Last year, we shared a list of some of the best HomeKit products you can buy, which was quite popular with MacRumors readers, so we thought we'd follow it up.
In our 2019 HomeKit video, we're featuring some more great HomeKit products, and we've added in some AirPlay 2 accessories as well.
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- Vizio TVs - HomeKit and AirPlay 2 support is coming to a bunch of TVs from Sony, LG, Vizio, and Samsung later this year, but Vizio has already rolled out support on some of its TVs in a beta capacity. If you have a recent M-Series or P-Series Vizio TV, you can try it out. AirPlay 2 lets you AirPlay content from your Apple devices right to the TV, and your TV will also show up in HomeKit. You can use the Home app and Siri commands to do things like change the volume, switch inputs, or turn the TV on or off.
- Sonos Beam ($400) - The Sonos Beam is an AirPlay 2-enabled soundbar that's meant to be used with your TV, offering up impressive sound and allowing the same music to be played through other AirPlay 2-enabled speakers in your home, like the Sonos One or the HomePod.
- BlueSound Pulse Flex 2i Speakers ($300) - BlueSound's Pulse Flex 2i Speakers are AirPlay 2 enabled, so you can use them alongside other AirPlay 2 devices. AirPlay 2 lets you play music on multiple speakers throughout the home, for a whole home audio experience. These are more expensive than some other competing products like the Sonos One, but BlueSound promises superior sound.
- Chamberlain myQ Garage Door Opener and Home Bridge ($142) - Chamberlain's MyQ Garage Door Opener is compatible with HomeKit, though depending on your setup, you may need an extra accessory. With HomeKit compatibility, you can ask Siri to open or close your garage door, and you can check to make sure it's closed for peace of mind. You can also use the MyQ app.
- Hue Outdoor Light Strip ($70) - Hue recently introduced a whole range of outdoor lighting, including the Hue Outdoor Light Strip. It's similar to the indoor version, but with a great diffuse light and waterproofing so it can stay outside. It's flexible enough to go anywhere, but you can't cut this version. Hue lights can be turned millions of colors either with the Hue app, the Home app, or via Siri.
- Hue Signe ($160 to $240) - Hue also makes other unique lighting products, like the Hue Signe table and lamps. They're HomeKit enabled like other Hue lights, and while they're really expensive for lamps, they're cool and can fit just about anywhere because they're basically upright LED bars with aluminum stands. We have the table lamp, and it's a nifty accent light.
Have you used any of these HomeKit products, or have favorite HomeKit device we didn't mention? Let us know in the comments.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Tags: HomeKit Guide, AirPlay
Top Rated Comments
I hadn't seen the Insignia garage door control, that has me very interested since I have a Genie opener that came out before MyQ. Should work fine for the attached garage in my house, but I'm guessing it won't work in my shed where the opener has separate open/close/stop buttons?
What is of interest for me, can any of the mentioned doorbells also unlock doors remotely when you are on a different floor or cannot answer the door personally? I’m seeking this information quite some while now.
I am looking for a reliable system that integrates just about everything around the house without becoming too geeky, or having to put code in to a program.
Integration into the switches I have is also a problem, here in Europe there are a few big brands of switches but few of them have Homekit support, the ones that have are ugly-not my taste.
Looked into Z-wave, seems like one of the best ones, sadly to take full advantage of all features you have to be able to code, right now I have little time to do this.
States to me is also important, by this I mean if there's a power outage (very rare here) it should not automatically return to on like the Philips Hue did before, I don't want it to be awakened by a full blast at night time.
There's another problem with hue, switches, the regular in wall ones, they do not communicate and that's the whole issue with Hue, switch it of and turning it on turns it to full on, Z-wave does not have this problem, it's also better and more stable than Zigbee.
I have a Nest Thermostat because I like the style of it, sadly it's now owned by Google for several reasons, one major issue is, there's no Homekit support, I think I know the reason....!!
I also dislike the thing it operates on battery, thought it could survive a substantial time without being on a charger, it barely survives minutes, do I have a faulty one...?