Guest Post: Apple overtook Samsung with the most smartphone users

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 29, 2023 by itnerd

In today’s world, smartphones have become essential to our daily lives. From checking emails to browsing social media, we rely on these devices for communication, entertainment, and information.

According to the data analyzed by the Atlas VPN team, Apple overtook Samsung as the most popular smartphone in the first months of 2023. It is a significant shift in the global smartphone market, as Samsung has been the dominant player for several years. However, is this change part of a bigger tendency or only a short-term trend?

Nearly through all of 2022, Samsung had the highest market share of all smartphones.

In October, Apple surpassed Samsung’s market share by 0.2%. Despite that, Samsung regained its position at the top the next month, claiming 28.33% of the market share. Apple’s market share in November and December stayed just slightly behind, with 27.48% and 26.98%, respectively.

At the start of 2023, two months in a row, iPhones are now the leading smartphone. In January, Apple made up 27.6%, while Samsung had 27.09% of the market share. Next month, Apple’s share dropped slightly to 27.1%, and so did Samsung’s to 26.75%.

Currently, the world has about 6.84 billion smartphone users, of which 1.85 billion are using iPhones and 1.82 billion have chosen a Samsung. However, it is essential to note that these numbers are just estimates, as some people might have multiple phones and use both Apple and Samsung devices.

Xiaomi phones comprised 12.29% of the market in February, while Oppo had a 6.86% share. Huawei’s smartphones have declined for the past 6 months and reached a market share of 4.84% last month.

​​Cybersecurity writer at Atlas VPN, Vilius Kardelis, shares his thoughts on Apple overtaking Samsung as the most popular smartphone:

“While it is impossible to predict the future with certainty, Apple’s success will likely continue due to its strong brand image, customer loyalty, and effective marketing. While Samsung is undoubtedly a formidable rival, it will need to innovate and differentiate itself to catch up to Apple.”

To read the second part and the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/apple-overtook-samsung-with-the-most-smartphone-users

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Homey Bridge Smart Home Hub Now Shipping in US, UK and Canada

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 29, 2023 by itnerd

Athom, makers of privacy-first smart home solutions, today announced the public launch and began shipping Homey Bridge, an easy-to-use, affordable smart home hub to the U.S., U.K., Canada, and other countries. Previously available only in beta and Europe, Homey Bridge supports more than 50K smart home devices from more than 1,000 different brands, and works in tandem with the Homey App (iOS, Android and web browser), enabling users to customize and automate their smart home based on their unique habits and preferences. Homey Bridge retails for $69 USD, £69 GBP or $99 CAD,  and can be purchased on the Homey website, or at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. View a short video about Homey Bridge here.

The elegant and functional design of Homey Bridge forms a perfect centerpiece of a user’s smart home and makes it easy for users to connect all of their smart home devices due to its compatibility with six wireless technologies — Zigbee, Z-Wave Plus, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Infrared and 433MHz (UK only). Homey Bridge pairs with the Homey App and enables users to easily connect up to five smart home devices. Upgrading to Homey Premium ($2.99 USD,  £2.99 GBP or $3.99 CAD per month) allows users to connect an unlimited amount of smart home devices, and also provides access to additional advanced automation features and Homey Insights. Additionally, the Homey app can be used to control smart home devices as an app-only solution without the need of Homey hardware, with the same subscription pricing structure.

American, British and Canadian households continue to connect a wide array of smart home devices — from TVs, speakers, electrical plugs, lights, thermostats, sensors, home appliances, EV chargers, and more. The volume of connections and devices presents a challenge, however: up to a quarter of respondents in a 2022 Deloitte survey said they “feel overwhelmed by devices and more than half are worried about the security and privacy of their smartphones and devices in their home.” Built privacy-first, Homey Bridge is unique in that it doesn’t listen in or sell any customer data, or use any of its customers’ personal information to create user profiles or targeted advertisements. The result is a streamlined and safeguarded smart home where people can take advantage of technology instead of worrying about who has their personal information or being bombarded with ads.

