Centralize, harmonize and control your home automation devices with ease with Homey Pro smart home hub 2023

Home automation gadgets are supposed to make life easier and more convenient, whether we’re enjoying time at home or out on the road. With sheer volumes of devices, brands, apps and communication protocols, figuring out how to get them all to properly work, let alone, playing nicely together, could seem like a pipe dream.

Enter Homey Pro from Netherlands-based Athom BV, an unassuming advanced secure universal smart hub, part of the Homey home automation ecosystem. Homey Pro easily unifies your sea of gadgets and other electronics together with just a single app – regardless of brand, model or technology.

The beauty is in its flexibility. Homey Pro acts as a central point for connecting an array of diverse devices, but also allows anyone to securely customize their entire smart home automation experience based on their individual and family needs without the need for fancy programming.

INFINITE AUTOMATION POSSIBILITIES

This means Homey helps control your door locks, light switches and thermostat. But it can also be configured that when it detects you at your front door, the door unlocks. And, if it’s after sunset it can also turn on the hallway light, and if the room temperature is below 20 Celsius, it can turn up the thermostat. And if by chance the hallway light doesn’t turn on, it can trigger a text reminder of the problem and switch on the lamp in the living room instead.

These are automation examples of Homey Flows and Advanced Flows which truly make Homey shine. They’re also just two of an almost infinite number of scenarios Homey can provide regardless as to whether your device communicates through.
Homey works with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Infrared, 433 MHz RF (Europe, Asia and Oceania only), and more recently Thread or Matter – a programming language supported by major players such as Apple, Google, Ikea and others.

Homey is compatible with more than 50,000 home automation devices. Items include smart bulbs, smart plugs, door sensors, smart locks, themostats, TVs and even connected home appliances and EV chargers. This covers more than 1,000 various brands from companies such as Philips, Ikea, Sonos, Airthings and smaller brands such as Sengled. More are being added all the time.

MONITOR AND CONTROL CENTRE

The Homey App monitors your devices and acts like a control centre. It’s accessible from most iOS or Android mobile devices or from a web browser running on a Mac, PC or Linux machine. Homey can also be voice-controlled via Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Siri Shortcuts. If you run Apple HomeKit, support is currently in the experimental stage. Flows can also be triggered with Widgets for iOS and Android or even with a tap from your Apple Watch.

SETUP IS A BREEZE

Homey Pro easily connects to your home’s wireless network, or can direct connect to your router with an optional Homey Pro Ethernet adapter ($40). Simply download the app and create an account. The Quick Start guide will get you started.

To plan your own automation roadmap, you can set up and add devices by floors and by rooms. You can also configure zones such as devices for a porch, front door and hallway may logically group together.

For starters, Homey will auto-detect most devices. If not, you can quickly search by brand. Simply select the device and follow the prompts to connect it. Once you’ve added it, you can control it. And because every device is different, each brand has its own official app that seamlessly runs from within the main Homey app.

There are currently 750-plus apps in the Homey App Store. With Homey’s open platform, there are official brand apps such as by Sonos and Dyson as well as community-built apps such as CallMeBot by Robin de Gruijter that can have Homey send messages to your preferred messenger service. And if you have your own app you’ve developed, you can likely add it, too. Most brand apps also offer a list of their compatible devices.

HOMEY FLOWS

Flows are the threads that in essence can seam everything together. They’re automated scenarios created by a series of cards you select which trigger actions when events happen and conditions are met, such as the door scenario mentioned earlier.

Since there are virtually an infinite number of possibilities to automate, Homey Logic helps you design and create Advanced Flows from the ground up starting literally from a blank canvas.

They allow you to use calculated variables such as Yes/No conditions, a given number, a text or device status. For example, if the doorbell is pushed, play the doorbell sound, wait three seconds and ring it again. And if either the doorbell rings or motion is detected at the front porch when no one is home, take a snapshot, send a push notification to your phone. And if it’s after 6 p.m., turn the porch light on at 50-per-cent intensity, for 45 seconds.

Flows can also be named, saved, tested and shared with others. In fact, most apps have preconfigured flow cards. You don’t need how to code, but if you want to there’s Homey Scripting for that.

Other features include Homey Insights to review historical data, and Homey Energy that shows you show real-time energy consumption.

For help, there is an extensive support section along with helpful articles and videos on Homey’s site, as well as a Homey Community where you can post or answer questions, share flows and engage in conversation with others.

QUICK AND SECURE

Homey Pro is a nifty little device that can easily help you make sense of your home automation and help you get up and running smoothly in no time. It’s locally connected, so it’s quick and secure only using the cloud when needed.

Homey also allows the appointment of users and roles so you can assign what can and cannot be controlled and by whom. You can assign a manager who can watch over when you’re away or unavailable, or allow temporary access, for example, to an Airbnb guest.

Homey Pro is housed in a round sleek black polished-finished chassis five in. in diameter and about 1.6 in. high and weighs only 302 g. Under the hood is a respectable 1.8-GHz quad-core ARMv8 processor, 2-GB (DDR4 RAM) with 8-GB onboard storage. The company says it has up to 3.5 times better performance and up to four times better wireless range, depending on the connection and technology than the previous generation.

Homey Pro 2023 comes with a USB-C power adapter, USB-C power cable and a Quick Start Guide. It retails in Canada for $549 with a two-year warranty and available from Homey and amazon.ca.

For complete details and more information, visit homey.app or homey.app/en-ca.