Ecobee with Siri Voice Assistant w HomeKit Control?

Configuration Voice Assistant
1

Hello all, not sure if anyone has experience with this setup; just trying not to make the same mistakes…

I have a fancy new Ecobee Premium (but I think the same theory would apply to Ecobee with Voice Control). Currently, I have these integrated to Home Assistant with the HomeKit Controller integration so as not to rely on the internet / Ecobee servers. Works great, though to be honest it’s not like I’m using Home Assistant to control Ecobee particularly much.

I am now wanting to set up Siri on the Ecobee. It looks like, to do that, it needs to link via HomeKit to my phone / HomeKit Hub (an Apple TV). This would mean un-pairing with Home Assistant’s HomeKit Controller integration. (I suspect that “forwarding” the link via the HomeKit integration would not be enough to make the Siri voice assistant work.)

So, I suspect my options are:

  1. Keep things as-is, and don’t use Siri.
  2. Un-pair Ecobee with hass HomeKit Controller, pair with Apple devices via HomeKit, enjoy Siri, and find some other way (e.g. Ecobee integration) to interface with Home Assistant, or don’t integrate Ecobee with Home Assistant at all.

Before I go about trying #2, I just wanted to make sure I’m not missing anything. Also (and related) it seems like there is a beta AirPlay ability built in to Ecobee now that can be activated while Siri is enabled on the device. I’m curious whether this would allow TTS via the AppleTV integration (as, e.g., HomePod Mini devices do). Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks,
John

2

Just wondering what you’ve discovered in the time since you posted this? I currently use the ecobee 3 with HomeKit controller, but I’m considering picking up the premium for the Siri functionality.

3

Yes, I’ve verified my suspicions above. Your choices are to:

  • pair the Ecobee via HomeKit directly to Home Assistant, and thereby not have Siri functionality directly out of the Ecobee,
    or alternatively:
  • pair the Ecobee via HomeKit to the Apple ecosystem to get Siri directly out of the Ecobee. In this case you can still integrate with Home Assistant via the cloud Ecobee integration; in my mind isn’t a big loss, though it does mean you rely on the cloud for control.
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4

Yes this was pretty cool because you could direct speech or whatever directly to the thermostat (like when someone in the house is cold and tried to turn it up to 90 deg). Ultimately though the cloud connected Ecobee integration was so sluggish at updating & responding that I deleted the HomeKit/Ecobee pairing and paired it directly to Home Assistant. Airplay doesn’t work anymore but I’d rather have local control.