Should you buy a Homepod (mini)?

Short answer: Yes if you have at least an iPhone.

At some point you wan’t to shout in your home: “Turn of all the lights”. You can do that with Alexa and a Google thingy, but privacy.
When looking for a solution, i came across the HomePod Mini. Bought one for € 88,- (black friday week after sales on cyber monday or so). And started fiddling. The goal is to keep the Homey leading. So no automation in Apple Home.

Step one install the excellent app HomeyKit App voor Homey | Homey from @robertklep

  • Install the Apple home app (woning in Dutch) on your iPhone
  • Setup your homepod as usual
  • Go to the app settings from HomeyKit in your Homey and select what devices you want to see in your Apple home app.
  • Ad the Homey as a bridge in the Apple home (follow the directions from HomeyKit
    Tada, al the devices are visible. And if you shout: He Siri, turn of lights in living room, the lights go of…

Cool so far. But can you start a Homey Flow from Apple home? Yes. Simply use a Virtual device. Enable it on you Homey under settings > Experiments. Don’t enable Apple Homekit there since it is not as configurable as HomeyKit.

  • Create a virtual device. It will show up in Apple Home.
  • Create a flow. If the device switched, then do stuff. Since Apple Home will turn it on and of directly, it works simple.
  • Put the virtual switch in a room names flow (makes calling it easier. Words like movie and music make the HomePod twitch into thinking it has to do other stuff.

So now you can do something like: He Siri, start flow movie scene. The virtual switch is flicked, Homey starts the flow, Blinds close, TV goes on, Lights dim… etc.

I was not able to make the HomePod say stuff or let him play sounds when things happen. If, for example, the TV turns on, it would be cool if Siri asked if it should close the blinds.

Things to be aware of:

  • Thanks @DaneedeKruyff i learend the following is not true anymore. It speaks Dutch. Update! > Siri on the homepod does not understand Dutch. So you might want to give devices an English name. Also switch Siri on your phone to English.
  • If you have an Apple TV. The HomePod is a bit anoying. The Apple TV will ask if sound should go trough the Homepod in stead of the Dolby Atmos Home theatre… Yes Apple, that is what we want.

Tips are welcome. Maybe there is a smarter way :slight_smile:

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Thanks for sharing, I don’t know why your Homepod doesn’t understand Dutch, but mine sure does.

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You just gave me an idea for my HomeyKit rewrite: the ability to create devices whose sole purpose it is to start flows. I guess they would appear in HomeKit as a switch that you can turn on, and turning it on would start the flow associated with the device.

(or perhaps just a virtual switch/button that you can use as trigger in a flow, that way you can also attach conditions to it before it starts another flow)

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That would be the coolest solution. Especially in Advanced flows.

I guess it needed an update… Thanks. Would otherwise not bothered to look at that setting again :slight_smile:

If someone ever finds a solution to let Homepod Siri say things directly from Homey (Without using a mac in between), let us know! I’m really looking for a solution now the new upcoming Homey is going to be a mute. My current Homey quite a bit of a talker. :sweat_smile:

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offtopic:
My Homey talks also a lot. Confirming stuff, doors open when alarm is on, countdown, letting the rest know i’m coming home and even tell the dog to shut up when he is barking to much :slight_smile:
I use the audio out, connected to a small amplifier that is connected to speakers in multiple rooms. The house speaks!
It works really well. Easy to use in flows. So even an audio out on the USB dongle would be nice.

Hi, did you find a solution to let homey speak through a HomePod? I would be really interested in this. I just ordered a new homey and just found out it has no speaker :open_mouth:

Regards,
Markus

Strictly speaking can be done without a Mac in between… but does need a dedicated iOS device [HOW TO] HomePod announcements from Homey