PSA: HomeKit News and Siri Shortcuts

At HomeKit News, we’ve been discussing whether there’s a way to expand on our website, while still keeping to the core of what the site is all about, which has always been reflected in our strapline “A website dedicated to all things HomeKit and related tech”. We plan on keeping to that ethos, so before you start to fret, no, we will not be featuring Alexa or Google Assistant compatible-only products! However, the “related tech” part is where we want to focus on next, so with the advent of Siri Shortcuts and the Shortcuts app, it now seems like the time is right to include select products that work with these platforms, on the understanding that Siri can also work with HomeKit in terms of including automations created in the Home app.

We also hope and believe that as Shortcuts evolves, the integration between Shortcuts and HomeKit will only get better, almost to the point where automations for other devices in other apps will be almost indistinguishable from a native HomeKit automation. As it stands, creating automations and getting them into Shortcuts, while fairly straightforward, does require interaction with the app, or via voice, as opposed to an automation or passive, time-based trigger, but we feel that there are already some great uses for Shortcuts that allow the user to expand on the smart home with devices that aren’t HomeKit compatible at this time – Aqara, Yeelight and Mijia devices (via the Mi Home or Yeelight apps) are examples, although we’re already seeing the uptake of HomeKit with many of these product lines at a fast pace.

So, with Siri Shortcuts, while it can be used for a myriad of things on your iPhone, we plan to only concentrate on apps and devices that relate to the Smart Home, which is really what HomeKit and HomeKit News have all been about.

If you’ve got an opinion on this development – good, bad or indifferent – you’re welcome to add a (constructive) comment or even a suggestion.