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jmbwell | 7 months ago

If they do in fact continue supporting HomeKit, this isn’t the worst way to EOL the product. I’d love to see them all updated to support matter before being put out to pasture, though I’m sure Belkin feels that’s difficult or impossible for some reason.

discuss

order

eddythompson80|7 months ago

> continue supporting HomeKit

As far as I understand, Apple insisted that HomeKit devices be manageable locally with cloud connection optional. Your device can still do cloud connection, but Apple devices will only talk to it locally though a HomePod or an AppleTV or some iDevice that you leave on your home network.

So it's not really how they are choosing to continue to support these products, and more of a byproduct of how HomeKit works.

jmbwell|7 months ago

Makes sense. The protocol is certainly local only. And I guess once added, there’s no need to rip HomeKit support out. My iHome devices have been similarly abandoned but still work just fine.

I guess I’m conditioned to expect this stuff to die one way or another when something like this happens. I shall cautiously reframe my expectations…

afavour|7 months ago

Only caveat there is setup. IIRC a lot of devices have to be added to HomeKit via their own apps. Would be frustrating to never be able to move your device to a new “home”.

eddythompson80|7 months ago

Save the pairing keys you get for those devices. You shouldn't need to re-request them. They are unique per device and don't change (unless if you flash the device firmware or its EEPROM or they fuck it up on an update for some reason, but they shouldn't).

Generally the only reason you'd need an app to pair a HomeKit device is if the SRP key isn't printed on the box, and as far as I know that was limited to some early devices that were shipping while HomeKit was in beta (I know LIFX lights were in that camp for example. After Apple announced HomeKit, they said that all existing lightbulbs will become HomeKit compatible through an OTA upgrade. But of course you had to use the app to get the HomeKit code)

HomeKit is a local protocol. The Apple device connects directly to the outlet or lightbulb it's trying to pair over bluetooth or through local mDNS.