Is Nest Hello the best HomeKit doorbell on the market?

Cupertino, September 25, 2020

The HomeKit doorbell market has grown into a joke. Countless companies have announced Support for them in the future, but very few have delivered. Currently, Yobi and Robin ProLine are the only two options that are shipping. Countless others have announced upcoming products or firmware updates for existing products to improve HomeKit compatibility, but very few companies have. The Yobi doorbell is a great option, but it lacks a way to record it. Robin is a nice product, but it's expensive and requires power over ethernet to function. What if I told you Nest is the most economical HomeKit doorbell?

HomeKit Weekly is a series that focuses on smart home accessories, tips and tricks about automation, and everything related to Apple's smart home framework.


Before you rush to the comments to let me know that Nest doorbell doesn't support HomeKit, read on and let me explain. Nest products don't inherently support HomeKit, but Starling Home Hub makes them native HomeKit products. I reviewed the Starling Home Hub earlier this year and my opinion about it has continued to improve. There is now a new version 2 of the product that is even smaller and uses less electricity. Version 1 will, however, still receive software updates.

Starling Home Hub was recently updated to version 6.4 and is now ready for iOS 14 and tvOS 14. When you add the Starling Home Hub to your HomeKit setup, the Nest doorbell supports picture-in-picture on iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS. and HomePod doorbell announcements. Can you think of any other HomeKit product ready for Apple's fall software updates?

nest homekit 2

I'm not entirely sure what's going on with the HomeKit doorbell market, but it gets frustrating for people looking to use Apple's smart home platform for everything in their home. I speculated that this had something to do with the availability of power that most households have with their existing doorbell cabling, but I haven't confirmed this other than noting that the Robin ProLine needs power over ethernet to power their doorbell operate.

Adding the hub to your existing setup will take minutes once it's connected. All you have to do is go to http://setup.starlinghome.io on your local network and pair your Google account with the hub, then pair it with an iOS device with HomeKit. You can then configure your cameras, thermostats, etc. in HomeKit just like you would on a native HomeKit device. In case you're wondering, HomeKit Secure Video is not supported, but the developer hopes to add it in a future firmware update. Even if this feature is added, the camera footage is of course also stored on Google's servers.

If you have Nest products but want to use them with HomeKit automations and Siri, I highly recommend checking out Starling Home Hub.

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