In July 2024, Korean electronics large LG purchased an 80% stake in Athom, the Dutch firm behind the Homey smart home platform. The remaining 20% will probably be absorbed by the tip of 2027, and LG has huge plans in retailer — ones that would doubtlessly sway your entire client electronics market.
So what’s Homey, precisely, and what are its benefits? What are its disadvantages? And the way will the platform evolve following the LG takeover?
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What’s Homey?
A barely totally different tackle good dwelling centralization
Homey makes an attempt to centralize good dwelling management by connecting many accent and repair manufacturers below a single umbrella. That features the likes of Aqara, Discord, Ecobee, Google, IKEA, Nanoleaf, Ring, Roborock, Sonos, Spotify, Philips Hue, and others.
The platform has apps for Android, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and the net. Apart from the Apple Watch, all of these apps allow you to hyperlink equipment, manually management them, and create automations often known as Flows. That is an apt identify, since every Move is constructed utilizing “When,” “And,” and “Then” circumstances. If Homey detects a member of the family coming dwelling, as an illustration, it may be set to show in your Philips Hue lights, however provided that it is after sundown.
Whereas all of this may sound just like platforms like Apple HomeKit or Amazon Alexa, there are some key variations. For one, you possibly can hyperlink Homey to Alexa, Siri (by way of Siri Shortcuts), and/or Google Assistant. It is also break up into two value tiers — an ordinary model that is $3 monthly, or Homey Professional, which includes a one-time buy of $399.
The usual tier can function fully within the cloud, however you will want to purchase the $69 Homey Bridge accent if you wish to hyperlink Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave, or infrared equipment. When you spring for Homey Professional, you get a namesake hub that not solely provides Matter and Thread into the combo, however permits many automations to run utterly offline. Some extra perks embrace entry to community-made software program, and HomeyScript, a JavaScript-based language that goes past common Flows.
What are the benefits of Homey?
The Homey Professional hub is an enormous one
Homey
Its predominant benefit is arguably the Homey Professional hub. Sometimes good dwelling hubs are geared in the direction of a single model, or a single wi-fi format, similar to Zigbee. Homey’s Professional {hardware} provides a one-stop store. On prime of that, it is laborious to overstate the benefit of preserving most automations offline — it improves privateness, and people automations will preserve working even when there is a disruption in web entry. When you like, you possibly can backup the hub’s knowledge to your Mac or Home windows PC, or pay $10 per yr to get cloud backups.
Its predominant benefit is arguably the Homey Professional hub.
The Move automation system can be very versatile — you probably have Homey Professional, in actual fact, the one sensible restrict is how a lot time you are prepared to take a position. Separate from HomeyScript is a visible Superior Move instrument, able to automations Alexa and HomeKit customers can solely dream of. There’s a script editor for Google Dwelling, however that platform in any other case limits you to primary routines. There is no middleground.
Homey additionally sports activities a comparatively clear and intuitive interface, with options usually relegated to brand-specific apps, together with vitality/battery monitoring and tendencies. It is easy so as to add different customers to your property, in addition to view a timeline of set off occasions.
What are the disadvantages of Homey?
To start out, it is costly
Pocket-lint
Price is the main one. It is most likely not value it to subscribe to the fundamental model of Homey, since that is over $35 per yr when mainstream platforms like Alexa are each free and adequate. There is a a lot stronger case for Homey Professional, however $399 could also be rather a lot to ask for one thing that is the spine of a sensible dwelling, slightly than an clearly practical accent like mild panels or a vacuum cleaner. A number of years from now, that Professional buy could possibly be outdated — and even unsupported, relying on LG’s plans.
Model compatibility is also a difficulty. Though the platform helps a wide range of manufacturers, Homey-specific “apps” (add-ons) are concerned, so your choices aren’t as in depth as they’re for Alexa or Google Dwelling. Wyze is totally unsupported, for instance. Test if apps can be found for the equipment you wish to use earlier than you make any form of dedication.
How is Homey altering after the LG takeover?
For the foreseeable future, not a lot
LG
Homey claims that it’ll proceed to function independently and preserve growing its personal merchandise, so within the brief time period, there should not a lot be a lot distinction for individuals already purchased into the ecosystem. We’ll should see — different companies, normally startups, have claimed related issues previously solely to search out themselves dissolved into the company mass.
For its half, LG is planning to combine Homey’s know-how into its personal ThinQ good dwelling platform, which till now has been restricted to LG home equipment like TVs and washing machines. ThinQ customers ought to lastly be capable to hyperlink third-party merchandise, and Homey customers will be capable to management these LG home equipment. This might finally put each platforms on par with Samsung’s SmartThings, though Samsung has an edge given its standing as a significant smartphone maker.
In the long run, the priority for Homey customers goes to be how lengthy LG plans to assist twin platforms. It might finally resolve to merge every thing within the pursuits of cost-cutting and ease, simply as Google merged Nest into Google Dwelling. If that occurs, LG will seemingly provide some form of transition plan — however that won’t appease some clients, particularly in the event that they discover that their hub {hardware} is immediately ineffective.
Privateness-minded people may resolve to leap ship early, since LG says it hopes to “achieve deeper insights into clients’ life-style and utilization patterns” by way of the Homey deal. There are methods of anonymizing this knowledge, however nobody likes the thought of a enterprise prying into properties.
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