Standby Mode on the iPhone 14 Pro replaced my Google Nest Hub

I’ve spent the previous few years assembling my preferrred sensible house. Extra importantly, I’ve invested a lot money and time to make sure that most of my house automations run with out consumer intervention. However there are nonetheless some cases, like once I’m sitting at my desk, the place having a management floor is useful.

Whereas the Raspberry Pi powering my House Assistant backend sits tucked away in my server closet, I’ve acquired a Google Nest Hub that occupies prime actual property on my desk and acts as a management middle for controlling sensible lights, followers, music, and podcast playback, all whereas serving up pictures from my Google Images library.

Nonetheless, a lot as I like my Nest Hub, it has been fairly clear to me for some time that it’s beginning to present its age. The lagging software program and really iffy voice management have been a relentless stress level currently. Moreover, Google’s fixed elimination of options has me involved about shifting priorities throughout the firm. Lastly, the Nest Hub occupies a sizeable chunk of desk actual property for the restricted quantity of use it will get.

I’ve been searching for an answer that might assist me streamline my setup with out shedding performance. When Apple launched Standby Mode on iOS 17, it instantly struck me as a possible answer for my sensible house dilemma. Recently, I’ve been all in regards to the minimal life. I wish to maximize what I do with my current devices as an alternative of gathering toys that not often get used, and Standby Mode on the iPhone 14 Professional may doubtlessly assist me get there. May Apple’s always-on standby mode actually substitute a devoted system? There was just one option to discover out.

I’m normally cautious about switching out tech that already works for me, however within the case of Standby Mode, I made a decision to leap off the deep finish. Contemplating my iPhone 14 Professional sits on a MagSafe charger all day, I had nothing to lose. After all, I used to be beneath no delusion that Standby Mode can be a drop-in alternative for an inexpensive Nest Hub. The truth is, the steep $ 1,000 value of entry to even get entry to the function places this squarely within the realm of nice-to-have addons for current customers.

However since I had an iPhone 14 Professional working the iOS 17 beta and a spare MagSafe charger readily available, I did the apparent factor — disconnected my Nest Hub, propped up my iPhone on an inexpensive desk stand, and began my little experiment.

Restricted, however purposeful performance

Let me preface this by saying that Standby Mode on iOS 17 is extraordinarily restricted by design. I’m not attempting to justify its limitations, however Apple clearly doesn’t need you to assume that its software program is something greater than a widget hub. The onboarding course of consists of choosing a couple of widgets, and that’s about so far as you possibly can customise issues. You gained’t be manipulating recurring alarms or swiping throughout a number of UI components right here. Clearly, it might probably’t be used as an Airplay goal, both. For my use, these limitations didn’t matter as a lot. I’ve spent years within the sensible house sport, and my use circumstances have advanced to cowl simply the necessities. So long as it might probably show pictures and management my music and my sensible house, it’s ok for me.

Apple’s method presents you with a couple of preselected situations that the corporate thinks may go well with a quick-access show surroundings. This consists of a two-widget desktop pane the place you possibly can have numerous clock choices or most first-party widgets. I used to be stunned by the shortage of help for third-party widgets, as that might’ve drastically opened up the capabilities of Standby Mode.

In the meantime, the opposite half of the pane may be configured to position a calendar, climate, reminders, or your to-do checklist. Apple’s sensible solutions are additionally carried out right here, they usually can helpfully toggle the widget relying on the time of day or an upcoming appointment. I favor to swipe by means of related widgets manually.

In comparison with my Nest Hub, this two-pane house display setup has confirmed far more helpful to me. I dwell my life by means of to-do lists that get synced to my calendar, and having glanceable entry to that data was precisely what I wanted.

Subsequent, a swipe to the suitable provides me entry to a rolling choice of pics from my photograph library. My major cellphone tends to be an Android system, and Google Images is my central repository of pictures, so I undoubtedly miss the higher choice of photos accessible on my Nest Hub.

Apple’s tackle the photograph body function provides you a couple of completely different choices to mess around with. A people-centric tile pulls up photos of your most well-liked contacts. Different choices embrace cityscapes out of your pictures, nature, and eventually featured photos out of your native photograph library. It’s a far cry from Google’s album-based method on the Nest Hub, nevertheless it comes with the territory given Apple’s local-first method.

