HomeKit support lands on Amazon's Eero mesh routers

Eero's long-promised HomeKit update has finally arrived, making the Amazon-owned mesh router the first to support Apple's smart home platform.

After appearing recently appearing imminent, Eero has finally made the update available to users of its eero, eero Pro, and eero Beacon models which add additional security for smart home devices.

With HomeKit support, users are able to restrict communication for smart home devices to only communicate in the home, to the default connections recommended by the manufacturer, or no restriction whatsoever. With smart home devices controlling everything from our lights to our locks, knowing that they are prevented from sending data outside your abode can offer a great deal of peace of mind.

The update is installed by heading to the "Discover" tab within the eero app.

Once the router is installed, all accessories will be supported on the HomeKit router and be more secure, but for added security the devices must be removed then re-paired with the network. This generates a unique passkey that only the router and your accessory know. This step ensures the highest degree of security possible and only needs to be done once.

HomeKit router support was announced at WWDC 2019. Thus far no manufacturers have added HomeKit support, making eero the first. Linksys appears to have an update imminent for its popular Velop tri-band models and Charter Spectrum was also announced as an early HomeKit router partner.

If you want to try an eero router with HomeKit support they are available direct through Amazon.

Updated to clarify details around re-adding accessories to a HomeKit router

16 Comments

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

About 4 years ago

Yesterday on MacBreak Weekly this was discussed in depth. The consensus of the panel, especially Alex Lindsay, was that Apple needs to design and manufacture its own HomeKit router and HomeKit products rather than rely on third party support, whose implementations are often less than secure.

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

lkrupp said:

Yesterday on MacBreak Weekly this was discussed in depth. The consensus of the panel, especially Alex Lindsay, was that Apple needs to design and manufacture its own HomeKit router and HomeKit products rather than rely on third party support, whose implementations are often less than secure.

Right?! I'm glad Eero now offers HomeKit, but this now being owned by Amazon means they are monetizing data from traffic over these routers as much as possible.

While I don't care that Apple removed SNMP from their routers and have very few options compared to other vendors, at least they worked reliably and I don't have to worry about Apple selling my traffic to 3rd-parties.

coolfactor 2334 comments · 20 Years

lkrupp said:

Yesterday on MacBreak Weekly this was discussed in depth. The consensus of the panel, especially Alex Lindsay, was that Apple needs to design and manufacture its own HomeKit router and HomeKit products rather than rely on third party support, whose implementations are often less than secure.

From the article, it sounds like adding HomeKit to third-party routers makes them more secure, and puts Apple back in control over the router behaviour. Did I mis-read this part?
With HomeKit support, users are able to restrict communication for smart home devices to only communicate in the home, to the default connections recommended by the manufacturer, or no restriction whatsoever. With smart home devices controlling everything from our lights to our locks, knowing that they are prevented from sending data outside your abode can offer a great deal of peace of mind.

I don't think I could bring myself to buy Amazon-owned equipment, but it's great to see forward progress. I, too, hope that Apple re-enters the field of routers and networking.

agilealtitude 165 comments · 6 Years

lkrupp said:

Yesterday on MacBreak Weekly this was discussed in depth. The consensus of the panel, especially Alex Lindsay, was that Apple needs to design and manufacture its own HomeKit router and HomeKit products rather than rely on third party support, whose implementations are often less than secure.

I couldn't agree more. The article lost me at 'Amazon'.