I was having a breakfast meeting a couple of weeks ago with a new dealer of mine in the commercial integration channel.

We have similar backgrounds and a lot in common, unsurprisingly. We talked about many things, but relevant to today’s column was venting to each other about our frustrations with DIY smart home products and ecosystems.

Our mutual experiences and beefs with DIY hardware were similar, not least of which is how the label “Works With” can have broad interpretation in terms of how well specific hardware performs with different ecosystems.

Rather than relitigate all the things that have annoyed me over the years, I’ll update you on where I’m at with my own smart home experiments.

After running multiple competing ecosystems over the years, I’ve removed everything but Apple Home. I wouldn’t say that makes it the winner, per se. Rather than being the best, through experimentation, I’ve decided that Apple is the least worst.

To Apple’s credit, the functionality of its native Home app has increased over time. Until now, I was getting better results using a third-party control app. Even if it weren’t for the issues I’m about to mention, the third-party app has become less useful.

On that subject, I’ve spent a few years experimenting with a third-party home control app for iOS. It started off OK, but over time its functionality slowly deteriorated.

The app did a bunch of things well, not least of which was its integration with Siri for voice activation of things. But that functional edge was lost as Apple was able to do the same thing natively through the HomePod.

The big thing for me was the erosion of the app’s support. Recently, if I was having trouble with the programming for anything, the response to my support tickets was a snide comment telling me to read the support archives, along with a link to the FAQ page.

I don’t like to think of myself as a high-maintenance customer. But, by the same token, I’m paying an annual subscription for this app so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a higher level of tech support than to be told to figure it out myself.

I’m not going to call them out by name, because I’m not interested in either shaming them or starting a discourse about them. I just canceled my subscription and moved on.

Changing gears somewhat, I was trained long ago that when planning out system design,the simplest solutions are inevitably the best. Fewer boxes, fewer connections and fewer steps all mean that there is less to go wrong.

With the cancellation of my subscription to the control app, I lost volume control for my Integra AVR.

So, while I looked for a solution, I reverted to having to grab the Integra’s remote control to adjust the volume. Naturally, this offended me, so it motivated my search.

The solution was simple: Get an upgrade. 

So, since my old Integra AVR was 10 years old, I replaced it with this year’s model. It incorporates AirPlay 2 which gives me volume control through Apple Home and the native TV remote on our phones.

See? Simple.