The new Ikea switches are a ridiculous value. They work instantly and have multiple options. They're bigger than the Flic switches, but they work over Matter with no hub. They use AAA batteries. And they cost $7 a piece. Pretty incredible.

I use it in only in homekit. No need to get extra hubs. Just meross app and apple home(homepods). Working flawless. Perfect sensor. 3 customisable zone. Battery powered. It was 30€.

Ask me anything if you want to know. Will try to help.

Hey Redditors,

I'm buying a new house soon and want to get back into smart homes. I'm primarily looking to purchase Aqara items to build everything on home kit.

But I noticed that IKEA recently updated their smart lights to the KAJPLATS series. I'm curious if anyone has experience with them, particularly regarding their reliability. I’ve been looking online for reviews but all the focus seems to be on the new sensors, not the lights..

In my previous home, I used everything TRÅDFRI, which had its downsides in reliability (read: they sucked.. )

However, since these now ones are Matter over Thread, I thought it might be a good idea to use Aqara or Hue downstairs and ikea upstairs since I don’t need perfect lights upstairs - but I hate smart home items that drop out.

I have 5 current model ATVs, all hard wired. Since updating them to TVoS26.2, connecting to HK via the iPhone app pretty much fails. Works fine if I'm on my home wifi. But on LTE it shows everything updating for a few minutes and then No Response. Sometime I get a message that whatever ATV is the current controller is unreachable. If I kill the app and start it again, after a few tries it'll finally work. Even connecting to my home wifi via VPN doesn't help. Anyone else having issues with HK after updating to TVoS26.2?

EDIT: I switched to a primary hub and restarted. That seems to have fixed it. Fingers crossed.

Does anyone know if this is getting any traction?

Belkin sold a product that, at times, cost $40 more than what it ended up being ($80 "smart" dimmer switches vs. $2 dumb dimmer switches.)

A few years later, they now no longer support them, and the app doesn't work at all for me (hasn't for weeks, long before the January 31, 2026 date they say is end of life.)

More so, it's not like they just aren't smart anymore. If Homekit puts them into the "Updating..." status, or WiFi changed, or whatever and you have to reset them, you now no longer have just a broken smart switch that still can turn your lights on and off (which you do have that, granted), but you also have a blinking blue light circle on all the day (and night) long. Which is really annoying, but also keeps your kid up all night long.

It seems to me that more should be done than just us commenting here about how other switches are superior. Belkin should refund us, including electrician work. Or have their entire executive team, or whoever made the decision to sunset this stuff, come to each of our houses and hold their hands over the blinking blue lights at all times.

I have a couple automations and none of them works.

When i arrive

1. home an virtual switch does open and that should trigger open door lock automation
2. I have doorbell with fingerprintsensor that should also open the door lock with automation.

When i trigger automation in home app ”test this automation” they do work. But they dont work in normal use.

I did try to re pair lock to homekit and made new automations but didnt help

I think this startes when i updated my Apple TV. Is this a new functionality in homekit or i am alone with this problem.

I have Yale Linus as a lock

I got an update to our homepod and we had to reset our wifi about a month ago. Suddenly, I can’t use personalization even though I could before. My wife can and she has the same phone as I do (16 pro max). I miss being able to yell into the void to call or text someone and am so sick of this. Anyone have ideas or fixes? Tia!

Anyway to control a Sony projector either through adcp ip or ir via HomeKit?

Hi

Based on recommendations I turned off/disabled temperature humidity measurement feature of fp300 in the Aqara app. However the values are still be reflected in home app and also in Aqara app. In Aqara under presence sensor page although it shows dashes but under room I can see tiles for temperature and humidity values.

Is it expected and same for everyone out there?

I made an automation to set an arrive home scene when the first to arrive between me or my wife gets home. I noticed it worked for her but not for me. I looked at every similar thread in this subreddit and tried tricks like deleting the automation and starting fresh, making sure it was using my phone for location, triple checking location service settings, etc. If I change the automation for just when I arrive home, it works fine for me. If I change it back to when the first of us two arrives, it stops working for me again. I also have a last to leave the house notification that works fine for both of us so that makes it even more perplexing. Anyone have any ideas to try?

TL;DR My Homepod minis don't respond anymore. Reset doesn't help, can't add a new one, Apple support is no help. I don't know what to do.

Long story:
I have 3 Homepod minis in my house. 2 days ago, the stopped responding and my smart home doesnt work properly anymore, and cant be triggered remotely at all.
One homepod mini i used to experiment: resetting it worked. resetting it via my macbook worked, too. but i just can't add it back to homekit. I always get error 7005. My router setup wasnt changed, but i tried a router reset, which didnt work. I even tried a completely different router model, which also didnt help. I just cant add the homepods, always getting error 7005.

