HomeControl Menu for HomeKit 4+
Menu Bar App for HomeKit
Pedro Jose Pereira Vieito
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- Free
- Offers In-App Purchases
Screenshots
Description
HomeControl is the ultimate HomeKit companion on macOS. Manage and automate your smart home directly from the menu bar: check your home’s status, trigger scenes, adjust devices, or switch between multiple homes with a single click.
HomeControl supports controlling and automating the following HomeKit areas:
• Scenes: HomeControl supports triggering and showing the state of each scene and also auto-detects the scene type and choses an appropriate icon for it.
• Devices and Device Groups: HomeControl can control all devices that can be activated and deactivated (like outlets, lightbulbs, switches, thermostats…). You can quickly see their state from the HomeControl menu and change it. HomeControl also supports changing device properties like light brightness and color, thermostat mode and temperature or blinds position.
• Homes: If you have added multiple homes to HomeKit, HomeControl can show a home picker to quickly change your primary home. HomeControl always shows scenes and devices from your current primary home.
HomeControl also includes the concept of Smart Groups to quickly control all the devices of a room from the menu (for example, activate all lightbulbs of a room or deactivate all its devices) and supports showing measurements or detections from sensors available in your HomeKit setup.
All the items can be configured to be hidden on the menu, shown in a submenu or invoked by a global keyboard shortcut.
HomeControl also includes full automation support for all the actions available in the app (triggering scenes, switching a device or device group status, changing the primary home and also changing device properties!) with “x-callback-url”-compatible automation URLs which can be easily invoked from AppleScript, Terminal, custom scripts and other apps.
HomeControl requires an active paid plan to use the following features:
• HomeControl Ultra: Run Home Actions and Customize Home Items (Hide & Move to Submenu), Keyboard Shortcuts, Automation URLs, and Family Sharing. HomeControl Ultra is available as a lifetime one-time purchase or as a yearly subscription.
Notes:
• HomeControl can detect and control the status of all HomeKit devices that can be activated and deactivated: outlets, lightbulbs, switches, thermostats, fans, air purifiers, heaters, dehumidifiers, windows, window coverings, faucets, valves, irrigation systems, doors, garage door openers and locks!
• HomeControl supports reading and showing measurements or detections from the following types of sensors: temperature, humidity, air quality, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, contact, smoke, leak, motion, light and occupancy sensors.
• HomeControl supports changing and reading the following device properties: light brightness, light hue, light saturation, light color temperature, thermostat mode (auto, cool, heat or off), thermostat target temperature, heater-cooler mode, cooling threshold temperature, heating threshold temperature, fan rotation speed and door, window, blinds or shades position.
• You can quickly copy the automation URL of any item right-clicking it on the “Customize Items” section of the HomeControl preferences pane. There are also examples for using them from AppleScript and Terminal on the “Automation” section of the preferences pane.
• All automation URLs include an Authentication Token to verify that requests are sent from a trusted source. The Authentication Token can be regenerated at any time in the “Automation” section of the preferences pane and doing it will invalidate all previous automation URLs.
• HomeControl cannot currently control AirPlay devices (like TVs, Apple TVs or HomePods) as they are not exposed through HomeKit to third party apps.
• HomeControl cannot detect the status of scenes that do not include HomeKit actions, like scenes that only control AirPlay devices (like Apple TV or HomePods) or devices that have already been removed.
Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
What’s New
Version 2.10
• Compatibility update.
Ratings and Reviews
Great Functionality, but Experiencing Crashes Regularly
Update: The issue seems to be resolved, thanks!
-- Original Review Below --
This app works as advertised and is a wonderful way to quickly toggle between scenes! I love having this functionality in my menu bar, especially since I enjoy using multiple scenes when working at night.
Unfortunately, I'm experiencing an issue that causes the app to crash each time I wake my MacBook Pro (running macOS Big Sur 11.1) from sleep. I get an alert with the Finder icon letting me know that HomeControl has crashed, along with an alert from HomeControl itself. The app promptly relaunches and works without any issues, but the constant crashing behavior has caused me to not use the application.
I would advise you to be weary of this behavior before purchasing this app. The app's features are wonderful (and I'd gladly rate this 5 stars), but a crash and multiple alerts each time I wake my Mac is unacceptable behavior.
Developer Response ,
Thanks a lot for the feedback! HomeControl 1.4 is now available and should resolve the issue. If you have any problem please contact me at https://pvieito.com/app-support.
One-of-a-kind, but needs a couple things
I love this app, because it seems to be the only one leveraging new HomeKit on macOS support to this extent. The only competitor is limited to scene control, which is not useful to me. However, this app could use two small additions. For one, fan control is only binary right now, but my ceiling fan, for example, has three speeds, which could be represented by making multi-level fans a dropdown item rather than a checkbox item. Second, it does not support thermostats, which is the one thing I find myself wanting to control most often while I'm at my desk. Otherwise, I really appreciate this app!
SO CLOSE
Really a five star app, does exactly what it says it can do which is not some trivial thing it's extremely convenient and works. I just can not stand how when I click a device -- light, plug, whatever to turn it off or on that there is no setting to be able to leave the menu bar dropdown up. If I want to click three different devices I have to go back up to the menu bar then back down , essentially providing no less work than if I just opened my Home app from the dock.
App Privacy
The developer, Pedro Jose Pereira Vieito, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Pedro Jose Pereira Vieito
- Size
- 5.1 MB
- Category
- Utilities
- Compatibility
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- Mac
- Requires macOS 12.0 or later.
- Languages
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English
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- Pedro José Pereira Vieito © 2021
- Price
- Free
- In-App Purchases
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- HomeControl Pro (Yearly) $6.99
- HomeControl Ultra (Yearly) $14.99
- HomeControl Ultra (Lifetime) $34.99
Supports
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Family Sharing
Some in‑app purchases, including subscriptions, may be shareable with your family group when Family Sharing is enabled.