Homey Bridge is packed with features — including Homey Flow, Insights and Energy — developed over the past eight years for the Homey Pro smart home hub in the European market. Features include: 

  • Homey Flow enables users to create a series of automated rules that tie their devices together,  independent of brand and technology — and help to run their smart homes most efficiently and conveniently, e.g. “Always dim lights in the bedroom when the drapes close” or “Automatically lower the thermostat, turn off the lights and enable the alarm when I lock the front door”. Flows can also be started using voice assistants, such as Google, Alexa and Siri Shortcuts, and via widgets for mobile and Apple Watch.
  • Homey Insights allows users to analyze their smart home usage via visual, easy-to-read graphs and charts. For example, users can track trends such as the temperature levels of their homes and thermostat over time, or how much energy their refrigerator uses in summer compared to winter. Homey Insights requires an active Homey Premium subscription —  $2.99 USD,  £2.99 GBP or $3.99 CAD per month.
  • Homey Energy allows users to see their home’s energy usage in real-time, so they can make changes to increase their home’s sustainability. For example, users can see how much energy their washing machine uses on ‘hot’ versus ‘warm’ wash cycles, how much energy their solar panels generate right now, and which rooms and devices use the most electricity.

HOMEY BRIDGE SPECIFICATIONS:

  • Wireless Communication Technology Compatibility: Homey Bridge contains six wireless technologies: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy 4.0 (BLE), Zigbee, Z-Wave (Plus, S2), Infrared and 433MHz RF (UK only), to connect local devices to the Homey app. Homey Bridge automatically switches its Z-Wave frequency with a unique multi-antenna design, based on Homey Bridge’s geographical or country location. Additionally, transmitting 433 MHz is automatically enabled in eligible regions, such as Europe and Asia.
  • What’s in the Box: Homey Bridge, USB power adapter, USB power cable and a Quick Start Guide
  • Device Dimensions: 5.04” inches in diameter x 1.4” inches in height
  • Weight: 1.2 lbs (including packaging)
  • Supported Devices: 50,000+ smart devices from more than 1,000 brands
  • Control Options: controlled via the Homey App: iOS (v11 or higher), Android 5.0 or higher or a web-based browser
  • Price: $69 USD, £69 GBP or $99 CAD
  • Where to Buy: Online at Amazon.com, Amazon.uk, Amazon.ca,, Best Buy and the Homey website
  • Manufacturer Warranty: Two years
  • Certifications: FCC and CE

HOMEY APP SPECIFICATIONS:

  • Homey App Availability: iOS (v11 or higher), Android (5.0 or higher) or a web-based browser
  • Device Agnostic: Homey App connects devices across a wide range of brands and technologies. The app is available in two versions:
    • Free: Users can connect, control and automate up to five smart devices. Devices can be either cloud-connected or be connected via Homey Bridge.
    • Premium: A $2.99 monthly subscription per household includes an unlimited number of devices, and also provides access to Homey Insights and more advanced automation features like Homey Logic. Devices can be connected via Homey Bridge or the cloud.
  • Voice Assistant Compatibility: Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Siri Shortcuts
  • Control Options:
    • Smartphone or Tablet: iOS and Android
    • PC, Mac, Linux: Universal web app
    • Other: Apple Watch, iOS and Android widgets, voice assistants (Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Siri Shortcuts)

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Google releases 2023 Ads Safety Report and Search Updates

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 29, 2023 by itnerd

Today, Google released the 2023 edition of their annual Ads Safety Report, which takes a deeper look at how Google created a safer experience for users in the ad ecosystem in the past year. Google also launched a brand new transparency tool called the Ads Transparency Center, which will be a fully searchable repository of global ads we serve from verified advertisers. 

Here’s a link to the full report, as well as blog posts about the Ads Safety Report and new Ads Transparency Center for more information, along with some highlights below:

Key Insights from the 2023 Ads Safety Report:

  • Google blocked or removed over 5.2 billion ads for violating Google’s policies. That’s more than 9,000 ads per minute.
  • Google restricted over 4.3 billion ads. 
  • Google blocked over 17 million ads related to the war in Ukraine under our sensitive event policy.
  • Google suspended more than 6.7 million advertiser accounts for egregious  policy violations.
  • Google removed ads from over 1.5 billion pages last year. 
  • Google added or updated 29 policies for both advertisers and publishers in 2022. 

New fact-checking tools on Google Search

With International Fact Checking Day (April 2) approaching, it’s an important time to consider information literacy and misinformation online. Everyone should be empowered with the tools they need to find information they can trust, that’s why we’re highlighting tools and features available on Search to help people evaluate the information they come across online. You can read more details about the new Search features in this blog post.

