This sucks. After advertising that Gen 2 has the required MFi chip for HomeKit, and being told that Gen 2 does not yet support HomeKit, instead of it will not support HomeKit made many believe HomeKit was coming. Chamberlain made the same mistake, but they offered everyone in the community a free HomeKit Hub. I only bought the Gen 2 because of the advertised upcoming HomeKit support. Rachio needs to own up and offer a Hub or a major discount to Gen 2 owners that have been asking about and waiting for HomeKit support.
Also when Gen 2 owners asked about HomeKit support they were told to look at Apple’s supported partners in the Keynote. That was the same as tell people it was coming. This is a complete fail Rachio. You need to fix this and learn to give people a yes or no answer instead of leading them on only to let them down later.
I’m so sorry about not being able to offer HomeKit to Generation 2 users. We tried incredibly hard for about a year and a half to try and fit HomeKit on to the Generation 2 - ultimately, it was just not possible.
We apologize if our communication around HomeKit was misleading. We have never stated that HomeKit would be available on the Generation 2, however we did not know that it absolutely couldn’t.
We appreciate your feedback regarding the discount opportunity and I will send that onto my team for further discussion.
Yes you have. Rachio has many times pointed Gen 2 owners to Apple’s Keynote to show that you where a partner. There was a manufactures website that stated the chip was included and would support Homekit. I sent the link to Fraz a while back then the part about homekit disappeared a couple months later.
I’m so sorry for the miscommunication and confusion. We had always thought and hoped that HomeKit would be available on the Generation 2, but we truly could not get the integration to work. While the chip you mentioned is a common indicator of HomeKit support, the chip is also required for Wi-Fi configuration and was needed in the Generation 2 regardless of HomeKit compatibility.
Please explain why it was listed as being for Homekit. Many devices have Wi-Fi and no Made for iPhone (MFi) chip in them. Also please explain why when Gen 2 owners asked if HomeKit was coming they were told to look at Apple’s WWDC 2017 Keynote. At 1:11 minutes into the Keynote Rachio is listed. While you did not say yes it is coming, you pointed people to a refence that did say it was coming. That is the same thing as saying yes. It is wrong to lead people on. That is why Rachio had so many questions from owners. You would never say yes, you would just link them to other places that said yes for you. You would have been a lot better off telling people no, and surprising them later with support, then to handle it the way you did. Rachio needs to own up and make it right.
As some users have speculated, we as a company have not been able to comment on HomeKit up until today. Users pointed out the callout in WWDC, and we did direct users to the WWDC Keynote that mentioned we would be a partner once that profile is publicly available but we have no further information regarding how that integration would be implemented.
I sincerely apologize if our communication was misleading, as that was not our intention whatsoever. We have hoped and tried incredibly hard to make this a possibility but it is ultimately not at all possible.
We’re so sorry for the disappointment and hate to upset our customers, but unfortunately we cannot fit HomeKit on the memory of the Generation 2 controller.
That is very misleading communications. Look at the facts in order.
In the beginning manufactures website said Gen 2 had the chip and would support Homekit.
Franz stated that Gen 1 did not support Homekit, and Gen 2 did not at this time.
Gen 2 users where pointed to Apple’s Keynote when asking about HomeKit support where Rachio was shown long before the Gen 3 model was even heard about.
What were user suppose to get from this? That it was not coming? All the information Rachio gave said it was coming, Any logical person with that information would say that HomeKit support is coming. Now that Rachio can’t do it, you want to say that Rachio never said Gen 2 would support Homekit. Sorry but Rachio did in many ways. Like I said you should have told people no instead of linking them to things that said yes.
Wooo Hooo, I’ve been putting off my buying decision waiting for this news. Now I can go ahead and order a Gen 3 unit and get rid of my old (dumb) irrigation controller!
From link provided. This description was very helpful.
“For the last year and a half, a team of engineers has explored possibilities for fitting the HomeKit-required firmware onto the Generation 2’s processor memory. Ultimately, it was not possible to add HomeKit to Generation 2 controllers. Our Rachio 3 hardware has 4x the memory of Generation 2, making HomeKit connectivity achievable.”
