MG iSMART brings your MG into Homey: battery, range, charging, locks, climate, tyres and where the car is, plus 64 Flow cards and eight dashboard widgets. It talks to MG iSMART, the same service the iSMART app on your phone uses, so there is nothing to install in the car.
Free, no extra subscription, no server of its own: everything runs on your Homey.
Test version: MG iSMART | Homey
App Store: https://homey.app/a/be.mgismart/
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Which cars
Made for electric MGs with MG iSMART:
- MG4 Electric, including XPOWER and Extended Range
- MG4 Urban
- MG5 Electric
- MG ZS EV, 2021 and later
- MG S5 EV and MG S6 EV
- MG Cyberster
Other MGs that work in the iSMART app, such as the Marvel R or a hybrid, may work too. On a hybrid or petrol car the charging values stay empty and the fuel level shows up instead.
A word of honesty: I don’t own an MG. The app is built on the work of the SAIC-iSmart-API project, and I check every request against their code, but the remote commands have been tried on very few real cars so far. If something doesn’t match what the iSMART app shows, tell me here which model you drive and what you see.
Before you add the car
MG allows one session per account. If Homey logs in with the same account as your phone, the iSMART app on your phone gets logged out now and then, and the other way round. Use a second account:
- Create a new account in the MG iSMART app with a different e-mail address. Do it on a second device, or log out on your phone for a moment.
- Log back in with your usual account, the one the car is bound to.
- Find the part of the app for a secondary account or sub-account, and add the e-mail address of the new account. Allow location and remote control if the app asks. The name of that menu differs between app versions and countries.
- In Homey: Devices, +, MG iSMART, and log in with the new account.
The pairing screen explains the same steps, and the app settings have a help page with everything below.
What it does
What you see on the device
- Battery in %, range and the energy left in the battery (the app knows the usable capacity of most models).
- Charging: plugged in or not, charging or fast charging, power, time left, charge limit, charging current, charging schedule, why charging stopped, and the last charging session.
- Doors and windows: locked or not, and exactly which door, window, tailgate, bonnet or sunroof is open.
- Climate: on or off, inside and outside temperature, seat heating per seat, rear window and steering wheel heating.
- Where the car is: street address, distance from home, and whether it is at home.
- Health: tyre pressure per tyre, the 12 V battery, odometer.
- Today: distance, energy used and consumption per 100 km, the current trip, distance and energy since the last charge.
- Warnings: low tyre pressure, a weak 12 V battery, lights left on, a window left open, and the car unlocked while it is switched off.
Flow cards
22 triggers
- Charging started, stopped or finished (with the reason it stopped)
- Charge cable plugged in or unplugged
- Battery dropped below …% / reached …%
- Car arrived home / left home
- Distance from home dropped below … km / rose above … km
- Car was switched on / off
- Climate switched on / off
- A window was left open
- Lights were left on
- Car is unlocked while switched off
- Tyre pressure is low
- 12 V battery is low
- The car sent a message (title, text, type and group as tokens)
- Status was read
13 conditions
- Is charging / charge cable is plugged in / charge cable is locked
- Climate is on / battery heating is on
- Car is at home / distance from home is below … km
- Car is switched on
- A door or the tailgate is open / a window is open / lights are on
- Battery is above …% / range is above … km
29 actions
- Start climate at … °C, stop climate, ventilate only, defrost the windscreen
- Rear window heating on or off, seat heating per seat
- Open the tailgate, open or close the windows, open or close the sunroof (locking and unlocking use Homey’s own lock cards on the device)
- Find my car with lights and horn, lights only or horn only; stop it again
- Start or stop charging, set the charge limit, set the charging current (6, 8, 16 A or maximum)
- Set a charging schedule (until a time or until the charge limit), switch it off
- Lock or unlock the charge cable
- Battery heating on or off, heat the battery at a set time, cancel that
- V2L: start or stop powering devices, set the lower limit
- Mark car messages as read, delete the alarm messages in the iSMART app, switch on iSMART notifications
- Read the car now
A few things people build with them:
Start the coffee when the car is less than 2 km from home.