  • About this page, is a new Search results page experience. Now when you search for a URL on Google.ca, About this page will appear below the top navigational results on the Search page. It provides quick, important context about the webpage you searched for, to help you evaluate the credibility of the page.
  • About this result will now be available for all Canadians. Through the feature, you can quickly find more context about the sources and topics you’re searching for. This includes information like a description of the source (if available), when the site was first indexed, and whether your connection to a site is secure. You’ll see Information about some of the factors used to connect a result to the query, and whether a result is personalized for you. 
  • Fact Checking Fund (GNI), back in November, Google and YouTube announced a $13.2M grant to the International Fact Checking Network to provide indirect funds to 135 fact-checking organizations across 65 countries covering 80 languages. The fund will be opening very soon, building on our previous work to address misinformation, and is Google and YouTube’s single largest grant in fact-checking.

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Mashable Report Claims That Half Of Twitter Blue Subscribers Have Less Than 1000 Followers…. A #Fail If You’re Elon Musk

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 28, 2023 by itnerd

Elon Musk has been getting more and more desperate to get users of Twitter to sign up for Twitter Blue. But based on this report from Mashable that a reader pointed me to, that’s likely failing. Let’s start with this:

Researcher Travis Brown, who has been tracking Twitter Blue subscriptions since January, recently revealed around half of all users subscribed to Twitter Blue have less than 1,000 followers. That’s approximately 220,132 paying subscribers.

Furthermore, 78,059 paying Twitter Blue subscribers have less than 100 users following their account. That’s 17.6 percent of all Twitter Blue subscribers. 

Breaking down follower counts even further, there are 2,270 paying Twitter Blue subscribers who have zero followers.

That’s a significant chunk of Twitter Blue subscribers being unable to crack even four-digits worth of followers, even though some have subscribed believing it would help boost the growth of their Twitter account.

This is pretty bad. If I’m an advertiser, there’s zero value to any of these Twitter users. Because they don’t have anything near the level of pull with their followers to make it worthwhile to stick ads on the platform. The only person who wins here is Elon. Well, actually he’s not winning here either:

According to his data, Twitter Blue currently has a total of 444,435 paying subscribers. Accounting for the limitations of pulling this data using the Twitter API, Brown tells Mashable that he estimates that Twitter likely has around 475,000 paying subscribers.

This means that less than 0.2 percent of Twitter’s 254 million daily active users, a metric previously shared by Musk, are paying for Twitter Blue. 

So let’s do some quick math shall we? If we assume that every Twitter Blue subscriber is paying $8 a month, that implies that Elon is pulling in $3.8 million a month from said subscribers. Keep in mind that he spent $44 billion buying a platform that according to him is now worth $20 billion, and it becomes clear that the math isn’t adding up because at that run rate, it will take an extremely long time to make his money back. Especially since advertising which is Twitter’s other source of income is dwindling.

Here’s another thing to consider. I’m sure that Elon was banking on those who are legacy blue checkmark owners would pay to keep the checkmark. But…

While the verified checkmark is seemingly the main draw of the subscription, Twitter does tout other features that come with the subscription service, although most of the advertised benefits have yet to launch. Users can edit certain tweets, add more than 280 characters to a post, and attach longer videos.

If these added Twitter Blue benefits were to be enticing to anyone, it would be Twitter’s power users. However, according to Brown’s data, only 6,482 legacy verified accounts have paid to subscribe to Twitter Blue. 

There are approximately 420,000 legacy verified accounts in total, which are mostly celebrities, pro athletes, journalists, influencers, and other notable users that received the checkmark badge for free under Twitter’s old verification system.

Again, Elon’s not winning here. And it actually gets worse for Elon:

Twitter has already been struggling to grow Twitter Blue’s paid subscriber base. Will legacy verified accounts sign up for Twitter Blue to keep their blue checkmark? Judging by the sentiment on Twitter, it doesn’t appear that many are willing to do so. As even Twitter itself has reportedly noticed, users verified with the paid checkmark are often shunned by other users on the platform. And taking away legacy verification is likely to further cement the blue checkmark as scarlet letter on the platform.

This will sound familiar, but the lack of big names on Twitter with blue checkmarks next to their names lowers the value of the platform for other Twitter users or advertisers. But I am sure that Elon didn’t think that through before he came up with the idea of Twitter Blue.

Bad as that is, it gets even worse for Elon:

Many Twitter power users who have interacted with Twitter Blue subscribers note that they are most often far right wing accounts, cryptocurrency scammers, and hardcore Elon Musk supporters.

