Back in the summer, my family went out of town for a few days. We had a dog sitter come by a few times a day to take our dogs on walks as well as take them to the bathroom. One challenge I had was showing her how to use our smart home. For our Level Lock+, I found it easier just to give her a key because there is no easy way to share a Home Key with someone outside of your iCloud family account. While I can share access to our lights, I find it much easier to use a product like the Onvis Smart Button instead.
HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything to do with Apple’s smart home framework.
What’s in the hardware?
The Onvis Smart Button is a battery-powered HomeKit remote that’s built with Bluetooth and Thread. It allows you to control multiple smart bulbs, smart plugs, and really anything inside of HomeKit. It has five total buttons (one large and four on the outside area), and each button can be used for up to three HomeKit functions. It has options for single press, double press, and long press. It’s battery-powered and comes with a wall mount if you want to make it easy to store.
Set up and installation
Once you unbox the remote, you’ll want to unscrew the back plate in order to install the included battery. Onvis included the HomeKit code on the side of it but it also adds to the instruction manual. I always recommend using an app like Homepass to back up your codes. If you lose them in the future, you’ll have no way to reload them if you need to move them to a different HomeKit home or reinstall them for a troubleshooting step.
Once you choose a room for the Onvis Smart Button remote, you’ll need to actually go to the room to find the remote. Inside the accessory settings screen, you’ll see a place where you can actually choose which accessories and scenes go to which buttons. I am using this to automate our blinds that we open and close daily. We generally open them first thing in the morning and close them at night. We generally close them whenever our kids go to bed – which can vary from night to night, so I haven’t wanted to put them on a timer. Using the Onvis Remote, I can tap the main button to close them and long press to open them (or any variety of this combo). I don’t have to grab my iPhone or wait on Siri to respond.
One of the things I can appreciate about the devices is everything stays inside of your HomeKit environment. There’s no Onvis cloud environment involved. It works over Thread to trigger the automations. If you want to use the Onvis app to track a record of what has been done, you can, but it’s completely optionally.
Wrap-up on the Onvis Smart Button
Overall, the Onivs Smart Button remote a solid addition to HomeKit. If you find yourself occasionally wanting physical devices to trigger HomeKit scenes and turn on/off devices, it’s a great product to have. I love that it has Thread built it, and I’ve found it to be incredibly fast and responsive. It’s a perfect way to give guests easy access to HomeKit products without needing to share access or teach them how to interact with a HomePod mini.
The Onvis Smart Button remote can be purchased from Amazon or directly from Onvis.
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