Vratislav Holub The concept of a smart home is growing every year. Thanks to this, today we have at our disposal a wide range of various accessories that can make everyday life more pleasant or easier. It's no longer just about lighting - there are, for example, smart thermal heads, sockets, security elements, weather stations, thermostats, various controls or switches and many others. However, the system is absolutely key for proper functioning. Apple therefore offers its HomeKit, with the help of which you can build your own smart home that will communicate with your Apple products.
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Jiří Filip HomeKit It groups together individual accessories and allows you to control them via individual devices – for example, via iPhone, Apple Watch or by voice via a smart speaker HomePod (mini). As we know the Cupertino giant, great emphasis is placed on the level of security and the importance of privacy. However, although the smart home HomeKit are very popular, about so-called routers with support HomeKitFor a change, there is not much talk about it. What do routers actually offer compared to conventional models, what are they used for, and what is behind their (un)popularity? This is exactly what we will now shed light on together.
HomeKit routers
Apple officially revealed the arrival HomeKit routers at the developer conference WWDC 2019, when he also emphasized their greatest benefit. With their help, the security of the entire smart home can be further strengthened. How Apple mentioned directly at the conference, such a router automatically creates a firewall for devices falling under the Apple smart home, thereby trying to achieve maximum security and prevent potential problems. The main benefit therefore lies in security. The potential problem lies in the fact that HomeKit Internet-connected products are theoretically vulnerable to cyberattacks, which of course creates a risk. In addition, some accessory manufacturers have been found to be sending data without the user's permission. This is something that HomeKit routers that build on technology HomeKit Secure Router, they can easily prevent this.
Although security is extremely important in this day and age of the Internet, no other benefits HomeKit Unfortunately, we can no longer find routers. Smart home Apple HomeKit it will work for you without the slightest limitations even in cases where you do not have this device, which does not make routers an obligation. It is therefore a bit of an exaggeration to say that most users without HomeKit It bypasses the router. In this regard, we also move to another fundamental question regarding popularity.
Popularity and prevalence
As we already indicated in the introduction, routers with smart home support HomeKit are not as widespread, quite the opposite. People tend to overlook them and many Apple fans don't even know they exist. This is quite understandable considering their capabilities. In principle, these are completely ordinary routers that only offer the aforementioned higher level of security. At the same time, they are not the cheapest either. When you visit the offer Apple Store Online, you'll only find a single model – the Linksys Velop AX4200 (2 nodes) – which will set you back $9. Kč.
There is still one router available with smart home support HomeKit. How Apple directly on their own support pages states that in addition to the Linksys Velop AX4200 model, the AmpliFi Alien continues to boast this benefit. Although with HomeKitEero Pro 6, for example, understands it, Apple does not mention it on its website. Anyway, that's the end of it. The Cupertino giant simply does not name any other router, which clearly indicates another deficiency. Not only are these products not very popular among Apple users, but at the same time router manufacturers themselves do not flock to them. This can be justified by expensive licensing.
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Adam Kos 