If I am an advertiser, these are the sorts of people I would be staying away from. And a lot of users of Twitter feel that way too. No wonder there’s a steady influx of users to Mastodon. Here’s the user count from 3PM EST:

Earlier today, I wrote that somewhere between one and two thousand users an hour are joining a Mastodon instance. That now seems to have crossed the two thousand an hour threshold. In other words the rate of people joining a Mastodon instance is increasing. That shows that Elon’s plans to make money are not only not working, but are driving users away from Twitter. Thus you have to wonder how long it will be before his $44 billion dollar investment, which is now worth $20 billion ends up being worthless.

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Latitude Financial Gets Pwned…. And It’s REALLY Bad

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 28, 2023 by itnerd

Latitude Financial which operates in Australia and New Zealand first disclosed it was pwned by hackers in mid-March and said the breach was thought to only include about 100,000 identification documents and 225,000 customer records. Fast forward to the present day and breach is now impacting 14 million residents in New Zealand and Australia, according to a statement released by Latitude Financial yesterday:

As our forensic review continues to progress, we have identified that approximately 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand driver licence numbers were stolen, of which approximately 3.2 million, or 40%, were provided to us in the last 10 years.

In addition, approximately 53,000 passport numbers were stolen.

We have also identified less than 100 customers who had a monthly financial statement stolen.

We will reimburse our customers who choose to replace their stolen ID document.

A further approximately 6.1 million records dating back to at least 2005 were also stolen, of which approximately 5.7 million, or 94%, were provided before 2013.

These records include some but not all of the following personal information: name, address, telephone, date of birth.

Latitude maintains insurance policies to cover risks, including cyber-security risks, and we have notified our insurers in respect of this incident.

Yikes! This is not trivial to say the least. Dr. Darren Williams, CEO and Founder, BlackFog had this to say about the latest revelations regarding this incident:

     “On the back of the successful attack on Medibank and Optus late last year Australia has entered the mainstream as an attack target. We have seen continued focus globally on centralized data repositories specifically in sectors such as Healthcare, government and education. Latitude is the latest victim of this growing trend and highlights the need for data exfiltration monitoring and protection to stop such breaches moving forward. Like any attack, prevention is the best course of action with large fines imposed by most governments, as well as exposure to class action lawsuits. Limitations in cyber insurance policies and the number of exclusions mean businesses should be focused on protection rather than remediation to mitigate risk from attack. The only safe risk is zero.”

Sylvain Cortes, VP of Strategy, Hackuity adds this comment:

     “The largest-known data breach on an Australian financial institution is no small achievement for attackers. Whatever the cost of proactive security, it pales in comparison to the financial and brand damage Latitude Financial will now suffer for years. And that’s not even mentioning the millions of compromised customers who are paying the price alongside them.”

I hate to say that this is likely going to be one of these situations where we get more info one drip at a time. And every drip is going to reveal that this hack was way worse than we know.

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OVHcloud becomes a major partner of Centech 

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 28, 2023 by itnerd

OVHcloud has just signed a partnership agreement with Centech, a Quebec innovation center recognized by UBI Global as one of the top 10 university business incubators in the world. Created in 1996, Centech’s mission is to stimulate entrepreneurship and high-potential technological projects, from conception to market, by creating an ecosystem based on excellence and open innovation in selected sectors such as Deeptech and Medtech.

Driven by the same vocation to support innovation through its dedicated Startup program, OVHcloud will offer Centech dedicated technical support and premium access to its portfolio of open, interoperable and reversible cloud solutions. Whether they are in the start-up or development phase, Centech startups will benefit from an access to a cloud combining performance and flexibility to accelerate their projects and conquer new markets.

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Guest Post: These countries spend the most time online

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 28, 2023 by itnerd

Undoubtedly, we spend a significant portion of our day online. But just how much? 

According to data presented by the Atlas VPN team, the average time spent browsing the internet in 2022 was 397 minutes (6 hours and 37 minutes) per day. It equates to an astonishing 2,415 hours yearly, or nearly 30% of our time.

However, there is some good news as daily online time actually decreased by 4.8% or 20 minutes compared to 2021 as we gradually moved past the pandemic.

These figures are derived from data provided by Meltwater, and We Are Social. The data looks at internet usage trends worldwide among internet users aged 16 to 64.  

The time spent online varies significantly from country to country. South Africans are the most internet-addicted, with an average of 578 minutes (9 hours and 38 minutes) spent online each day, three hours more than the global average.

Brazilians are just a little behind, with 572 minutes (9 hours and 32 minutes) devoted to internet usage daily. The Philippines ranked third with an average of 554 minutes (9 hours and 14 minutes) spent online per day, followed by Argentinians and Colombians, both with 541 minutes (9 hours and 1 minute) of daily internet usage.

