How To Use Smart Button With HomeKit

A smart button can send commands to a range of devices that are used everyday in a smart home. It is indeed a perfect example of Internet of Things – a world where everything that complies with home automation including home appliances, vehicles, electronics etc are wirelessly connected through the a smart home app like Apple’s HomeKit. Smart buttons are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled and help control accessories integrated in the HomeKit app like fans and locks.

Basically, the smart button replaces the several remotes and switches you have for individual appliances. So, while you are in the kitchen, you can use the smart button to turn on your bedroom lights upstairs. What better way to control your home?

How To Use Smart Buttons With Apple HomeKit?

There are quite a few brands offering smart buttons that comply with HomeKit like Logitech POP Smart Button Kit, FIBARO The Button, and Elgato Eve Button. To use a smart button, you have to add it your HomeKit system. It’s not very complicated to configure smart buttons but the process differs from brand to brand. Once you have added the smart button to your HomeKit home, you are ready to play around you home’s scenes with just a press.

Apple’s HomeKit allows Logitech and Elgato smart buttons three commands: single press, double press, and a long press. You can customize each press to respond to specific commands. For example, you can set double press to turn on all the lights downstairs or your living room zone. When you double press again the lights are turned off.

Smart buttons compliant with HomeKit comes with authentication codes included in package. You will have to use that code to register the accessory with HomeKit. Accessories can be set up on any iOS device in the Wi-Fi settings and can be added in the Home app.

In the Home app, create a new automation setup that will have several options like location, time of the day, and the accessory state. The ‘Accessory State’ shows what your appliances are doing right now – the temperature detecting by the thermostat or if which lights in the house are on. You can select any one of the accessory and add the button, choosing which type of press you want to pair with the particular accessory.

To make this setup easier you can download a third-party app like Powerhouz from Apple Store to help you through the entire configuration. Powerhouz complies with HomeKit and instructs you to install everything from lights to smart buttons.

Smart buttons can be configured to set scenes as well. Let’s say you have assigned the single press to dinner scene that perhaps turns off other lights, air conditioners, and so on in the house except for the ones in and around the dining room. Or you can assign the long press to a scene before leaving home, which includes turning off all power appliances and lock all doors once you have left.  

 

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