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

I’ve spent the previous couple of years assembling my ultimate good residence. Extra importantly, I’ve invested a lot money and time to make sure that most of my residence automations run with out consumer intervention. However there are nonetheless some cases, like after I’m sitting at my desk, the place having a management floor turns out to be useful.

Whereas the Raspberry Pi powering my House Assistant backend sits tucked away in my server closet, I’ve received a Google Nest Hub that occupies prime actual property on my desk and acts as a management middle for controlling good lights, followers, music, and podcast playback, all whereas serving up photographs from my Google Photographs 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 continuing stress level these days. Moreover, Google’s fixed elimination of options has me involved about shifting priorities inside 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 in search of an answer that will assist me streamline my setup with out shedding performance. When Apple launched Standby Mode on iOS 17, it instantly struck me as a possible resolution for my good residence dilemma. These days, I’ve been all concerning the minimal life. I need 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. Might Apple’s always-on standby mode actually change a devoted system? There was just one strategy 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 underneath 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 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 suppose 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 may’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 good residence sport, and my use instances have advanced to cowl simply the necessities. So long as it may show photographs and management my music and my good residence, it’s adequate for me.

Apple’s strategy presents you with a couple of preselected eventualities that the corporate thinks would possibly swimsuit a quick-access show setting. 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 shocked by the dearth of assist for third-party widgets, as that will’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 checklist. Apple’s good 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 choose to swipe by related widgets manually.

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

Subsequent, a swipe to the proper provides me entry to a rolling number of pics from my picture library. My main cellphone tends to be an Android system, and Google Photographs is my central repository of photographs, so I undoubtedly miss the higher number of photos accessible on my Nest Hub.

Apple’s tackle the picture body characteristic provides you a couple of totally different choices to mess around with. A people-centric tile pulls up photos of your most popular contacts. Different choices embody cityscapes out of your photographs, nature, and eventually featured photos out of your native picture library. It’s a far cry from Google’s album-based strategy on the Nest Hub, however it comes with the territory given Apple’s local-first strategy.

Up to now, so good. Placing the good within the good hub is the voice assistant aspect, in fact. 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 reasonably shocked by how effectively Apple’s much-maligned voice assistant labored. It’s definitely not going to exchange Google Assistant’s smarts, however Siri has been completely able to pulling up related info like climate forecasts, controlling music, opening up apps, and, sure, even telling me the customary joke — all inside the Standby Mode interface.

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

On the iPhone, nonetheless, I can use Spotify Hook up 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 characteristic, however it’s a marked step up for my use case. Be it taking part in again a podcast on the iPhone’s speaker, utilizing Airplay to solid to my soundbar, controlling an Alexa speaker, and, by 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 newest blockbuster. It’s not all that totally different from the way you’d run Netflix on an Amazon Echo Present.

As for good residence controls, that’s the place issues get tough. Should you’ve received a Homekit-enabled good residence, it’s potential so as to add Apple’s House widget to the desktop, supplying you with quick-tap entry to all of the necessities. Should you choose voice management, you too can use Siri to manage all of your good residence devices.

Sadly, virtually none of my good residence gear is Homekit-enabled. I take advantage of Homebridge to parse my good residence gear into Apple’s House app and assumed that Apple’s House widget would populate all my good residence equipment. Nonetheless, that’s not the case. The widget requires an official Homekit hub like an Apple TV or Homepod for full performance. So, when you use a DIY resolution and like a touch-based interface to manage 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 dearth of widget assist notably limiting.

A few weeks of use later, it’s clear to me that, like all issues, Standby Mode’s utility comes right down to what you employ your good residence hub for. Apple’s number 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 screen with a few widgets is precisely 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 system hogging desk house. In its present state, the characteristic is already adequate to cowl plenty of floor, however I can see Apple progressively plugging away at it and including extra performance or increasing it to extra gadgets.

That stated, it needs to be fairly apparent that your cellphone isn’t going to exchange an always-on ambient hub — particularly in a shared-use setting. Battery considerations are additionally one thing to remember. Holding your cellphone perpetually linked to a wi-fi charger can’t be nice for battery well being. After which there’s the matter of display screen actual property. The 6.1-inch display screen on my iPhone 14 Professional is serviceable after I’m sitting at my desk, however 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 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 good residence 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 good show. Would I like to recommend others to chuck their Nest Hub and splurge on an iPhone for the characteristic? After all not. However when you’ve already invested within the newest iPhone or are contemplating the iPhone 15 collection, Apple’s surprisingly forward-looking characteristic is unquestionably price trying out.