at work developing the Apple HomeKit integration. Integrating our Mysa Thermostats into the HomeKit ecosystem is a much more involved process than other smart home integrations such as Google Home and Amazon Alexa. The integrations from Google and Amazon are cloud-based, meaning our Mysa cloud servers communicate directly with Google's and Amazon cloud servers. Asking the Google Assistant to change the setpoint temperature sends a command Google's cloud to the Mysa cloud, which then sends a command to the Mysa Thermostat. Amazon requires a similar process for their Alexa integration.
In comparison to Google and Amazon, the software for the Apple HomeKit integration is embedded directly into the Mysa Thermostat and the App. Commands sent through Apple HomeKit never leave your home's local area network. Instead, communication happens solely between your iOS device and the Mysa Thermostat. If you're controlling your Homekit devices remotely, an Apple TV (3rd generation or newer) can act as a network bridge for your home.
Although the Apple HomeKit integration is very complicated, the benefits of Apple's approach to smart home integrations makes for a much more positive consumer experience. All smart devices (Mysa Thermostat included) can be set up and controlled solely from the Apple HomeKit app. For those who have already bought into the HomeKit ecosystem, this means all of your smart devices such as Phillips Hue bulbs, iDevices Switches, and Canary Security Cameras can be controlled by the same app and follow the same home automation rules. Adding to the positive user experience of Apple's approach to embedding the HomeKit integration directly on the smart device compared to a cloud-based integration is the low latency between commands. For example, changing the setpoint temperature of your Mysa Thermostat from your iPhone is nearly instantaneous. In comparison, the same command from Amazon Alexa or Google Home may take two or three seconds to reach the thermostat.
After months of development and several weeks of bug fixing, the Mysa Team will be sending Mysa Thermostats down to Apple for their final certification. The testing and certification is a week-long process where Apple rigorously tests all facets of the HomeKit integration from setup, commands, and app integration. Once certified, the Mysa Thermostat will be listed as an approved Apple HomeKit accessory and will be featured on their integrations page shortly after that. In the meantime, we've put together this video to show off Apple HomeKit integration. Let us know what you think of the HomeKit integration in the comment section below!