Does the Pro 5S have Homekit support?

[jonathanw55]

Does the Pro 5S have Homekit support?  If so, what is required? 

Due to the EOL policy, I upgraded a couple of original Pro cameras and got the latest and greatest Pro 5S.  I currently have a couple of Pro 3 cameras and an Essential Indoor camera tied to my Apple Homekit.  However, I can't seem to get Homekit to recognize my Pro 5S. 

[JamesC]

Apple Home is now supported on Pro 5S 2K cameras and Arlo Wire-free Video Doorbells (AVD2001) when connected to a Base Station/SmartHub!

You can read more details about this here: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Announcements/Arlo-Pro-5S-2K-and-Arlo-Wire-Free-Video-Doorbell-AVD2001-are-now/m-p/2334789/thread-id/289

JamesC

[JamesC]

The Base Station/SmartHub firmware to allow for AVD2001 and Pro 5S2K HomeKit integration is still in slow rollout. They delays have been due to issues that were discovered early in the slow rollout phase that are currently being resolved by the development team. We expect the firmware to be available to all users soon but I do not have a date available at this time. I will provide another update here on the community once I have more information available to share.

JamesC

[JamesC]

The Base Station/SmartHub firmware that will allow HomeKit compatibility for Pro 5S 2K and Arlo Wire-Free Video Doorbells is still in slow rollout, so not all users have the firmware yet. We expect this firmware to be available to everyone very soon. I will continue to provide updates as soon as I have more information to share.

We apologize for any inconvenience this delay has caused.

JamesC

[Jgosselin]

Unfortunately nothing yet.

[Vazanity]

Heard any updates yet? Does it work now?

[Jgosselin]

As of december 24th, arlo 5s are still not connecting to apple homekit. At least for those that leaves in Canada.

[QuintusPre]

Does anyone know if the new Essential spotlight cameras are HomeKit compatible out of the box?

[QuintusPre]

Nope…. Another promise for 2024.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/09/20/arlo-announces-updated-essential-range-promises-homekit-i...

[Vazanity]

How disappointing.. let‘s hope they push out the update in those last days of december, as they promised..

[PandaWAPS]

Boxing day, 26th December, still nothing. I bought 3 Arlo 5 camera, can I get my money back? @JamesC can you urgent advise the status? Thank you.

[FreddyZ]

Got these for christmas. Gonna return before it’s too late if no Homekit.

[PandaWAPS]

Today is 31st December, end of 2023. Great, what a joke and I hate people lie to me, and to us.

[FreddyZ]

Already decided to return mine. Am worried about the future of Arlo with Verisure as owner anyway.

[StephenB]

---

@FreddyZ wrote:

Am worried about the future of Arlo with Verisure as owner anyway.

---

FYI, Verisure is not an owner - Arlo is a publicly traded company, and Verisure is not listed as a major investor.

• https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?symb=ARLO&subView=institutional

Verisure is a partner (though they did purchase Arlo's commercial operations in Europe when the partnership was formed in 2019).  The partnership is limited to Europe.

• https://www.arlo.com/en-ca/arlo-and-verisure-sign-definitive-agreements-to-create-strategic-partners...

[Canadensis]

Interesting, what battery powered HKSV option did you go with instead?

[QuintusPre]

It really makes little sense that nearly the entire Arlo lineup is HK compatible but the newer generation is not. I get that the Essential lineup just refreshed and maybe it takes time to put in the code but the Pro5S was released more than a year ago.

This is certainly a head scratcher.

@Canadensis makes a good point though. What alternatives do we have for outdoor battery powered units? Maybe see if you can find some older gen Essentials or some Pro4s on clearance. Careful with the Pro4s though as they have some audio issues.

[Jgosselin]

What i dont appreciate is the lack of transparency. They said it would be ready by end of 2023 and we haven’t heard anything yet about this update. That’s the least they could have said about the reason why…? Again very disappointed.

[QuintusPre]

@Jgosselin Can’t argue with that comment!

[FreddyZ]

For me personally, I’ll just wait for something else to hit the market in a year or two, or go for a system that works better with scrypted. I’m a software dev, so I may just roll some DIY stuff for fun with scrypted.

[Canadensis]

what if the Pro5s gets HKSV support in a week? Will you still wait a year or two?

I agree this is frustrating but I didn’t read anywhere that the Pro5s had HK support when in bought it, and being that nobody else offers something that does it I’m happy to wait. Taking a 2K camera and settling for 1080 on HK will kind of suck as well. 

[FreddyZ]

HKSV is not going to ship at all I think. I’m just getting bad vibes with all the broken promises. May as well return while I still can and weigh my options.

[QuintusPre]

HKSV will never be offered as it interferes with the subscription sales. Unfortunate but understandable as this is a lucrative source of revenue.

HK support, however, is already included in the vast Arlo lineup. Why the new generation is having difficulty implementing it is just plain strange.

I love the HK support so I can see the cameras in the Home app and also for the ability to use widgets on iOS. The app Home Widget is awesome for creating these widgets and, for whatever reason, is the fastest way to get to a live feed of any of my Arlo cameras.

Here’s a screenshot of my widgets.

[JamesC]

The Base Station/SmartHub firmware that will allow HomeKit compatibility for Pro 5S 2K and Arlo Wire-Free Video Doorbells is still in slow rollout, so not all users have the firmware yet. We expect this firmware to be available to everyone very soon. I will continue to provide updates as soon as I have more information to share.

We apologize for any inconvenience this delay has caused.

JamesC

[Canadensis]

Excellent!

[jonathanw55]

Well i sure hope it doesn’t take another year to roll out the new firmware with HomeKit support.  I still have a few Pro2 cameras in use at another property of mine and if this isn’t corrected before the EOL support for those in Jan ‘25, I’ll start finding another manufacturer.

[Jhconlan]

Has the firmware update been provided to connect the Arlo Pro5 to Apple home?

[Mflocks]

Of course not. They have been lying to us since these cameras came out end of 22. Supposedly they were releasing home kit in early 23 according to the presser. Well it’s 24 and the lies continue. Absolute garbage for customer service 

[Jgosselin]

Last information we received was at the end of december. They told us the release was out but slow. So far i havent seen anything. Pretty sure they are not too much concerned since the AHK wasn’t indicated on the box when you made the purchase.