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U.K. Smart Home Firm Hive Rolls Out HomeKit Support for Active Line of Products

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Hive, the U.K. smart connected home company backed by British Gas, has quietly added Apple HomeKit support to its range of smart home products.

hive active heating thermostat lifestyle
First spotted by iMore, the support is part of a software update that began rolling out late last week. When the soft launch is complete, Hive's ‌HomeKit‌ compatible accessories include all its Active Smart Plug, Heating, and Connected Lighting products.

The development comes some time after Hive said it was working on supporting ‌HomeKit‌ in its product line. The company made the original announcement after rolling out Siri Shortcuts support in June 2019.

To get Hive products up and running with ‌HomeKit‌, owners will need the latest Hive Hub or the Hub 360, both of which can be updated to version 10.28.0 of the software via the Hive app.

After the update is installed, owners should open the menu in the Hive app and tap Install Devices, where they'll find the ‌HomeKit‌ option with setup instructions at the bottom of the menu.

Tags: Hive, HomeKit Guide, United Kingdom

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Top Rated Comments

D
Duncan-UK
81 months ago
I wonder if you can set it so it knows if the heating has been increased by the lady of the house and then automatically countermand the instruction!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Moccasin Avatar
Moccasin
81 months ago

Yes, absolutely about time - have been waiting patiently for this. Got it setup very very easy.

Only 1 issue/query - I have 2 thermostats - but 3 zones - Downstairs heating - upstairs heating and Hot water - I did not see any where to be able to have the Hot water option on HomeKit - anyone else ??
Apparently hot water control isn’t possible. I’ve seen a claim that this a HomeKit limitation but don’t know whether that’s true. I’m pleased integration has finally arrived but am a bit underwhelmed so far. It might spur me on to get a couple of smart plugs.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
M
mzanker
81 months ago

Yes, absolutely about time - have been waiting patiently for this. Got it setup very very easy.

Only 1 issue/query - I have 2 thermostats - but 3 zones - Downstairs heating - upstairs heating and Hot water - I did not see any where to be able to have the Hot water option on HomeKit - anyone else ??
HomeKit doesn't support hot water control, unfortunately.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
J
jaijaibinx
81 months ago
Hold your praise... Yes, after years Hive has finally added Homekit support. Unfortunately it does not yet have support for the TRV's which renders the functionality useless for a whole bunch of us. I hope they update this soon.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
justperry Avatar
justperry
81 months ago

Hive is a British Gas product. It's in their interest to promote interoperability.

Nest, on the other hand, is firmly embedded in the Google Borg, and there's no impetus to make Nest equipment play nicely with Apple. Just imagine, for instance, if you could take a Nest Camera and make use of your iCloud data account for video. Google would hit the self destruct button first before that happened.

It's a shame, because the Nest thermostat is a lovely piece of design, whereas the Hive thermostat looks like my cheap light dimmer switch from the 1980s. I have a Nest thermostat myself, and the only bad thing about it is that it depends on Google for its existence. It's mildly annoying that we have these competing (and incompatible) standards. It would be great if the EU issued a directive saying that hubs must be designed to be interoperable.
We might get lucky, Apple,Google amongst others (Ziggby..Z-Wave) announced a few months ago to make protocols more interoperable.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
M
mzanker
81 months ago

I haven’t gotten into home automation for my heating yet (I have loads of Hue lights...) but I’ve been looking into it recently.

This product looked like it might handle hot water, but that was only based on reading the blurb, not hands-on experience:

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/HLMG2ZM/A/tado°-extension-kit-wireless-receiver-for-tado°-smart-thermostat?fnode=75f267e085a3dc3c88701434fe6b30c18994801135a59da3aae18fd50d24144342f96d1c82c36318905bc4ced83e2e4c110a7f52e7ec132d9a6e401fbf5a75ce2390ad70450c469f8a98653d0d516b7803206823534b5dff7ddecddba17f7a9c4eb412e0222b2d634b1abe05c3b160af&fs=f%3Dthermostat%26fh%3D482b%252B465a

It certainly claims to be able to control a separate boiler and the plate / wiring looks like it would replace the heating control panel in my kitchen (UK).
Yes, the Tado extension kit supports hot water but not via HomeKit, because of HomeKit's limitations. It has a standard UK backplate so should be a quick replacement for many controllers.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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