HomeKit Weekly

Level has been building smart locks that feel like they were made for Apple users since the very beginning, and the new Level Lock Pro might be its most exciting upgrade yet. I have been testing it ahead of my full hands-on review, and it is clear that this is the direction smart locks need to go. Home key support is still the gold standard for Apple users, and Matter over Thread brings the speed and reliability that make it work extremely well with your daily schedule.

Thanksgiving is incredibly late this year, so Christmas shopping is already in full swing. HomeKit accessories make great gifts for any Apple fan. They are usually low-cost and add real value to any smart home setup. For this week’s HomeKit Weekly, I have updated my HomeKit gift guide for 2025 to help you find the perfect addition for your favorite Apple smart home fan.

As I reported a few weeks ago, SwitchBot keeps expanding its lineup of Matter-enabled devices, and this week I’ve been using the new SwitchBot Smart RGBICWW Floor Lamp. If you want a smart lamp that’s bright enough for daily use but flexible enough to create ambiance, this one has worked great thus far. It connects directly to HomeKit through Matter, eliminating the need for a hub outside of a HomeKit hub. It can produce up to 1200 lumens of light and supports warm white, cool white, and full-color modes.

SwitchBot continues to expand its smart home lineup, with the newest addition being a great new lighting series that works with Matter over Wi-Fi. That means you can connect lights directly to the HomeKit without needing a hub or bridge (outside of an Apple TV or HomePod). The new lineup from SwitchBot includes new RGBIC lights, a flexible neon rope light, and randomly, even a candle warmer lamp that can sync up with your existing HomeKit scenes and automation. SwitchBot has been a roll in 2025 with several new products that work great with HomeKit. Let’s dive in to what’s new.

HomeKit Secure Video continues to be the only camera storage option that I will use indoors. The Aqara G100 takes full advantage of that with 2K clarity (outside of HomeKit), weatherproof construction, and AI detection. It’s made to work indoors or outdoors, and can be used directly with HomeKit without needing another service.

Presence/motion sensors are one of the best ways to make automations feel more natural, but most of them run on batteries and eventually have to be swapped. That’s one of the main reasons I really like the Meross MS600 Smart Presence Sensor. It plugs into the wall, so you don’t have to worry about battery swaps. It combines millimeter wave radar, motion detection, and a built-in light sensor to detect it all.

Small room fans are one of the easiest ways to keep air moving and a space comfortable. I personally love to sleep with a fan blowing on me. What makes the SwitchBot Smart Desk Fan even better is that it supports Matter, so you can easily use it within your HomeKit environment. That means you can automate it based on the room temperature, so instead of running all the time, it only comes on when needed and shuts off when it’s not.

Previously, I wrote about the SwitchBot K11+, a smaller robot vacuum that was a great option for smaller spaces. This week, I am looking at the new SwitchBot S20, and this one is built for much bigger homes. After using it for the past few months, I believe it may be the best robo vacuum on the market, with some nice workarounds for rooms in Apple’s Home app.

Earlier this year, iOS 18.4 brought support for Matter’s implementation of robot vacuums into HomeKit. I’ve been testing a few various models over the past few months, and SwitchBot has done a fantastic job. I’ve been using the SwitchBot K11+ for the past three months, and I am excited to talk about it this week.

Around my city, Halloween almost brings out as many “all in” people as Christmas when it comes to decorations. In fact, one house near me starts setting up in August and then keeps it going through Christmas, just dressing the Halloween-themed skeletons in Santa hats to carry them into the next holiday. If you’re still turning on all of your Halloween decorations manually, it’s time to automate that using HomeKit.

Video doorbells are one of the most popular ways to start building a smart home, and Apple users have a great option that works with HomeKit Secure Video. The Aqara G410 Doorbell Camera takes that foundation and adds even more. It records in 2K (not supported by iCloud), supports HomeKit Secure Video, and doubles as a smart home hub with Matter and Zigbee built in.

I love being able to control my smart home from the Home app, Control Center (my most used right now), or by asking Siri via a HomePod, but sometimes you just can’t beat a physical product for things. For my Matter enabled shades, I use the remote as much as I control them with the Home app. There are moments when pressing a button or turning a dial is easier than pulling out your iPhone. That’s exactly why the SwitchBot Hub 3 is an awesome product, and it’s something I want Apple to copy with the “HomePad”.

SwitchBot released its Evaporative Humidifier last year, and it’s now even better thanks to newly upgraded firmware that includes Matter 1.4 support. The update brings faster setup and better cross-platform compatibility for a device type that is typucally stuck as a “dumb appliance” in your house.

Home Key has been one of my favorite HomeKit features since it launched a few years ago. You never have to dig for keys; you can still get in when your phone battery is dead, and in my experience, it works instantly every time. There is no app to launch or waiting for a Bluetooth connection. The new ULTRALOQ Bolt NFC brings all of that convenience to more homes at a very reasonable price point.

Since Apple introduced home key, it has quickly become one of the most important features for smart locks. Basic HomeKit support just doesn’t cut it anymore. Unlocking your front door with just a tap from an iPhone or Apple Watch feels magical, and once you’ve experienced it, it’s hard to imagine going back to keys or even an app. Level was one of the first companies to embrace home key, and now it’s back with its most advanced product yet: the Level Lock Pro. It’s the smallest smart lock you can buy, it disappears into your door (doesn’t look like a smart lock at all), and it has Matter over Thread built in.

When people ask me where to start with HomeKit, I usually give them a list of products that work well together that are easy to set up: a motion sensor, a door sensor, and maybe a camera if you want one. Aqara has made that question a lot easier to answer with its new Aqara Camera Protect Kit. It’s a true HomeKit starter kit in a box. You get a 2K camera that doubles as a Matter hub, plus three devices that cover most use cases right out of the gate.

iOS 18.4 finally brought robot vacuum support to HomeKit, opening the door for a new wave of Matter-enabled vacuums that work with your existing smart home environment. I’ve been testing the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni for the past few months (even before iOS 18.4) to see how well it fits into a smart home, but more importantly, whether it’s worth the money as a way to keep your floors cleaned.

When I was in college, smart home technology was still something that was super futuristic. Today, that’s changed a lot. If I were starting college today, though, I’d bring a few HomeKit items to make dorm life more comfortable and functional. Between cramped desks, bad overhead lighting, and shared everything, a little automation can go a long way. Whether it’s turning off lights from bed or checking if your fan’s still running, here’s what I’d pack today if I were heading off to campus.

Local weather is one of the most underrated variables in Homekit automation. Over the past few years, I’ve used sensors for everything from knowing when to drip faucets in freezing weather to adjusting the sprinkler schedule with the Eve Aqua on hot days. The Eve Weather has been part of my setup for a while now, and with its 2024 Matter upgrade from last summer, it’s now even more useful across more platforms.

If you’re buying a HomeKit door lock in 2025 and it doesn’t support home key, keep moving. The tap to unlock experience with iPhone or Apple Watch is the feature that makes smart locks feel like a major upgrade over a physical key or even unlocking via the Home app. It’s fast, reliable, and once you get used to it, there’s no going back. The ThorBolt X1 checks all the boxes for a great HomeKit lock and brings a few nice surprises for under $150k.

It’s that time of year again. The sun is shining, grass is growing, and flowers are blooming. Summer weather is here. Here in the South, we’ll go from weeks of rain to stretches where it’s 95 degrees with no clouds in sight. I’ve never wanted to mess with a professionally installed irrigation system. Too much maintenance. That’s why I’ve continued using the Eve Aqua to handle outdoor watering without digging a hole or hiring anyone to install it.