Apple’s HomeKit is still in its earliest days, with the connected home framework technically shipping with iOS 8 but not offering up any consumer endpoints to explore just yet. The latest beta of the Apple TV operating software shows we could be nearing more visible HomeKit feature debuts, however, as it sets up the streaming set-top box to become a smart home hub, providing an overview of all your connected smart devices. The functionality can turn an Apple TV into an always-connected bridge device for communicating between hardware peripherals that support Apple’s HomeKit framework. The feature was first reported last month and showed up again in this week’s latest Apple TV beta, which includes support for Family Sharing and can be used for testing AirPlay and HomeKit with your iOS apps. According to the tech experts currently Apple TV is the only device from Apple that can act as HomeKit remote access relay. Based on what developers have found, the integration works like this: Once logged into an iCloud account on the Apple TV, any other iOS device on the same account will show a prompt upon opening a HomeKit-compatible app. The prompt asks the user if they want to use the Apple TV to control their home remotely.
Apple TV as a hub, in the way Smart Things uses its own hardware gateway to connect to its range of supported third-party gadgets, makes a lot of sense. For one, it’s already present in a number of homes. Second, it offers an additional purchase incentive to users who don’t yet have one. And third, with a relatively simple hardware update, it could gain microphone input, allowing you to use Siri to control your smart home even without activating it on your phone. HomeKit was designed to have Siri connections from the get-go, with grouping options that make it possible for users to set up custom triggers that can turn on/off various connected home devices like lights, heating and cooling systems, security and more. Making it an invisible background feature of every iOS device appears to be one of the goals of the project, but using the Apple TV as a hub and central command center makes a ton of sense, and begins to reconfigure Apple’s media device ambitions as something new – and something with a lot more future potential.