Up to now, so good. Placing the sensible within the sensible hub is the voice assistant aspect, in fact. Let me be clear: I’m a Google Assistant religious, and I not often, if ever, use Siri. Nonetheless, this experiment necessitated utilizing voice controls, and I’m relatively stunned by how nicely Apple’s much-maligned voice assistant labored. It’s definitely not going to interchange Google Assistant’s smarts, however Siri has been completely able to pulling up related data like climate forecasts, controlling music, opening up apps, and, sure, even telling me the customary joke — all throughout the Standby Mode interface.

Nonetheless, my favourite function, which I take advantage of essentially the most, is the music playback interface. The Nest Hub, by design, can solely management music enjoying again on the hub’s inner speaker or different Nest audio system in a bunch.

On the iPhone, nonetheless, I can use Spotify Connect with launch playback on my Alexa-enabled amplifier or bed room soundbar and management it instantly from the Standby Mode interface. It shouldn’t be all that stunning because it’s simply utilizing the put in Spotify app for the function, nevertheless it’s a marked step up for my use case. Be it enjoying again a podcast on the iPhone’s speaker, utilizing Airplay to solid to my soundbar, controlling an Alexa speaker, and, by means of a little bit of a workaround, even a Google Nest speaker — Standby Mode turns the iPhone 14 Professional into essentially the most complete music management hub available on the market, with out even attempting to be one.

I even examined out Netflix playback from the ambient mode interface utilizing Siri. Apple clearly didn’t design the interface for such use circumstances, however Siri dropped me proper into the Netflix app, and I may simply faucet and launch the newest blockbuster. It’s not all that completely different from the way you’d run Netflix on an Amazon Echo Present.

As for sensible house controls, that’s the place issues get tough. If you happen to’ve acquired a Homekit-enabled sensible house, it’s doable so as to add Apple’s House widget to the desktop, supplying you with quick-tap entry to all of the necessities. If you happen to favor voice management, you may also use Siri to regulate all of your sensible house devices.

Sadly, nearly none of my sensible house gear is Homekit-enabled. I take advantage of Homebridge to parse my sensible house gear into Apple’s House app and assumed that Apple’s House widget would populate all my sensible house equipment. Nonetheless, that’s not the case. The widget requires an official Homekit hub like an Apple TV or Homepod for full performance. So, for those who use a DIY answer and like a touch-based interface to regulate electronics, Standby Mode won’t be an optimum match. For my use, although, Siri’s voice management may simply connect with my lights, followers, and thermostats over the Homekit bridge, and I didn’t discover the shortage of widget help notably limiting.

A few weeks of use later, it’s clear to me that, like all issues, Standby Mode’s utility comes all the way down to what you utilize your sensible house hub for. Apple’s choice of use circumstances covers most issues I do with my Nest Hub, and I’m not planning to plug the latter again in. The comfort of propping up my iPhone in panorama mode on a wi-fi charger and dropping straight right into a standby display with a few widgets is precisely what I want for my desk setup.

I see Standby Mode on the iPhone 14 Professional as a handy addon for an workplace desk or nightstand the place you won’t need one other system hogging desk house. In its present state, the function is already ok to cowl a number of floor, however I can see Apple regularly plugging away at it and including extra performance or increasing it to extra gadgets.

That mentioned, it ought to be fairly apparent that your cellphone isn’t going to interchange an always-on ambient hub — particularly in a shared-use surroundings. Battery issues are additionally one thing to remember. Maintaining your cellphone perpetually related to a wi-fi charger can’t be nice for battery well being. After which there’s the matter of display actual property. The 6.1-inch display on my iPhone 14 Professional is serviceable once I’m sitting at my desk, nevertheless it undoubtedly isn’t seen from throughout the room. The identical interface, or higher, would make much more sense on an iPad. We’ve already seen the Pixel Pill doubling up as a Nest Hub, and I can see Apple engaged on the function as soon as it rolls out OLED-equipped iPads.

For essentially the most half, although, I’d name my experiment successful. Barring a couple of hiccups with getting my sensible house gear working, I’ve had no points utilizing Standby Mode as a Google Nest Hub alternative. The truth is, I favor the cleaner, smoother, and, dare I say, extra sophisticated-looking interface over Google’s sensible show. Would I like to recommend others to chuck their Nest Hub and splurge on an iPhone for the function? After all not. However for those who’ve already invested within the newest iPhone or are contemplating the iPhone 15 collection, Apple’s surprisingly forward-looking function is unquestionably price testing.