Recently, I got an Apple HomePod speaker to go with my Apple TV as an external speaker instead of a soundbar. I already had quite a few “smart home” things in my home that worked with Amazon Alexa, the smart home ecosystem I had invested in for quite a number of years.
These included the following :-
- Honeywell heating system that was installed by my landlord.
- 2 x TCP Smart Bulbs
- TCP Smart Plug
- Echo Smart Plug
While I don’t have a lot of stuff, I found out none of them work with Apple’s HomeKit out of the box; only the TCP Smart Plug works with the Apple ecosystem at all with Siri Shortcuts. After a lot of searching the internet for a solution with no success, I thought I would try some things I have heard about. I eventually want to replace all my Amazon Alexa speakers with Apple’s smart speakers.
Goal
My main goal is to get all my current devices to work with Apple’s smart speakers as well as the two iPads, the iPhone, and Apple Watch I have without having to replace all my current smart home devices. I am not bothered if it is local or cloud-based, though I didn’t want to pay for any subscription-based cloud service.
I am willing to use my own server that I already have things like a VPN server, Nextcloud and Plex running via docker to solve this problem.
With that in mind I started researching on the internet.
Home Assistant
Home Assistant seems to be the big boy when it comes to home automation. While most people use it to make a self-contained ecosystem that doesn’t require any internet, I was hoping it would let me reach my goal, getting everything to work with Apple Home.
While I could get the Echo Smart Plug working easily with Home Assistant, I couldn’t get any of the TCP Smart devices working at all with Home Assistant thanks to the lack of a plugin. If there is one, I couldn’t find it; all I could find are plugins for the protocol, not the company that’s called TCP Smart.
The Honeywell heating system does have a plug-in get for Home Assistant, so I am sure I could have got it to work, but I didn’t try it after I had no look in getting the TCP Smart stuff to work.
I also didn’t look into how to get Home Assistant to work with Apple Home, but I have seen YouTube videos on how to make this work, so I know it is possible.
Homebridge
After some more researching on the internet, I found a Reddit post that mentioned something called Homebridge. After reading the Homebridge website, this seems to be the perfect thing for what I am after. Homebridge basically creates a bridge between Apple’s HomeKit different eco-systems.
After installing it via Docker on my server, I started to mess about with it. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I needed a plug-in called ”Homebridge Alexa Smart Home” that links Homebridge to my current Alexa eco-system that works with everything I have.
To get Homebridge to work with Apple’s HomeKit, all you have to do is scan a QR code to set up a new bridge in the Home app. At first, this didn’t work until I realised you need to also scan the sub-bridge that the plug-in also sets up; again, this is just a simple QR code scan.
My devices that I have configured for Alexa appear in the Apple Home app within a few seconds. I have all the same control I have in the Home app as I do under Alexa, like viewing the temperatures from the Honeywell System, changing the brightness/colour of the lights, etc.
I can also now control everything via talking to the HomePod that is in my living room.
Homebridge does not need a powerful computer to run; in fact, it can be run on a Raspberry Pi if needed. All you need is a bit of knowledge on how to get Docker to work, which there are plenty of articles on the internet on how to do that, and that plugin. There are also good tutorials on the Homebridge website on how to get the base system to work.
Conclusion
Is the solution I have come up with perfect? No, I am still relying on Amazon Alexa for the backbone of the system, and if my internet dies, the whole system doesn’t work.
But what it does do is make it so I don’t have to replace my current smart home stuff with new stuff, which also is impossible for me as the Honeywell heating system belongs to my landlord, not me.
I have had this system running for a few weeks now, and so far, it has been very stable.
I set out as a goal to get everything working via Apple’s HomeKit. The system also works with both the Alexa speakers I still have and the new Apple HomePod in my living room. Also, it means if I do get any new smart home stuff in the future, it will be cheaper as I have noticed the stuff that is compatible with Apple’s HomeKit seems to be more expensive.
I just wish I had found Homebridge earlier.
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