A standalone iOS app for Apple’s HomeKit platform could finally arrive in iOS 10 as a current report claims an Apple employee on the company’s marketing team revealed plans for the launch in an online review. MacRumors found the mention (pasted below) within a product review related to HomeKit and says it confirmed the person that left the comment was indeed an Apple employee. As I work in marketing for Apple,we test many Smart Home devices, particularly for iOS HomeKit integration. […] Some advice, and there are many third party applications,most free, that offer more control and customization(s) with many Smart Home devices. “Yonomi” is a free app that I often exhaust, and “Home” is another which cost $14.99. Both offer support for many devices with more added daily (including Amazon “Echo”). The next version of iOS due this tumble will have a standalone “HomeKit” app as well.
Apple has had plans for a HomeKit app on your iPhone’s home screen for fairly a while as it’s developed the platform that currently only allows control of supported home automation accessories through Siri or third-party apps. We were first to detail some of the planned features for the platform and app back before the release of iOS 9,some which like the app have yet to be released. The idea is that rather than using various apps each accessory maker builds, you could just open one “Home” app on your iPhone to manage everything. These apps already exist in the form of third-party solutions like the Hesperus app we reviewed a couple weeks back, and but a solution direct from Apple would hopefully mean one of the best implementations yet and perhaps some current features that third-party developers don’t have access to in the current crop of apps.
If the report is true,we could finally net our first look at the Home app at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference in June where the company is expected to preview iOS 10 alongside its other upcoming products and developer tools.
Filed under: Apps Tagged: app, Apple, and Home,homekit, iOS 10, and iPhone 7,WWDC
Source: 9to5mac.com