People in the United States also spend an above-average amount of time online, dedicating 419 minutes (6 hours and 59 minutes) daily to internet browsing — the same as people living in Singapore. Meanwhile, Canadians are slightly less generous with their time, spending an average of 395 minutes (6 hours and 35 minutes) online daily. 

In contrast, East Asian countries have one of the lowest average daily internet usage, with Chinese people spending 325 minutes (5 hours and 25 minutes) online, followed by South Korea at 321 minutes (5 hours and 21 minutes), and Japan with only 225 minutes (3 hours and 45 minutes) — the least out of all the countries in the study. The only exception is Taiwan, with an average daily internet usage time of 434 minutes (7 hours and 14 minutes).

Most European countries also spend significantly less time online than the global average. Austrians devote 322 minutes (5 hours and 22 minutes) daily to internet usage, while Germans spend 312 minutes (5 hours and 12 minutes). 

People in Denmark dedicate the least amount of time to being online out of all European countries in the study, with an average of 298 minutes (4 hours and 58 minutes) spent on the internet each day.

To read the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/these-countries-spend-the-most-time-online

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Elon Musk Takes Even More Desperate Actions To Force People To Pay To Use Twitter

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 28, 2023 by itnerd

Elon Musk is getting really desperate to get people to pay to use Twitter. In his latest “Hail Mary” to get you to pay up, Elon’s decided to do the following:

So let’s think about this. Elon Musk is basically going to force Twitter users to pay up by keeping them from voting in polls and not showing them in the “for you” recommendations. I’m pretty sure that this is going to have the opposite effect. As in people will say that it’s not worth being on Twitter if Elon’s going to do this and instead of paying him $8 ($11 if you’re on iOS) a month to be on Twitter, they will instead run to Mastodon. Which appears to already be happening based on this:

For the last week or two, Mastodon has had somewhere between one and two thousand new accounts created every hour. You have to assume those are Twitter users who are fleeing the platform because of Elon’s behaviour, his idiotic policies, or instability of the platform. Such as what happened this morning according to Down Detector:

I am not sure what happened, but clearly something did an hour ago. And I expect this sort of random instability with Twitter to become more and more prevalent. All of that combined will diminish Twitter’s value to users and send them to greener pastures with more stable leadership. That in turn will reduce the value of Twitter to advertisers and deprive Elon of cash. And Twitter will die as a result and Elon will seen as a loser. Which will be a major blow to his fragile ego that I am not sue that he will be able to cope with.

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Hackers Pwn Multiple Schools In West Sussex U.K.

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 28, 2023 by itnerd

A hacker group has launched a ransomware attack on Tanbridge House School in West Sussex, U.K. The attack has caused major disruption at the school and, while the headteacher has stated ‘no compromised sensitive information has been found’, the ransomware group claims to have PII regarding staff and students gained from another attack on another school. In total, three schools in the area have been pwned.

Darren Williams, CEO and Founder, BlackFog had this comment:

     “Education took the top spot for reported ransomware attacks in 2022, a trend which has continued into 2023. A combination of skills shortages, lack of resources, and budgetary challenges means that the education sector is often regarded as low-hanging fruit for attackers. As criminal gangs have moved away from encryption, data exfiltration is often the main incentive for these attacks as the integrity of the data is highly important to not only the schools but the individuals within them, thus making a potential ransom payment more probable. As long as schools and other organizations fail to implement anti data exfiltration technology, extortion will be a more prevalent theme when it comes to cyberattacks.” 

Given that this was the third attack on schools in the area, it’s a safe bet that other schools in the area will likely suffer the same fate if they don’t take action to protect themselves now. Assuming it’s not already too late.

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I Upgraded To The New HomeKit Architecture Yesterday…. What Could Go Wrong?

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 28, 2023 by itnerd

One of the things that Apple promised when iOS 16 was released was a new architecture for HomeKit. Apple really didn’t go into much detail when they announced it. But it was supposed to improve the reliability of HomeKit setups. This was eventually rolled out just before Christmas, and was promptly pulled when people had issues. Apple did promise that it would return, and it did yesterday with the release of iOS 16.4. So as usual, I decided to update to the new architecture to see what would happen. Before I tell you about how that went, let’s go into the weeds for a bit to explain what this new architecture is and why it matters.

