Apple has announced it will make elements of its HomeKit Accessory Development Kit open source. This move means developers can now use the HomeKit Open Source ADK to prototype non-commercial smart home accessories.
Along with the Open source news, Apple will also be a key contributor to the Project Connected Home over IP along with Google and Amazon. Apple has said it aims to develop an open standard that will increase the compatibility of smart home products across multiple platforms.
The new standard will make it simpler for developers to build devices compatible with smart home services and voice assistants. While ensuring consumers can easily choose smart home products with security and privacy as fundamental design principles.
While Apple has the support of its more than a billion iOS and iPadOS devices. The company has been slowly losing in the battle with Google and Amazon in the smart home game. This is despite HomeKit being a secure smart home platform that protects the user’s privacy. So these moves by Apple could help it expand HomeKit and ultimately deliver an even better experience to customers.
Existing HomeKit devices
This move doesn’t mean that anyone could use the software to design and release their own Apple-compatible smart home accessory. Manufacturers will still need to enroll in Apple’s HomeKit MFi Program to sell officially certified HomeKit devices. But it will help device makers in the development cycle.
Apple has said existing HomeKit accessories will continue to work once the new protocol becomes available. This is because the company will continue HAP support for communication within its ecosystem.
This for me is a major step forward for Apple along with the Project Connected Home over IP initiative. This move could bring order to a very fragmented smart home section and help HomeKit reach more users. You can access the HomeKit Open Source ADK via this link if you want to have a play around and see what you can build.
Great article. I think that Apple is losing the smart home battle because people don’t understand the differences in HomeKit versus Google and Amazon.
To be honest, even though I’m relatively savvy when it comes to technology, I don’t fully understand the different “flavors” of HomeKit support.
There is HomeKit, unofficial HomeKit hub support (like the Soma Smart Shades), and now HomeKit Secure Video.
When I describe the benefit of HomeKit to people I explain that it ensures that a device will keep working with your Apple devices even if the manufacturer of the device goes out of business and that Apple doesn’t store and cannot decrypt any of the smart home data. I wonder if others describe it the same way.
I think it would be extremely helpful if someone were to make the information about the differences in HomeKit versus Amazon/Google more clear and hope Apple doesn’t give up any of the security and future proofing of smart home purchases by entering into this open source partnership.