6. Awair on HomeKit with iOS 16 and MacOS 13 Ventura
With iOS 16 and macOS13 Ventura, the Home app icons and status have been revised to present your home information by category. In previous versions, the status of each device had to be checked individually. With the iOS 16 update, the Home app shows you issues that might need your attention — for example, your front door is unlocked, an accessory’s battery is running low, or a light is on during the day. You can often address the issue with just a tap.
At the top of the Home app screen, you can tap any of the round buttons that appear just below your home’s name. These buttons can represent a status or a group of accessories. Air quality, temperature and humidity are grouped under a single climate icon at the top of the Home app screen. If you tap this icon, a screen opens with all of the Climate devices in your HomeKit home (1st & 2nd screen shots). Similarly, you can select the '3 dot' icon at the top right which will display 'Rooms' that you have set up in the Home app. Selecting a Room will display a status bar for that room as well as devices in that room.
For Awair Omni, battery charge level, charging status, low battery, light level and occupancy detection based on ambient sound level are shown in the 5th screen shot. Battery Status does not appear as a separate tile in the HomeKit interface. Battery charge level and status will be found in the Status menu for each of the sensors. A low battery indication will be identified as an alert in the HomeKit status section.
HomeKit provides the framework for display of compatible devices, values and status. Homebridge is a NodeJS server which you can run on your home network that emulates the iOS HomeKit API. It supports Plugins, which are community-contributed modules that provide a basic bridge from HomeKit to various 3rd-party APIs provided by manufacturers of "smart home" devices. For Awair we are making use of the Cloud API to access air quality data measured by your device.
Services and Characteristics are the working elements of the HomeKit framework. An Awair device supports several Services: Air Quality Sensor, Temperature Sensor, Humidity Sensor and Carbon Dioxide Sensor. Services are generally represented by a tile in the HomeKit interface. Each Service in turn has a number of associated Characteristics which may be displayed on the tile or are accessed by selecting/touching the tile.
The following is an example for the Awair-R2:
| Service | Characteristic | Displayed on Tile? | Displayed on Touch? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Quality | Air Quality | Yes | |
| PM2.5 Density | Yes | ||
| VOC Density | Yes | ||
| Temperature | Temp | Yes | |
| Humidity | Humidity | Yes |
You may ask how is the Carbon Dioxide Sensor displayed? The Carbon Dioxide Sensor is handled in a little different manner with HomeKit as it is considered an alarm sensor. The Carbon Dioxide Sensor will only be displayed on the Home app main page if there is a high level condition and will then be displayed as a red banner below you home name. When you select the banner, information on the sensor or sensors with the alarm condition will be displayed. To view the CO2 level normally, you first need to go to the Home app, select the '3 dot' icon in the upper right corner, then select the room in which you have the Awair device located, slide the row of icons at the top all the way to the left, and then select the Carbon Dioxide Sensor icon located in the status bar (reference the screenshot below). If the Room contains more than alarm sensor such as an Awair and a separate Smoke Detector, they will be displayed as a group labeled Alarm Sensors.
