谷歌 smarthome

Apple has had a few duds over the years, but HomeKit is particularly frustrating: After a few years, it’s still a mess disguised as an intuitive smarthome platform.

多年来，苹果公司曾有过几次失败，但HomeKit尤其令人沮丧：几年后，它仍然被伪装成一个直观的智能家居平台。

HomeKit was introduced in iOS 8 back in 2014 as a way to control smarthome devices from your iPhone from apps or Siri. One of the big benefits is the setup process, where you can just scan the HomeKit code printed on the device and your iPhone will immediately recognize it and set it up.

HomeKit于2014年在iOS 8中引入，它是通过iPhone上的应用程序或Siri控制智能家居设备的一种方式。 最大的好处之一是设置过程，您只需扫描设备上打印的HomeKit代码，iPhone就会立即识别并进行设置。

HomeKit has evolved since then, including the addition of the Home app, which gives you a central place on your iPhone to control everything in your house.

从那时起，HomeKit不断发展，包括增加了Home应用程序，它使您可以在iPhone上集中控制家里的所有事物。

Unfortunately, that’s where most of HomeKit’s pleasantries end. It was a promising framework that had many users believe Apple would take over the smarthome sector. However, it’s been anything but. While the smarthome industry has been booming over the last couple of years, with the release of new smarthome hubs and voice assistants, HomeKit has remained rather stagnant…and frustrating.

不幸的是，这就是HomeKit大部分乐趣的终结之处。 这是一个令人鼓舞的框架，许多用户认为苹果将接管智能家居领域。 但是，什么都没有。 在过去几年中，智能家居行业一直在蓬勃发展，随着新的智能家居集线器和语音助手的发布，HomeKit仍然停滞不前，令人沮丧。

HomeKit缺少的设备选择 (HomeKit’s Selection of Devices Is Lacking)

While the list of HomeKit-enabled devices is continuously growing, it’s still pretty lacking (thanks to strict hardware requirements by Apple). There are a ton of popular smarthome products that still don’t support HomeKit, including the Nest Thermostat and Belkin WeMo line, which are some of the most recognizable smarthome products on the market.

尽管支持HomeKit的设备列表在不断增长，但仍然非常缺乏(由于Apple严格的硬件要求)。 有很多仍然不支持HomeKit的流行智能家居产品，包括Nest Thermostat和Belkin WeMo系列，它们是市场上最知名的智能家居产品。

HomeKit-compatible products aren’t exactly scarce, but the fact that you need to severely limit your options in order to get something that supports HomeKit is pretty off-putting when you’re trying to build up your smarthome.

兼容HomeKit的产品并不稀缺，但是在尝试构建智能家居时，为了获得支持HomeKit的产品而需要严格限制选择的事实是不受欢迎的。

Conversely, smarthome hubs like Wink and SmartThings support a huge number of devices, as do voice assistants like the Amazon Echo and Google Home. These make much better “glue” for your smarthome than HomeKit ever has.

相反，诸如Wink和SmartThings之类的智能家居集线器支持大量设备，诸如Amazon Echo和Google Home之类的语音助手也支持。 这些为您的智能家居提供了比HomeKit更好的“胶水”。

苹果的家庭应用程序极其混乱和令人沮丧 (Apple’s Home App Is Extremely Buggy and Frustrating)

The lack of devices isn’t even my biggest gripe. My biggest issue with HomeKit is that it just doesn’t work well to begin with. It’s so bad that even the best exterminator wouldn’t be able to get rid of all the bugs, and the setup process can be frustrating and cumbersome even though it’s supposed to be simple and easy.

缺少设备甚至不是我最大的困扰。 关于HomeKit的最大问题是，一开始它并不能很好地工作。 真是太糟糕了，即使最好的除虫剂也无法消除所有错误，而且安装过程可能令人沮丧且麻烦，即使它本来就很简单也很容易。

For starters, the Home app (which took ages to even come out on the iPhone and iPad) isn’t all that great. It’s simple and easy to use once you get everything up and running, as well as when everything is working properly, but those last two parts is where things can get a bit frustrating.

对于初学者来说，Home应用程序(在iPhone和iPad上花了很长时间才出现)并不是那么好。 一旦您启动并运行一切，以及一切正常运行，它就简单易用，但是最后两个部分会使您感到沮丧。

For example, when I add my Hue lights to the Home app, it doesn’t import any information whatsoever from the Hue app, so I have to rename all of the bulbs and place them in rooms all over again. Not only that, but all of my Hue dimmer switches show up with the same generic name, so it’s impossible to know which one is which, since “Identify Accessory” doesn’t do anything for dimmer switches. Furthermore, the switches remain completely useless after setup until you configure them. And you guessed it, HomeKit doesn’t import any of those configurations from the Hue app.

例如，当我将Hue灯添加到Home应用程序时，它不会从Hue应用程序导入任何信息，因此我必须重命名所有灯泡并将它们重新放置在房间中。 不仅如此，而且我的所有Hue调光器开关都以相同的通用名称显示，因此无法知道是哪一个，因为“识别附件”对调光器开关没有任何作用。 此外，在您进行配置之前，这些开关在设置后仍然完全没有用。 您猜到了，HomeKit不会从Hue应用程序导入任何这些配置。

Perhaps my biggest complaint, though, is that you can’t just show all of your devices and accessories on one screen—if there’s a particular device you’re looking for, you have to select the room it’s in first. Granted, you can fix this by simply adding every device to your “Favorites”, but that also kind of defeats the purpose of having Favorites in the first place.

