The last I heard, Wyze has no plans for direct Homekit integration, and instead are hoping that Matter will allow them to give their devices access to Homekit, but Matter progress is relatively slow at the moment.
I don’t speak for Wyze, I am a user like most everyone else, but I have kept up on what’s going on with integrations like this.
For now, some people use Wyze Homebridge to get some devices into Homekit. or RTSP solutions for the cameras.
I think if Wyze added another individual integration then Homekit would be at the top of their list. I do think that it made more sense to do Google Home/Assistant and Amazon Alexa as the first 2 main platforms back when they did them because of a few main reasons:
- Google-Home/Alexa teams offer a lot of support to help get things going and integrate stuff and even do some promotions and advertising, and they’re easier to set up. It just makes really good business sense for a company getting started into platform integration.
- Google-Home/Alexa can be accessed by anyone regardless of what other Phone OS they use. So they benefit the most number of users.
- Google Home has the highest number of active smart home users worldwide with over 500 million, supporting over 50K compatible devices. Alexa has over 200 million users worldwide with over 140K compatible devices. And HomeKit comes in 3rd place in the smart home market with 100 million users and only 1K compatible devices, and restricts their services to only iOS users instead of EVERYBODY. So it does make sense that most businesses target Google Home First, Alexa Second, and then Homekit third. 4th place is Samsung SmartThings with 66million users, and 5K devices, though many companies will just to support it before Homekit because it is open to all OS’s and has 5 times the number of devices that can be used with it. However, the market is dynamic and competitive and all of the above are planning to support Matter, which will expand their total users and total compatible devices by A LOT in the near future.
Type of OS isn’t considered as much as smart home platform marketshare does as explained above, but it is true that iOS had a 58.34% marketshare in the US (though it is only fair to point out that iOS only has 28% marketshare globally, and that Wyze now launched globally). However, the majority of those iOS users are younger Gen Z demographics, and some younger millennials (64%), while Android is significantly more prevalent with every other age group. But there is representation for both among every age and demographic. The interesting point though is that while iOS may have a larger overall marketshare, it is off-set a lot by the younger teens and lower 20’s who are not the primary buyers of LOTS of smart home products (as opposed to just having a couple of items). While Wyze has customers from EVERY age group, the numbers I’ve seen have matched a lot of general data that indicates that the majority of their purchases and income are from the older generations who are much more likely to have Android. For what it is worth, I have an iPhone and an Android phone.
But like I said, type of OS is irrelevant to this consideration anyway. I believe Wyze integrated Google Home and Alexa not because they give preference to Android, but specifically because they have the best integration policies, procedures, teams, and they are things that anyone from any phone OS can use, and they have the most users and most other supported devices of any other smart home platform. It just made sense in almost every single aspect that could be considered. It is not a slight to Apple or a preference for Android, it was just practicality as far as I can tell.
In the forums and AMA’s, Wyze previously told us that they had infact submitted applications to HomeKit to get some direct integration. The initial application was denied for their early cameras due to Wyze having some limitations with their second stream capabilities and I believe Apple Denied their appeal. The new devices could certainly pass a new application, but it is my understanding that they will hope/try to leverage Matter for it now instead. This is again for practical purposes. If they hadn’t already implemented Google/Alexa then I wouldn’t be surprised if they held off on those now too because it doesn’t make sense to build individual integrations now if just supporting one single one will potentially cover ALL the others. Then they will only have to continue to do upkeep for 1 single integration in the future instead of keeping up with all the maintenance for more than half a dozen separate integrations. Waiting for that is worth it.
It’s also frustrating for everyone who uses Homekit who is REALLY waiting for this. Hopefully things will start speeding up with Matter so that those who need Homekit access can get it.
For now, consider alternatives like Wyze Homebridge and RTSP conversion systems that can help get your devices or streams into Homekit.
You can add to the wishlist for Homekit and the conversation about it here:
You will see it is currently listed as a “Probably Not” status though. This is because Wyze does not plan to create a direct Homekit integration. They have said they are hoping if they support Matter that doing that will give access to Homekit. But it can’t hurt to add your support there.