With previous versions of HomeKit, your HomeKit “controller” (the Home app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, for example) talked directly to each device in your home. What that means is that when you look at any device, your iPhone, Mac or whatever has to go across your network and ask the device, say a smart switch for example, what its status was. Then it would have to wait until the device replied. This is why you would see “Updating….” in the Home app before the status of the device was received by the Home app. If it didn’t get a response at all or in a timely manner, you would see the dreaded “no response” message. Now this is horribly inefficient as a large HomeKit setup might take minutes to have devices respond as the Home app is literally asking every device what its status is.

In the New HomeKit architecture, ALL HomeKit requests are serviced by the HomeKit Hub. Meaning your Apple TV or your HomePod. Your Home app no longer need to query each device individually. The HomeKit Hub is continually maintaining an up-to-date status of each device and simply passes that information to the Home app which is far more efficient. In theory this should make every device instantly available and should result in better performance, even in large HomeKit setups.

There is one side effect to this new architecture for HomeKit. iPads which could be used as HomeKit hubs prior to the release of the new architecture can no longer be used for that purpose. You are now “forced” to use an Apple TV or HomePod as a HomeKit hub. That I can see being an issue for some. But honestly, having a HomePod or an Apple TV which is purpose built to act as a HomeKit hub is a much better idea.

Another thing to point out is that this is a one way trip. Once you pull this trigger, there’s no going back.

So with that out of the way, let me talk about my upgrade experience by starting with my HomeKit setup. It’s not all that big and I described it here. But I will point out that I have swapped this door alarm for this one recently. My wife and I have the ability to administer anything in the HomeKit setup. And that’s important to note as inviting someone to administer your HomeKit setup was one of the issues. The other thing was your entire HomeKit setup would become unresponsive among other issues. So my plan was to watch out for those issues as I did the upgrade.

Now the first thing that I did was upgrade every Apple device to the latest software version. So that meant that my wife and I had to be running the following on our respective devices:

  • Both our Macs needed to be updated to macOS 13.3
  • Both our iPhones needed to be updated to iOS 16.4
  • Both our Apple Watches needed to be updated to watchOS 9.4
  • All the HomePod minis needed to be updated to HomePod software 16.4

This is because if you don’t upgrade all your devices to the latest software, any device that is not on the latest software can lose access to your HomeKit setup. And I suspect that a device that isn’t on the latest software version can cause other problems as Apple warns you if someone that has access to the HomeKit software has a device that isn’t on the latest software. Thus I would recommend that for best results, you upgrade all your devices first before you do anything else.

Once I did that all of that, I went to the Home app on my iPhone, clicked what I call the “hamburger menu” in the top right of the Home app to get this menu:

I then chose “Home Settings” and “Software Update” and was greeted with this:

After clicking “Learn More”, I got this screen:

I then chose the upgrade option and watched a pinwheel spin on the bottom part of my iPhone for about three minutes. Then it was done. When I went back to the the main screen of the Home app, I noted that all devices went unresponsive for just over a minute. Then they came back and in my testing of individual devices and scenes, everything worked fine.

Now some people with larger HomeKit setups are noticing that everything is much faster now. But I haven’t seen that as I don’t have a huge amount of devices in my setup. However I did notice that accessing my HomeKit setup from my Apple Watch went from practically unusable to being fairly quick and responsive. Thus validating that this architecture was a success. Though I will need to do some additional testing on some of my location based scenes to make sure. Once I do that, I will update this story accordingly. But in short, I can say that nothing went wrong in terms of upgrading to the new HomeKit architecture.

So should you upgrade to the new HomeKit architecture? It’s early days yet, but my own experience combined with what I am seeing on places like Reddit suggest to me that Apple has largely sorted out whatever issues that they had with the new architecture. Though I am still seeing the odd person reporting that their entire HomeKit setup go unresponsive after the upgrade. But those seem to the the minority rather than every second post on Reddit which was the case last year. Thus my suggestion would be to wait a few days to see if any negative reports pop up in the HomeKit subreddit. If they don’t, then you might want to dive in.

If I could give Apple one piece of advice, there needs to be a way for users to backup their HomeKit setups along with any scenes and automations that they might have created. I say this because this would give people the confidence to do an upgrade like this as they would have the ability to revert back easily if something went wrong. At present there isn’t anything natively that backs up a HomeKit setup. Though I am aware of a couple of third party tools that do this. But I have not tested them. As a result, if something does go wrong, the only thing a user can do at present is to delete the HomeKit setup and do it over again from scratch. Which if you have a large HomeKit setup with a lot of automations and/or scenes would be very painful.

Have you done the HomeKit architecture upgrade? If so, what was your experience like? Please leave a comment below and share your experience with us.

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