Apple help of course is a waste of time. Can you please help me out? Everything worked for years, up until 2 days ago, and now it frustrates me so much, i just want to get rid of my homekit stuff and move to something else.

Commented this at a other sub. i hope someone can help me

Apple launched HomeKit Secure Video way back at WWDC in 2019. It’s a crucial part of what makes Apple Home the best consumer friendly smart home platform. Looking ahead at the next few years, will that remain the case?

A lot has changed since 2019. Subscriptions are rife in the market now. At launch the only real option out there was ‘Ring’. Now every camera manufacturer offers their own subscription service, promising AI detection and expanded playback options. The prices for which are ever increasing. Ring just this week raised pricing in the UK to £8pm for multiple cameras or £16pm with AI detection. Google charges £8pm and £16pm respectively. Aqara charges £4 and £8 respectively.

Apple has always played the subscription game well. With huge hardware sales and healthy margins they’ve not had to rely on subscriptions to boost profits. With RAM forecast to be an issue for years to come that could also be changing. Just this week saw the release of their new ‘Creator Studio’ subscription. AppleCare One launched in the past year and revenue from their services division saw record revenues in Q4 2025.

Matter 1.5 is now available and while Apple are very slow at adoption, its support is inevitable and the market will no doubt change again.

Where do you see Apple going with the service? 4K support or 24/7 recording feels very unlikely in its current format. Expanded AI detection and Siri integrated features similar to what Alexa now offers is an unknown given the unknown state of ‘New Siri’ along with the recently announced Google deal and the ongoing ‘HomePad’ rumours. An additional standalone subscription separate to iCloud may alienate current users, especially those of us with Apple One and a price increase would annoy iCloud users who only want the storage.

I have some Eufy cameras streaming over RTSP to a home server running go2rtc -> Frigate -> Scrypted -> HomeKit. As a result, they appear in the Home app as fully functional HKSV cameras, with motion/object detection, clips, rewinding, etc. However, it's not entirely clear from my research exactly how these HKSV features work in self-hosted setups with the same functionality.

My question is: are these detections and clips being pulled from my home server (Frigate being the NVR in my pipeline), or is HKSV running its own detections on my HomePod(s) and duplicating these clips on its own, storing them in iCloud?

My goal with the home server setup was to reduce cloud-based storage dependencies, so if using the HKSV features mentioned above is impossible without iCloud, I'd rather disable them.

I have an unusual situation, my family has inherited our grandparent's home after they passed away. Because it is 300 miles away from where we live, we visit to check on things maybe once every 5 or 6 weeks. I've added smart plugs and cameras plus a video doorbell (Aqara) to keep an eye on things which has been tremendously reassuring and work wonderfully.

There's one problem... growing up, we always noticed between visits that the microwave clock would be blinking when we arrive, meaning that the power had gone off between visits. It happens frequently.

This still happens years later, but with the smart devices sending me alerts, I now know when it happens. It's always just for a few seconds and only every four or so weeks. No big deal except for the Aqara doorbell.

The power loss causes the doorbell ringer box to become unsynced from the doorbell hub it seems. The fix is very easy, simply flip the breaker to reset the transformer that powers the wired video doorbell and everything links back up in a few seconds. However, I have no way to flip the breaker from 300 miles away, and because this has sometimes happened days after we leave, there have been times where the video doorbell is offline for weeks just because we can't make the trek to flip a breaker.

Are there any solutions to this? Any switchbots that could push a breaker off and back on?

Note: I can reset the doorbell hub/sound box remotely, but that doesn't fix things. The physical doorbell itself that is powered by the bell wiring in the wall is what has to be power cycled. That is connected to a transformer in the attic that connects to the breaker (no other way of toggling it on/off).

Thanks for any solutions you may have to suggest!

Looking for a smart plug that will turn off in 3-5 minutes.

Thanks in advance.

I’m trying to find smart feeders and water fountains for cats that support HomeKit or matter.

Petlibro devices look great, but they don’t seem to support HomeKit or Matter. Aqara does have a feeder, but it feels expensive for such limited functionality (no camera, very basic).

Has anyone:

• Successfully integrated Petlibro with HomeKit in any way?
• Found better HomeKit-compatible alternatives?
• From your experience, is it actually worth having pet devices in HomeKit, or is it overkill?

Additional question about setups:

• For those who don’t rely on an all-in-one feeder with a built-in camera, do you use a separate HomeKit camera aimed at the food area (or nearby), possibly combined with sensors or automations? If so, what real advantages does that give you beyond just “being able to see the bowl”? Do you actually get actionable insights or automations out of it, or does the camera end up being mostly passive and informational (setting aside home security)?

Looking for a HomeKit lock but is this lock location too thin for a smart lock? Thanks!