CarPlay Carplay and Garage Doors

[inkahauts]

I have found this to always be the behavior. If you are opening the other door after this one on your phone while it connected it’ll switch it othe last door used next time. The real fix is multiple doors for the same location, they really need to implement that.

 

[BadBiscuit]

@inkahauts Thanks for the reply! Perhaps our difference is that I have a second house (my parent's) that is nearby, and they also have a door on HomeKit; thanks to their wonderful son . As I get closer to their house it switches to that door, and as I get closer to my home it goes back to our door. That part works well and is a great feature.

But perhaps it is also that part which is causing my trouble, for without a concept of a default door at a location per phone (or even better, per car, since we share cars though the cars stay in the same parking spot). I get the feeling that CarPlay is picking one at random on the switch back in location. But that is just a best guess.

With the change to iOS 17, I will add both doors to HomeKit and will play around again. If I see different behaviour I will report back.

 

[inkahauts]

Well i have a similar situation. I have installed a smart gate at a very long time friends house 6 blocks away and we have access to each other's gates, and it switches between houses fine. I may have accidentally hit it to soon a couple times after driving by their place on the way home and opened their gate… we all survived.. haha…. but I still never have the issue with it choosing the garage door instead of the gate when I get back to my place. The only time that issue pops up is if I open the garage door with my phone, then it’ll offer that the next time in CarPlay, and I have to open the gate on my phone so it’ll go back to that. I’m interested to see how your experiment works. I believe it only changes between to the two if you are connected to CarPlay though. I think if you are not connected to your car, opening and closing the other door won’t affect which door will be opened on the CarPlay screen.

Honestly, I thought it remembers each car separately for things like this as well. But not sure.

 

[mikelets456]

I just found out my Geenie garage doors could be opened via a Siri and CarPlay. However, it’s not possible in the CarPlay menu but in the Aladdin app . Works great!

 

[inkahauts]

I just found out my Geenie garage doors could be opened via a Siri and CarPlay. However, it’s not possible in the CarPlay menu but in the Aladdin app . Works great!

Aladdin app? I don’t know of it, but I assume this means it gives you the buttons in CarPlay? Does it do that for more than one garage? And CarPlay should show at least one garage door for anyone who has one connected on the main screen.

 

[Itinj24]

CarPlay should have door locks too. Not everyone pulls into their garage all the time. Sometimes I pull up front to unload groceries. Hell, just put a freaking scene widget in there for porch lights, driveway lights, foyer lights, etc…. I know Siri can do all that but would be nice to have a scene button just turn all that stuff on.

 

[inkahauts]

CarPlay should have door locks too. Not everyone pulls into their garage all the time. Sometimes I pull up front to unload groceries. Hell, just put a freaking scene widget in there for porch lights, driveway lights, foyer lights, etc…. I know Siri can do all that but would be nice to have a scene button just turn all that stuff on.

I see this as two different things. Personally I have an automation setup so that if it’s dark out and I get home, lights turn on for me to go into the house both inside and outside the house. The outside ones turn off after 5 minutes and the inside, most after 10 minutes. That’s easy to do and can be in place for everyone.

As for door locks, that will never happen and I can see why and kind of agree. i wouldn’t want my car to be unlocking the house doors… that’s a security issue for some… I know it’s a button but, I see them worrying about It. And I defiantly wouldn’t want that happening till they allow for a way to choose on CarPlay which garage door to open… that’s first imho…

 

[Itinj24]

I see this as two different things. Personally I have an automation setup so that if it’s dark out and I get home, lights turn on for me to go into the house both inside and outside the house. The outside ones turn off after 5 minutes and the inside, most after 10 minutes. That’s easy to do and can be in place for everyone.

As for door locks, that will never happen and I can see why and kind of agree. i wouldn’t want my car to be unlocking the house doors… that’s a security issue for some… I know it’s a button but, I see them worrying about It. And I defiantly wouldn’t want that happening till they allow for a way to choose on CarPlay which garage door to open… that’s first imho…

Location based automations have always been unreliable. I don’t see why we couldn’t have a watered down HomeKit app or even Siri suggestions in CarPlay.

A garage door and a front door is no different for allowing access to a home. Matter of fact, I’d venture to say a garage door is worse as it’s a lot more noticeable to wandering opportunistic crooks than a front door being unlocked which isn’t noticeable at all until you turn the knob.

 

[inkahauts]

Location based automations have always been unreliable. I don’t see why we couldn’t have a watered down HomeKit app or even Siri suggestions in CarPlay.

A garage door and a front door is no different for allowing access to a home. Matter of fact, I’d venture to say a garage door is worse as it’s a lot more noticeable to wandering opportunistic crooks than a front door being unlocked which isn’t noticeable at all until you turn the knob.

