Wire-Free Doorbell Being Compatible With HomeKit

[sbruce7]

I have been looking on the website and have been reading elsewhere that the Wirefree video doorbell is compatible with home kit and some are saying for it to be compatible you need the smart hub, someone please help

[StephenB]

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@sbruce7 wrote:

I have been looking on the website and have been reading elsewhere that the Wirefree video doorbell is compatible with home kit and some are saying for it to be compatible you need the smart hub, someone please help

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See

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062279/How-do-I-connect-my-Arlo-device-to-Apple-HomeKit

Although Arlo announced plans to provide homekit support for the Wireless doorbell, it is not compatible now.  No idea if/when they will ever deliver the feature.

Also, if they do finally offer it, it will likely require a base station - the only camera that doesn't is the Arlo Baby.

[NickMcB]

JamesC

Community Manager

‎2021-12-10 05:43 AM

AVD2001 Base Station/SmartHub support is now available with the latest AVD2001 firmware update. Make sure your Arlo Essential Wireless Video Doorbell is using the latest firmware version and you will now be able to sync directly to your Base Station/SmartHub.

Compatible Base Stations/SmartHub models include: VMB4000, VMB4500, VMB4540 and VMB5000

Please note that HomeKit integration is not yet available for AVD2001. Now that Base Station support is available, we plan to add HomeKit integration early next year. Stay tuned for updates.

JamesC

I note that James made this post in Dec 2021  (16 months ago) and very similar messaging for a year or 2 before that.. "early next year" has well and truly passed.
I read all these old posts and was heartened by a more recent KB article last month advising that we could add the AVD 2001 to the later smart hubs and wrongly assumed this would mean automatic integration with Homekit...
Oh dear...
I have an existing wire free doorbell (AVD 2001) that has functioned quite well for me over 20 months or so using the Arlo App, but with burgeoning crime and brazen home invasions, I decided to go with the Arlo Ultra2 4K 2 cam with hub kit along with a floodlight camera, solar panel charger for 1 camera and an outdoor magnetic charging cable for the floodlit camera.  I use homekit for all my IOT stuff (with a Rasberry Pi homebridge for non native homekit stuff)
I was confident that Arlo had sorted out this long standing thorn in a lot of peoples sides, but, though confident, I made sure the sales assistant was ok with me returning everything except the kit should it fail to allow me to have ALL the Arlo cameras, video doorbell & chime viewable and controllable in Homekit.
So, I installed everything and, voila, the 2 new cameras are added to the Arlo app with the existing doorbell.
Looking good so far....
After going through the simple process to add the Arlo Hub to Homekit, only the 2 cameras showed up and try as I might I cant convince homekit that  the video doorbell exists along with its sibling cameras !!
So ANNOYING!
Apparently there are a couple of github plug ins for homebridge which "MAY" sort it out with a fair bit of JSON configuration and setting up a second arlo account....Aint nobody got time for that !!!
There's only a couple of plugins because people probably thought it was not worth the effort and went with an EUFY or some other brand.
So, looks like I will be returning $600+ worth of unopened gear tomorrow....Very disappointing....