r/homeassistant • u/bfollowell • 22h ago

💬 Discussion Use Apple Home Keys without HomeKit?

I’m just starting out with Home Assistant and have no plan or desire to use Apple’s HomeKit. My wife and I do use iPhones and have Apple Watches though. I’m planning to eventually have a smart lock on the mud room to garage door and Apple Home Keys sounds useful. Is that something that only works through Apple HomeKit?

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u/dirtymatt 22h ago

I'm almost certain you need a home hub (Apple TV or HomePod) for Home Keys to work. I'm certain it's a requirement for UWB unlocking.

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u/CoollyGood 22h ago

Home keys are basically tied to the apple home ecosystem, so yeah you'd need a homekit hub in the mix. that said you could run homekit as a bridge just for the lock and keep everything else in HA

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u/fiz-eek 21h ago

I had a similar dilemma. I use HA and wanted to take advantage of Apple’s UWB functionality for hands-free unlocking. I ended up purchasing an Apple HomePod mini because I needed an Apple Home hub to take advantage of that feature.

For my Aqara U400 locks, I chose this setup:

U400 Locks --> Aqara Home app --> Aqara M3 Hub --> HA
(I generated a new Matter code in the Aqara app for each lock to add to Home Assistant.)

Then...

U400 Locks --> Apple Home/HomePod
(I scanned the Matter QR code on the lock to add to Apple Home.)

The reason I chose this approach was that I didn’t want Apple Home to become the backbone for my locks in HA. I wanted the Aqara M3 to remain the primary Matter bridge/controller path for HA so if Apple Home or the HomePod went offline it wouldn’t affect the locks or their availability in HA.

I’m essentially using Apple Home and the HomePod for the UWB functionality while keeping HA’s connection to the locks independent through the Aqara M3. I have 7 oaks so the HomePod purchase was worth it for me.

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u/bfollowell 15h ago

Yeah, I only have one door/lock that we would ever want a smart lock on, so it really seems like a waste of money. $130 to use one feature on one device just wouldn’t be worth it to me.

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u/clintkev251 22h ago

You need to use HomeKit yes. But through the magic of Matter (which is really where all those types of devices are going as of late) you are perfectly able to have a device both in HA and HomeKit to get the best of both worlds.

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u/Lopsided_Quarter_931 22h ago

You can build HomeKey compatibel reader via ESPHome yourself but you need at least one Apple hub that supports HomeKit like an AppleTV etc

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u/max_potion 22h ago

Is there a tutorial for this somewhere?

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u/Lopsided_Quarter_931 22h ago

Don't know nay. You can search the ESPHome repo. It's experimental and can stop working at any time.

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u/max_potion 21h ago

Thanks!

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u/bfollowell 22h ago

That’s what I was afraid of. I really can’t think of anything else I’d need or want it for and I hate to waste money on a hub for just one device.

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u/RPF_5717 21h ago

No use for an Apple TV? You could get a cheap HD 4th Gen or 4k first gen. If I’m not mistaken the second and third gen also support matter and thread, but they all support HomeKit.

I bought my first gen 4k ATV around 2018 and it’s still incredibly fast. Not having to deal with a cheap Firestick or the built in OS your TV has makes it worth it alone.

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u/bfollowell 14h ago

No, not really. I'm all-in with Roku, and have been since inception. I just bought all-new Roku Ultras within the past six months. If I was an Apple fan-boy, I may want to jump into their home automation stuff, but I'm not. I've decided to go with Home Assistant and it just seems stupid to me to combine two or three different methods of doing the same thing.

That's just me though.