Charge to 80 % on weekdays and to 100 % before a long trip, or set a charging schedule for the cheap hours.
Warm the car at 7:30 on cold mornings and defrost the windscreen.
A notification when a window stays open, the lights stay on, a tyre runs low or the 12 V battery gets weak.
Dashboard widgets
Eight widgets to pick from:
- MG all in one: everything below in one widget, behind tabs for car, charging, climate, location, tyres and today
- MG car: everything at a glance, with controls for the lock, climate, windows, charging, tailgate, battery heating and seat heating per seat, and a photo of your car
- MG charging: charge level, power, time left and a chart of the last 24 hours
- MG climate: temperatures, set the temperature, defrost, rear window and seat heating
- MG location: a map with the car, the address and the distance from home
- MG tyres and battery: the four tyres on a drawing of the car, the 12 V battery and warnings
- MG today: distance, consumption, current trip and the last charge
- MG battery: a small tile with just the charge
A photo of your car: in the app settings you choose your own photo or GIF for the MG car widget, from your phone or from a link. Without one, the app uses the photo the MG service gives for your car if there is one, and a drawing otherwise.
Settings and the 12 V battery
Each time Homey reads a parked car, its connection box may wake up, and that draws power from the 12 V battery. So the app reads:
- a parked car every 30 minutes
- a car that charges or has the climate on every 10 minutes
- a car that drives every 3 minutes (it charges its own 12 V battery then, and an arrival is noticed in time)
You can change all three on the device. Messages from the car are checked every 5 minutes on the MG server, which never wakes the car. A new message, such as “vehicle started”, makes Homey read the car right away.
Other settings on the device: home radius, the limits for the tyre and 12 V warnings, the usable battery capacity if your model is missing, the climate temperature for the switch, and whether to use OpenStreetMap.
Safety and privacy
- Unlocking and opening the tailgate are off until you switch them on in the device settings. Locking always works.
- Your password is not stored, only a hash of it so Homey can log in again.
- For the map and the street address, Homey sends the position of the car to OpenStreetMap. You can switch that off on the device.
- No server of my own, no analytics. The app talks to the MG service and, if you allow it, to OpenStreetMap.
This app is not made by MG or SAIC. It uses the same service as the iSMART app without an official interface, so MG can change it at any time.
Changelog
1.5.0
- A new widget, MG all in one: car, charging, climate, location, tyres and today in one widget, behind tabs.
1.4.0
- A photo of your car in the car widget: your own photo or GIF, or the one the MG service gives.
- The help page in the app settings now also works in the Homey web app.
- New app images: the MG badge as icon and a drawing of an electric MG.
1.3.1
- A fuller description in the App Store, and the MG S6 EV in the list of cars.
Earlier versions
1.3.0
- New Flow cards for the distance from home, so an arrival can start a Flow before the car is on the drive.
- While driving, Homey reads the car every 3 minutes; messages are checked every 5 minutes.
- The car widget is larger, with controls for the lock, climate, windows, charging, tailgate, battery heating and seat heating per seat.
1.2.0
- Seven widgets in a quieter design.
- Which door or window is open, the address, why charging stopped, the last charging session, consumption per 100 km, steering wheel heating.
- Flow cards for car messages and iSMART notifications.
1.1.1
- Clearer texts in the app and in the store.
1.1.0
- Dashboard widget, at home and away, messages from the car, charging current and schedule, battery heating at a set time, V2L, sunroof and windows, seat heating, energy in the battery, warnings for tyres, 12 V battery, lights and open windows.
1.0.1
- Explanation in the app: which cars, a guide for a second account, a help page in the app settings.
1.0.0
- First version: battery, range, charging, locks, climate and location.
Questions, a model that behaves differently, or a value that doesn’t match the iSMART app? Post it here with the model and model year of your car. 
