Standby Mode on the iPhone 14 Professional changed my Google Nest Hub

I’ve spent the previous few years assembling my ultimate 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 situations, like after I’m sitting at my desk, the place having a management floor is useful.

Whereas the Raspberry Pi powering my Residence 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 photographs from my Google Pictures 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 recently. 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 may assist me streamline my setup with out dropping performance. When Apple launched Standby Mode on iOS 17, it instantly struck me as a possible answer for my sensible house dilemma. Currently, I’ve been all concerning the minimal life. I wish to maximize what I do with my current devices as a substitute of accumulating toys that hardly ever get used, and Standby Mode on the iPhone 14 Professional may probably assist me get there. May Apple’s always-on standby mode actually exchange a devoted gadget? There was just one technique to discover out.

I’m often 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 below no delusion that Standby Mode can be a drop-in substitute for an inexpensive Nest Hub. The truth is, the steep $ 1,000 price of entry to even get entry to the characteristic places this squarely within the realm of nice-to-have addons for current customers.

However since I had an iPhone 14 Professional operating the iOS 17 beta and a spare MagSafe charger available, I did the plain factor — disconnected my Nest Hub, propped up my iPhone on an affordable 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 parts right here. Clearly, it will possibly’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 recreation, and my use instances have developed to cowl simply the necessities. So long as it will possibly show photographs 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 atmosphere. 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 assist for third-party widgets, as that may’ve drastically opened up the capabilities of Standby Mode.

In the meantime, the opposite half of the pane will be configured to put a calendar, climate, reminders, or your to-do listing. Apple’s sensible recommendations are additionally applied right here, they usually can helpfully toggle the widget relying on the time of day or an upcoming appointment. I choose 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 fitting provides me entry to a rolling collection of pics from my photograph library. My main telephone tends to be an Android gadget, and Google Pictures is my central repository of photographs, so I positively miss the higher collection of pictures accessible on my Nest Hub.

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

Thus far, so good. Placing the sensible within the sensible hub is the voice assistant ingredient, after all. Let me be clear: I’m a Google Assistant religious, and I hardly ever, if ever, use Siri. Nonetheless, this experiment necessitated utilizing voice controls, and I’m moderately stunned by how nicely Apple’s much-maligned voice assistant labored. It’s actually 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 characteristic, which I exploit probably the most, is the music playback interface. The Nest Hub, by design, can solely management music enjoying again on the hub’s inside speaker or different Nest audio system in a bunch.

On the iPhone, nonetheless, I can use Spotify Join to launch playback on my Alexa-enabled amplifier or bed room soundbar and management it immediately from the Standby Mode interface. It shouldn’t be all that shocking because it’s simply utilizing the put in Spotify app for the characteristic, but it surely’s a marked step up for my use case. Be it enjoying again a podcast on the iPhone’s speaker, utilizing Airplay to forged 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 probably the most complete music management hub in the marketplace, 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 instances, however Siri dropped me proper into the Netflix app, and I may simply faucet and launch the most recent blockbuster. It’s not all that totally different from the way you’d run Netflix on an Amazon Echo Present.

As for sensible house controls, that’s the place issues get difficult. In case you’ve acquired a Homekit-enabled sensible house, it’s doable so as to add Apple’s Residence widget to the desktop, supplying you with quick-tap entry to all of the necessities. In case you choose voice management, you may as well use Siri to regulate all of your sensible house devices.

Sadly, virtually none of my sensible house gear is Homekit-enabled. I exploit Homebridge to parse my sensible house gear into Apple’s Residence app and assumed that Apple’s Residence 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 may not 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 assist significantly 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 employ your sensible house hub for. Apple’s collection of use instances 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 strictly what I would like 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 may not need one other gadget hogging desk house. In its present state, the characteristic is already ok to cowl numerous floor, however I can see Apple step by step plugging away at it and including extra performance or increasing it to extra gadgets.

That mentioned, it needs to be fairly apparent that your telephone isn’t going to interchange an always-on ambient hub — particularly in a shared-use atmosphere. Battery issues are additionally one thing to remember. Retaining your telephone perpetually linked 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 after I’m sitting at my desk, but it surely positively 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 characteristic as soon as it rolls out OLED-equipped iPads.

For probably the most half, although, I’d name my experiment a hit. 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 substitute. The truth is, I choose 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 characteristic? After all not. However for those who’ve already invested within the newest iPhone or are contemplating the iPhone 15 sequence, Apple’s surprisingly forward-looking characteristic is unquestionably value trying out.