Homey: voice-controlled home automation
Homey is your personal assistant at home. It is an always-listening helper that helps you to keep a hold of your life and your devices. He connect to all your wireless devices, on all technologies and all brands, an brings them together in a single, easy-to-use system.
Important is that we don't limit Homey to traditional 'home automation', but also include entertainment systems and information services to the mix. To control your devices and services, you can use our smartphone app, or talk directly to Homey, to control your home by voice.
What's the idea behind the Homey?
The idea is really simple: make it easy and fun again to use all devices, services and technology in your life, and let them work together.
Homey
I'm a developer. Why should I be interested in Homey?
Homey is a totally open platform. That means that you can integrate internet services, communication protocols and scripts in Homey to make it work better for you. We provide a total SDK with own IDE, and a RESTfull API, so you can do what you want with Homey. This allows you as a developer to create universal services, that work with a whole range of smart products. Stop writing support for all sorts of different switches, locks or lights, but write it once for Homey, and let us do the talking to the specific devices!
Homey features 7 different radio technologies
Are you planning on reaching a wider audience, or are you going to focus on gadget enthusiasts?
We are certainly planning on targeting a wider audience, because we believe that in the near future, the majority of home owners will be moving towards a Smarter home. Smartphones aren't just for tech enthusiasts, and neither will Smart Homes.
Honey multiple actions
When do you plan to officially start selling your product?
We plan on shipping our pre-ordered units this summer, with a retail launch in the beginning of fall.
How do you intend to generate a revenue?
Our revenue model is really simple: we make a margin on the device. That means that users are not bothered with add-ons, DLC, or contracts. Buy a Homey, and it is yours, in all its current and upcoming functionality.
Tell us about your Kickstarter experience and feedback
Kickstarter was a great experience. Not only did it provide us with the funds to start building Homey for production, but it also generated a lot of brand awareness and media attention. This has helped us hugely in contacting partners, expanding our team, and also in raising funding.
What are your priorities for this year?
Our priorities are with making Homey even more perfect: we will continue developing our platform and software, and of course at the same time make sure that also our sales and aftersales run smoothly, so that everyone can have the real Homey experience.
How do you see your future?
The future of Smart Home, and therewith Homey, is enormous. We foresee a large part of homes moving to a smarter environment, and we believe Homey will be key in that transition, playing a key role in enhancing people's home, life and comfort.
Stefan: Thank you very much for answering the questions
Stefan Witkamp
Stefan Witkamp is the Co-Founder and Commercial Director at Athom, the creators of Homey