Interesting you have issues with location based arrival and departing Triggers. Mine have been rock solid forever. But there’s a lot of variables so i can see why some work better than others. However even giving you the option on screen to open your door is location based always…. So…. Consider that and maybe retiring a location based trigger?

With that said you could also create a triggered event and have opening the garage door kick on all the lights…that automation also works excellent for me as well, I have a couple of those setup too. Maybe worth a try for you.

As for the door vs garage door, in some cases you are right it’s the exact same thing because garages are attached. Sometimes they aren’t so it’s a totally different level of security. I just hate having to hit multiple buttons so the more I think about it, it should be a scene triggered event I think. Maybe give me the option for two or three buttons for multiple different events, like one for gate only one for gate and garage door and both also lock on the light's.

 

[mlody]

Did that work? Last time I tried the selection of door by CarPlay was random, but perhaps there have been updates since that resolve that. My "solution" was to only have one door in HomeKit, and to operate the less frequently used door, only from the Meross app. Annoying, yes. However I found it more annoying to retest on every iOS update only to be disappointed.

To be honest, I didnt tested it yet. It is my wife's car and he 9 out 10 times uses homeland buttons to open so it is not that huge of an issue. One of those days, I will get to it to test it out.

 

[mikelets456]

Aladdin app? I don’t know of it, but I assume this means it gives you the buttons in CarPlay? Does it do that for more than one garage? And CarPlay should show at least one garage door for anyone who has one connected on the main screen.

Aladdin connect app with Geenie garage doors. There's nothing on the screen to press...it's all voice command through Siri in CarPlay. All I say is "Open the garage door" after I prompt Siri pressing the voice command from my steering wheel.

I simply set it up in the app---I press the picture of the garage door in the app then click "add to Siri" and type in the prompt I want to give. That's it....once it save the prompt you're good to go.

 

[inkahauts]

Aladdin connect app with Geenie garage doors. There's nothing on the screen to press...it's all voice command through Siri in CarPlay. All I say is "Open the garage door" after I prompt Siri pressing the voice command from my steering wheel.

I simply set it up in the app---I press the picture of the garage door in the app then click "add to Siri" and type in the prompt I want to give. That's it....once it save the prompt you're good to go.

Ok there seems to be confusion here on what all we are talking about then…

You don’t need any app to use Siri to open and close garage doors etc if you are connected to your car via CarPlay if you are prompting by voice. So I can’t see why you’d ever need that app if that’s what you are doing. If it’s in HomeKit it should work when car play is connected.

I’m assuming you have connected your genie garage door directly to HomeKit as well right?

You do need CarPlay in order for it to not require you to unlock your phone first to open any kind of gate or door…

The point of this thread was specifically about the on screen showing of your garage doors and making the one you want to open be the one showing on the main screen because they only set it to show one door at a time. You’d either tap the button on the screen if you have a touch screen or select it using the dial or what have you that your car may use.

The issue has been getting the door you want to display on the screen.

 

[mikelets456]

Ok there seems to be confusion here on what all we are talking about then…

You don’t need any app to use Siri to open and close garage doors etc if you are connected to your car via CarPlay if you are prompting by voice. So I can’t see why you’d ever need that app if that’s what you are doing. If it’s in HomeKit it should work when car play is connected.

I’m assuming you have connected your genie garage door directly to HomeKit as well right?

You do need CarPlay in order for it to not require you to unlock your phone first to open any kind of gate or door…

The point of this thread was specifically about the on screen showing of your garage doors and making the one you want to open be the one showing on the main screen because they only set it to show one door at a time. You’d either tap the button on the screen if you have a touch screen or select it using the dial or what have you that your car may use.

The issue has been getting the door you want to display on the screen.

No..I did not connect Geenie to Homekit. How is that done?
I'm pretty sure the Aladdin app does not work with "Homekit"....I looked all over and do not see it. But it does work with Siri and Carplay from within the app. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[inkahauts]

Awh, well I have the myQ home bridge and it allows you to connect the thing to HomeKit. It can still be bought, but I guess they don’t build them anymore.

There are other options too, using hoobs or something like ismartgate or Meoss….both those will allow your garage door to become HomeKit, and be in the home app, which would Then show the door or gate on your main CarPlay screen.

No worries, glad we figured out why I was confused. Haha!

 

[keenkreations]

No..I did not connect Geenie to Homekit. How is that done?
I'm pretty sure the Aladdin app does not work with "Homekit"....I looked all over and do not see it. But it does work with Siri and Carplay from within the app. Sorry for the confusion.

It looks like a function of "Works with Siri Shortcuts", not true HomeKit

On another note, I found this when I was web searching for having the garage door function show up in CarPlay, and everyone who shared their experiences here have given me much more insight on it, so thank you everyone.

I just installed a Tailwind IQ3 which piggybacks off the Marantec garage door opener I already have and it is also HomeKit compatible. Has worked pretty well in the last two days. Wife still prefers the remote though...got to wean her off of that hopefully.