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– Hey guys, it's Craig. Are you trying to decide which
smart assistant to go with? Are you thinking about
switching over to HomeKit? Or are you wondering why
someone would ever pick Apple's HomeKit for their smart home? In this video, I'll cover
seven reasons to consider Apple's HomeKit over Google and Amazon. Let's take a look. If you're a regular to the channel, you know I've been all about the Echo's. My family is all trained up on
the Echo's, but as a regular you also know that I like
HomeKit and HomePods. HomeKit is doing some great stuff. And this is part of a series to look at each of the smart assistants and really kinda point out
some of the benefits of each, and this is the first episode, looking at seven reasons to
switch over to the HomePod. Now, there are advantages and features that HomeKit can offer that
Amazon and Google do not.

For some of those advantages it makes it worth the extra costs that some of the HomeKit devices cost. But HomeKit devices are
becoming more affordable, and there are companies like Meross that actually sell stuff that's priced the same
as non-HomeKit stuff. In the description, there are
links for the Meross devices and some of my other favorite
Apple HomeKit devices. Now, the reasons to invest in HomeKit are becoming more compelling. Let's look at these seven reasons, but make sure to stay to the end, because I think six and seven
will be the game changers that really add a benefit to switching the HomeKit and the HomePod.

Number one is the ecosystem. Apple users always talk
about the ecosystem and how their devices work together. That's one of the biggest
draws to the Apple products. As an Apple user, the
more devices you get, the greater the benefits of the ecosystem. Really, the ecosystem
creates a very familiar and connected experience
between your devices. Now, to some the Apple ecosystem
is a trap or a bad thing. But I find the only people
that really complain about the Apple ecosystem
are the ones outside of it, which I don't get. They're not in it, so why do they care. Okay, but I digress. Now, number two is the Apple Home App. I think Google and Amazon could
really learn a thing or two from the Apple Home App. It is a very simple app
and a very useful app. It's not a do everything app like the Alexa app or the Google Home App. Those things are, you
need an app for set up and then an app for actually
using and triggering devices. The Home App is just a place for you smart devices
and your automations.

You have quick access to your
favorite scenes or devices or you can look at your devices by room. The app, it's very
clean and simple to use. Another great feature in the app is being able to see HomeKit cameras. It's really nice to be able
to scroll down to the bottom and I could see my Eufy cam right there. I don't need to open up the Eufy app. Now, with some of these HomeKit cameras, you can take advantage
of this next feature. It's called Apple Secure Video. Now, before we talk about
that, in order to set up one of these networks and
connect HomeKit device to it, you're going to need either
a HomePod, an Apple TV, or a dedicated iPad to serve as a hub so that you can access these
devices outside of your house.

Number three is Apple Secure Video. Apple Secure Video allows
you to see and record videos directly within the Home App. You don't need to use a third party app. The nice part is, is
that Apple Secure Video stores your camera recordings
in your iCloud account using end-to-end encryption. With Apple Secure Video, you don't have to use the
manufacturers cloud recording.

And there's been companies out there that have had issues
with people checking out some of those cloud recordings. Any video taken with the camera never has to go to a third party. If you've already committed
to the Apple ecosystem, end-to-end encryption with a company you already
trust is a great option. A downside of using Apple Secure Video is that it does disable some of the functionality of some cameras. Like this is a 2K camera but it only shows up as
1080p within the Home App. But I do gain some functionality where I can create my own zones. There's also face recognition
that will recognize people that I've tagged in my photos app. There's those different recording options and alerts based on the
user's location and phone.

So if you're at home, there's an alert, it doesn't necessarily have to record, or doesn't necessarily
have to let you know that alerts happening, but once you leave the
house, then it turns on so that you will be alerted and
recordings will be captured. Now, typically with cloud-based cameras, processing of videos is
handled in the cloud. Now, with Apple Secure
Video, any video processing or analyzing the video, such
as for faces and all that stuff is handled on your home devices and then encrypted to
be saved in the cloud. Now, Apple Secure Video does
only save your recordings for the previous 10 days. If you need videos to be
held longer than that, this may not be the right option for you, but like this Eufy cam here,
I can see it in the Home App, I don't have to use Apple Secure Video. And this has micro SD. I'll put a link to this
in the description. Actually it'll be in my HomeKit kit. But you've got micro SD there so you don't have to send anything to the cloud, which is great.

Now, number four is Handoff. I made a dedicated video on Handoff that you can find in the description. But Handoff allows you
to pass a call or audio between your phone and a HomePod. So if you're listening to some music, touch the phone to the HomePod
and it transfers it over. If you're on a phone call, you can transfer the call
to the HomePod with a tap, or if you're listening
to music on the HomePod and you want to take it with
you, can actually tap it and it'll move the audio
over to your phone.

It's a great feature. Although there are some limits on what services you could actually stream from on a HomePod, Handoff
allows you to stream anything, from audio books to YouTube, you name it. You just pass the audio over. I love it. You don't have to use Bluetooth
and wait for them to pair, just to tap and done. Now, number five is native integration across all Apple operating systems. If you're an Apple user,
you can call up Siri on any of the devices that have been made within the last three to five years. So if I hold down my myself side button, I can cops in and just say goodnight, and that triggers a routine
that turns everything off.

