August Doorbell Cam and others supporting Amazon Echo Show as HomeKit features still promised

When the Echo Show launches next Wednesday, Amazon’s smart speaker with a display will work with a number of smart home cameras including the August Doorbell Cam from day one. For comparison, Apple’s HomeKit smart home feature supports video cameras and doorbells but only one camera has hit the market with support so far.

In the case of the August Doorbell Cam, both Apple and August promise HomeKit support for the existing hardware already on the market. August ships a HomeKit-compatible door lock, but the smart doorbell camera doesn’t yet work with Apple’s Home app in any way.

When the Amazon Echo Show launches next week, however, users will be able to say “Alexa, show me the front door” to view the camera feed on the Echo Show’s screen.

Apple’s HomeKit feature technically supports both smart home video systems and doorbells, but so far only one HomeKit video camera has shipped. D-Link’s Omna 180 launched earlier this year as the only HomeKit video camera to actually ship, while Apple lists August Doorbell Cam as the only HomeKit doorbell on its HomeKit site, although support has been promised for a year now.

The Verge highlights several other smart home cameras that will also work with the Echo Show when it launches including products from Nest, Vivint, Ring, and Arlo. Logitech is also using the Echo Show’s camera support for its Circle 2 camera.

For what it’s worth, August still says it’s working with Apple to make its Doorbell Cam compatible with HomeKit so that hasn’t changed. Other companies including Ring and Canary have similarly promised HomeKit support in future products that haven’t debuted yet as well which suggest the delay is on Apple’s end.

Starting with iOS 11 later this year, Apple is shifting how it approves HomeKit accessories as well with new software authentication that Apple says will enable HomeKit on shipped accessories. August has long said it shipped Doorbell Cam with the proper chip ahead of time with HomeKit in mind, although it’s possible this shift could benefit August and other companies as well.

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news!