HomeKit or Home Assistant Integrations - Advantages? (What's the point?)

[SJK]

General question: What's the advantage of integrating HomeKit (Apple) to IoX? I'm not sure what I'm missing out on by not doing this and interested in the killer functionality this provides given all the talk re: Matter, etc.  With the pending January update just announced, I'm thinking the advantage is even less. I'd understand if someone started with a HomeKit environment and fell into IoX, but not the other way around.

I have an Insteon-heavy environment, so IoX is ideal there. I have branched out into Zigbee 3.0 (Hue bulbs, Sonoff switches, GLEDOPTO devices for LED strips and architectural lighting) but also use Polyglot for UniFi, Venstar, Elk, and CAO/Wireless Tags integrations. An eISY and a Polisy running IoX and Polyglot are my only hubs.

The admin console programming setup is very flexible- things often require multiple small programs making sort of a web of interactions (vs a HomeAssistant script for example) but it's intuitive. Any limitations I've run into when trying to accomplish something is more often hardware-based, rather than IoX capabilities itself- with a few exceptions of trying out some cheap "unsupported" devices. Perhaps that's it? People using a mishmash of cheap consumer devices of the week that are supported in HK or HA and may not have made it into IoX yet?

I'm not currently using ZWave at this house but am in commercial settings.

So what's the advantage? A prettier UI from Apple instead of UDMobile? Even there, UDMobile is awesome- I've built a massive interface for my iPhone allowing me to control multiple IoX systems at multiple in one place. And I try to automate most actions so I don't need to fiddle around in the app to live my life- my home just does it's thing and responds to presence, motion, climate/weather/luminance, etc. I use Insteon keypads for most manual interaction and am installing a wall-mounted iPad to run UDMobile and a web browser for other home services (calendar/shopping list, etc). I'd rather not have to whip out my iPhone as I walk around my house to trigger events.  I interact with Elk directly for security when home, which IoX monitors to trigger some routines, and UDMobile if I need to interact with or monitor the security system when away from the premises.

I'm using UniFi protect for cameras (and access at commercial settings) but they have their own apps and I don't really need them to integrate with IoX. and then I could integrate an RSTP camera stream to UDMobile if desired (not sure of that other than quick access to a key feed or two in case of an alarm event rather than switching apps- maybe).

Sonos and Roku aren't well integrated into IoX via Polyglot- always ran into issues with them (some self-inflicted based upon enforced network segmentation)- but then Sonos has an app if I want to interact with it, and I can use the IoX network module if I want to program a specific action such as pressing an Insteon key to turn on the radio while cooking, etc.

What are people doing with HomeKit and HomeAssistant if they've got a mature IoX setup? 

Edited Friday at 03:49 PM by SJK
Clarification of home interfaces

[Guy Lavoie]

It's probably just to widen the market for the eisy. The world of home automation has evolved from the early geeks who probably started with X10 (...I plead guilty) and has slowly "cunsumerized" itself with shrink wrapped products like Alexa, smart thermostats, and Homekit. Apple users aren't usually techno geeks: they're more often drawn to the slick look of the products and just want it to work. But once we get into home automation, some of us will want more than just a fancy remote control with pre-programmed routines. More often than not, those users will likely also not want to lose their initial investment, but rather add to it. Insteon was successful because it also worked with X10. Now someone who got into automation with Apple products can go the next step and expand into full programmability with the eisy.

[larryllix]

Just wait and see what happens after UDI opens up the iSY to every HTML geek in the world.

I suspect ISY will constantly explode, with amazing things, yet to come, everytime some new 10 year old kid learns HTML5 programming,

[SJK]

Agree - I started with this 20 years ago now with Insteon V1 and and Elk integration using the X10 commands and some dedicated hardware interface between the two. Now 2 homes and 2 businesses later I'm on my 5th and final buildout with my preferred kit. 

So as I said- dipped toes into water with HomeKit (or spent the time in HA rabbit holes)- can keep it, but not any killer feature to layer on top of a polished IoX setup.

It's just hard to follow with all the Matter this and Thread that hype- sounds great for interoperability in simple setups, but IoX already is integrating and translating between vendors and protocols just fine.