I don't have to call up assistant, I didn't have to load an
app, I can just lift my wrist and start talking into the
Apple watch and do this stuff. So it's really kinda convenient. I could be watching TV with Apple TV and access my smart home
controls right there. Like I said, I just speak to my watch or touch the complication
there to open the Home App and I could see all my favorite devices.

I can even scroll down to the bottom, select a camera and be
able to see that camera and connect it up on here in
CA live video of the camera. Even it says live, and I
can hear it by unmuting it, turning up the volume, use the crown. And there's my camera feed. Can't do that with anything else. So there's something about
the native integration that is really cool. Sometimes I don't wanna use voice and talk to my assistants to do stuff. So being able to access your devices across your Apple devices is great. On the iPhone, I could swipe down a control
panel from the top corner and use the icon that says
Home, hold down on it, and there's all my favorite
scenes and accessories. So grab anything I want,
turn it on and off.

I could go through by room. I didn't unlock anything,
I didn't open any app, I just swiped down and
grabbed the stuff I needed. Now, number six is Shortcuts. Shortcuts I think is a real game changer. Shortcuts is Apple's native
program for creating automations that goes way beyond smart
devices in your smart assistant. Shortcuts can trigger actions
across all your Apple devices. You can just make a quick
shortcut that when you click it sends whatever article
we're reading off to Twitter. You wanna add something to
your calendar, hit the shortcut and it just goes through
the prompts for it. It's just really a lot of stuff
you can do with Shortcuts.

One of the things I
love about Shortcuts is, I can create animations
that take advantage of NFC tags as triggers. And those are basically 25 cent stickers you can attach to things. I have a couple over here
to turn my lights on. You hover your phone over it, it reads that little sticker
and it triggers a routine. Stuff that no one else out there has to be able to touch on now. And Shortcuts allow users
to create a series of steps across multiple apps. So I can have it trigger a device then open up an app on my iPhone. It really is kind of crazy. Shortcuts isn't just for
automating your smart home, it's like automating
different apps and tasks in your digital world. Now, these Shortcuts can
be triggered with voice or touch or on any of your Apple devices.

Amazon and Google's routines all revolve around what your smart
assistant and speaker can do. Amazon and Google's
routines don't work across your computer, tablet
and phone the same way. Yes, I will say there is some overlap with Android side and Google assistant. The integration is a lot better there, but that's nothing compared to how many different digital areas of your life Shortcuts can automate.

Some of the scripting is
just so far over my head. I take advantage of some of the easy ones I find in the gallery. I like the multiple
triggers with Shortcuts. I mean, like the NFC tags
are so cool to be able to use that with 25 cent
sticker to trigger stuff. Now, number seven and the
biggest reason, I think, to think about goals with Apple HomeKit over Amazon and Google
it's Apple's U1 chip. Apple's U1 chip was announced last year and is being put into pretty
much all new Apple devices.

And this U1 chip can
tell with high precision where another U1 chip is within a space. Like, for example, the HomePod mini, as my phone gets closer,
it starts to recognize whether or not I wanna hand
it off to the HomePod mini. It gives me haptic feedback and starts to like a
vibration as it gets closer. It's really crazy that
it can identify that. Apple's long rumored AirPods are supposed to be out
in March of this year. So with an iPhone, an
Apple Watch, or Airtags, you're gonna be able to
trigger some cool automations. Right now, the options out
there can use geo location to trigger automations
when you get to your house, but no smart speaker assistant knows where you are within your house. Motion sensors, door sensors,
and buttons are great, I use all those, but what about automations that change based on
who walks in the room, or automations that are triggered based on where you are in that room.

Picture sitting down, the HomePod knowing where you
are because of your distance and a change in height,
and it then turns on the TV and sets the lights to
your TV watching level. Now, with Airtags, you're gonna know, with
accuracy, where your items are. You throw a tag on that
thing, you always lose. You look it up and it'll know with some precision where it's at. There's nothing that I'm
seeing from Google or Amazon that's pointing to this
kind of automation. Thread, that's another big thing with the HomePod minis,
and thread is fast. Like at this probably checkout Thread. I think both Google and Amazon are going to have to
up their hardware game to create something
similar to the U1 chip. I will say Apple has made a
huge improvement to HomeKit in this last year.

I'm seeing more companies making
affordable HomeKit devices. Like I mentioned, Meross, this is the price of any other
Wi-Fi ball, but this point. Now, if you've already
started your smart home with Google assistant or Amazon, there are options out
there such as home bridge or you could get the Hoobs hub here that basically has Homebridge in it. And this will connect your
non-HomeKit devices to HomeKit. I just got the Hoobs hub
and I will follow up later when I get some time to use it, but I'm excited I have a
Roomba and other devices that I wanna be able to
use within the HomeKit app and play with some of
those shortcut routines. What is your assistant of choice, and what is your number
one reason for picking it? Now, if you made it this far in the video, please give it a thumbs up. It helps the video get
recommended more to other people. Next, make sure to check
out this video over here for 10 things you can do with the HomePod. I'll see you over there. Thanks for watching. Bye..