不过，也许我最大的抱怨是，您不能只在一个屏幕上显示所有设备和配件-如果要寻找特定设备，则必须先选择它所在的房间。 当然，您可以通过简单地将每个设备添加到“收藏夹”中来解决此问题，但这也有悖于首先拥有“收藏夹”的目的。

On top of that, half the time HomeKit tells me there’s no response from my Philips Hue Bridge. I can connect to it just fine from the Hue app and control my lights from there, but in the Home app there’s “No Response”. And when I went to reset the connection, I scanned the HomeKit code on the back of the Hue Bridge and HomeKit thought it was my Ecobee3 thermostat. Great job, Apple.

最重要的是，HomeKit一半时间告诉我，我的飞利浦Hue Bridge没有任何响应。 我可以从Hue应用程序很好地连接到它并从那里控制我的灯光，但是在Home应用程序中有“无响应”。 当我去重置连接时，我扫描了色相桥背面的HomeKit代码，HomeKit认为这是我的Ecobee3温控器。 辛苦了，苹果。

It’s not just me, either: my coworkers have similar issues with HomeKit as well. One of my colleagues noted that his smart lock constantly goes offline and light bulbs frequently go missing from the interface. (You’ll see in the screenshot above that my thermostat is showing “No Response”—I didn’t stage that, that’s just the thing HomeKit decided to have trouble with the day I wrote this article.)

也不仅仅是我：我的同事在HomeKit方面也遇到类似的问题。 我的一位同事指出，他的智能锁一直处于脱机状态，并且接口经常丢失灯泡。 (您可以在上面的屏幕截图中看到我的恒温器显示“无响应”-我没有登台，那只是HomeKit决定在撰写本文的那一天遇到麻烦的原因。)

Of course, bugginess can happen with any smarthome platform, and it’s possible your experience will be different. But HomeKit seems to be a department in which Apple is constantly putting on the back burner, with the goal of only keeping things warm and not really cooking it to perfection. So I wouldn’t be surprised if HomeKit just never ends up being a well-oiled smarthome platform worth using.

当然，任何智能家居平台都可能发生错误，并且您的体验可能会有所不同。 但是HomeKit似乎是一个部门，在该部门中，Apple一直在不懈努力，其目标是仅使事物保持温暖而不真正将其烹饪完美。 因此，如果HomeKit永远不会成为一个值得使用的，功能完善的智能家居平台，我不会感到惊讶。

您应该使用什么 (What You Should Use Instead)

If you have similar experiences like I do with HomeKit, it’s best to just stay away from it right now and use something else.

如果您有类似HomeKit的使用经验，那么最好立即远离它，并使用其他工具。

If you want to use voice commands to control smarthome devices around your house, you don’t need to use Siri. In fact, both Alexa and Google Home would be better choices. You can pick up an Echo Dot or a Google Home Mini for $50, sometimes less if there’s a sale going on during a holiday. (A lot of people are selling these devices used for quite cheap, too.) These devices are particularly great because you don’t need your phone to use them—they’re standalone voice assistants ready for your commands 24/7.

如果要使用语音命令来控制房屋周围的智能家居设备，则无需使用Siri。 实际上，Alexa和Google Home都是更好的选择。 您可以以50美元的价格购买Echo Dot或Google Home Mini ，如果在假日期间有促销活动，有时价格会更低。 (很多人也以相当便宜的价格出售这些设备。)这些设备特别出色，因为您不需要手机就可以使用它们-它们是独立的语音助手，可以按24/7全天候执行命令。

Furthermore, not sticking to HomeKit gives you a much wider set of smarthome products to choose from. You still need to make sure that whatever you buy works with Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings, Wink, or whatever other platform you decide on, but those lists are way longer than HomeKit’s thanks to Apple’s hardware requirements.

此外，不坚持使用HomeKit可以为您提供更多选择的智能家居产品。 你还需要确保，不管你买与Alexa，谷歌助手，作品SmartThings，眨眼，或任何其他的平台，你决定，但这些列表比HomeKit的感谢苹果的硬件要求程较长。

If you do decide to take the whole smarthome thing more seriously, you’ll want a separate smarthome hub, which will provide you with a ton of extra functionality, like automating devices (rather than just being able to control them manually).

如果您决定更认真地对待整个智能家居，您将需要一个单独的智能家居集线器，该集线器将为您提供大量额外功能，例如使设备自动化(而不仅仅是能够手动控制它们)。

Granted, HomeKit can do automation, but you would first need an Apple TV or an iPad as your “hub” in order to do that. Even then, you still can’t use things like door sensors, motions sensors, and more to create complex automations and interactions between devices, which is where HomeKit’s “simple to use” mantra gets in the way.

当然，HomeKit可以实现自动化，但是您首先需要Apple TV或iPad作为“集线器”才能做到这一点。 即使那样，您仍然不能使用门传感器，运动传感器等之类的东西来创建复杂的自动化和设备之间的交互，这正是HomeKit的“简单易用”的口头禅。

In the end, HomeKit should be a terrific smarthome platform, especially for novice users who want to dip their toes into this tech. Unfortunately, HomeKit is just way to too buggy and frustrating to be reliable, and it’ll cause more headaches than it’s worth. And with Apple’s lack of interest in the smarthome market, HomeKit just isn’t a worthwhile investment for users who are serious about smarthome tech…at least for now.

最后，HomeKit应该是一个了不起的智能家居平台，特别是对于希望将自己的脚踏入这项技术的新手用户而言。 不幸的是，HomeKit只是过分出错和令人沮丧而无法可靠的一种方法，它会引起更多的头痛。 而且由于苹果公司对智能家居市场缺乏兴趣，对于那些认真对待智能家居技术的用户来说，HomeKit并不是一项值得的投资……至少目前是这样。

翻译自: https://www.howtogeek.com/333290/homekit-isnt-worth-the-trouble-use-a-smarthome-hub-instead/

谷歌 smarthome