U.K. Smart Home Firm Hive Rolls Out HomeKit Support for Active Line of Products

Yes, absolutely about time - have been waiting patiently for this. Got it setup very very easy.

Only 1 issue/query - I have 2 thermostats - but 3 zones - Downstairs heating - upstairs heating and Hot water - I did not see any where to be able to have the Hot water option on HomeKit - anyone else ??

Yes, absolutely about time - have been waiting patiently for this. Got it setup very very easy.

Only 1 issue/query - I have 2 thermostats - but 3 zones - Downstairs heating - upstairs heating and Hot water - I did not see any where to be able to have the Hot water option on HomeKit - anyone else ??

Hive is a British Gas product. It's in their interest to promote interoperability.

Nest, on the other hand, is firmly embedded in the Google Borg, and there's no impetus to make Nest equipment play nicely with Apple. Just imagine, for instance, if you could take a Nest Camera and make use of your iCloud data account for video. Google would hit the self destruct button first before that happened.

It's a shame, because the Nest thermostat is a lovely piece of design, whereas the Hive thermostat looks like my cheap light dimmer switch from the 1980s. I have a Nest thermostat myself, and the only bad thing about it is that it depends on Google for its existence. It's mildly annoying that we have these competing (and incompatible) standards. It would be great if the EU issued a directive saying that hubs must be designed to be interoperable.

I haven’t gotten into home automation for my heating yet (I have loads of Hue lights...) but I’ve been looking into it recently.

This product looked like it might handle hot water, but that was only based on reading the blurb, not hands-on experience:

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/HLMG2ZM/A/tado°-extension-kit-wireless-receiver-for-tado°-smart-thermostat?fnode=75f267e085a3dc3c88701434fe6b30c18994801135a59da3aae18fd50d24144342f96d1c82c36318905bc4ced83e2e4c110a7f52e7ec132d9a6e401fbf5a75ce2390ad70450c469f8a98653d0d516b7803206823534b5dff7ddecddba17f7a9c4eb412e0222b2d634b1abe05c3b160af&fs=f%3Dthermostat%26fh%3D482b%252B465a

It certainly claims to be able to control a separate boiler and the plate / wiring looks like it would replace the heating control panel in my kitchen (UK).