Though Apple didn’t have much to say about HomeKit during its keynote presentation on Monday, it turns out the company’s smart home system is seeing some very notable changes this year. The updates center on two things: making HomeKit more flexible for users, and making it much easier for developers to start building new products.
The second of those is arguably the bigger deal. Until now, anyone that wanted to create a HomeKit product had to join Apple’s licensing program just to get started. That big hurdle is being removed, and Apple will now allow any registered developer to start building a HomeKit device. Forbes says that devs can even put something together using a Raspberry Pi or Arduino now.
There is one very big catch here: HomeKit devices built this way — without an official certification — won’t be able to go up for sale. They’re only meant for development or personal use.
Hobbyists can build their own HomeKit device
Still, that’ll allow hobbyists to build their own smart home gadgets that integrate with iOS, which is pretty cool. And it’ll make it much easier for developers who are thinking about building a product with HomeKit to get started, which means we could see more companies building compatible devices.