When it comes to choosing the best hub for your Homekit Home Automation system, you really have only 3 choices. An Apple HomePod mini, and Apple TV 4K or a dedicated iPad. If you have each of these devices or even multiple copies of each, Apple makes it super easy and actually decides which device makes the best hub. You won’t be able to change it, or select it, but you can see which it is in the settings for the device.
Which Smart Home System is Best?
There are a bunch of different reasons I’ve selected Apple as the best Ecosystem for Home Automation for a number of reasons including:
- Fast and easy setup
- guaranteed compatibility with all Homekit products
- cool design, features and technology
Don’t re-write the title – take it exactly as it is given to you – only capitalize the first letters like you would in a book title
Is a smart home hub worth it?
What I really like about using a HomeKit Hub is that I already had one and didn’t even know it.
What I mean is that I never really though about “is it worth it to have a Home Hub”. I’ve always just had one. When we moved into our house I put a couple of Apple TV 4K’s on the only 2 TVs we had at the time. One was in the living room, and the other was in the guest/workout/scary room.
Then when I started my journey with Home Automation and I needed to do something I already had a HomeKit hub up and running.
BTW – did you know why one person might want to have a home hub? Well it’s very simple. The basic reason you want a home hub so you can access your devices at home automation when you’re not connected to your Wi-Fi network.
When you’re using HomeKit your Apple iPhone can control lights and switches and other things when it’s connected to the Wi-Fi net work. However once you move out of Wi-Fi range and in the cellular range, do you need some equipment at your house that’s always connected to the Internet to be the go-between for your iPhone and your devices. That’s what your home hub is.
Of course there are some other things at home hub does in the background like run automations but the major reason is for connectivity when you’re not home.
How do I choose my HomeKit hub?
With Apple HomeKit there’s no need to choose which device will be your home hub. If you have an Apple TV 4K, or a HomePod mini, or an iPad, you can select one of them to be your home hub. But when you connect any of these other mentioned devices to your network over Wi-Fi, Apple software internally chooses which device will be the best one at any given time.
I talk to some people who want to choose a specific component to be their hub because I didn’t understand why they would want it that way. If Apple engineers have come up with a way to see Lucy always pick the best home hub why would you want to change that? The answer I got was because sometimes one of the devices doesn’t control automations. Then I asked him which device was that and they said it was an older Apple TV model. If you have the latest devices you shouldn’t run into any problems. And the only time you would run into any problems is if you were trying to choose which things should be your home hub. Just let Apple software do the work and there’s nothing to worry about.
How many HomeKit hubs can I have?
As I look around my house I have more than a dozen devices they can be at home hub for my Apple HomeKit Netwerk. My main Apple TV 4K is the device I set up to be the hub but sometimes it switches to a HomePod or even my kids iPad when he turns it on. As far as I’ve learned there’s really no limit to how many you can have.
Some people have told me that the more devices you have a Wi-Fi net work the slower it might go down or be to react. I haven’t noticed this issue yet and I have more than 20 switches, two dozen lightbulbs, six HomePod minis, and a bunch of other devices like garage door openers cameras and video doorbells.
What devices can be used as a HomeKit hub?
- Apple TV 4K
- HomePod Mini
- Apple IPad
As of right now there are only three devices that can be used as a HomeKit hub. They also need to always be connected to the Internet. The three devices are an iPad, or a HomePod mini, or an Apple TV 4K.
You can always use your iPhone and the Home app to control home automation and things around your house, but it will not act as a hub.
Is HomePod Mini a HomeKit hub?
Yes, a HomePod mini is one of the best devices do use as a HomeKit hub. It’s small, discreet, always connected to the Internet. These things make it ideal to be a HomeKit hub.
Can I use an iPhone as a HomeKit hub?
No. Unfortunately I have not found a way to use an iPhone as a HomeKit hub. I’m not much of a hacker, and I like to be able to use things right out of the box and have them work. I’m sure there is a way to use an iPhone as a HomeKit hub, but for me that’s not the best solution, because I would have to hack a way to do it.
I hope this article has answered all your questions about HomeKit hub. There really isn’t much to do once you have the device. I just set it and forget it. And that’s how I like it.