Using 'Shortcuts' Automation with Mi Home Smart Home on iOS ≥ 13.1

Using ‘Shortcuts’ Automation with Mi Home Smart Home on iOS ≥ 13.1

Automate operations directly using the built-in Shortcuts app on iOS ≥ 13.1

Introduction

In early July this year, I bought two smart devices: the Mi Home Desk Lamp Pro and the Mi Home LED Smart Desk Lamp. The difference is that one supports HomeKit, and the other only supports Mi Home. At that time, I wrote an article titled “First Experience with Smart Home — Apple HomeKit & Xiaomi Mi Home” which mentioned how to achieve smart functions for leaving and arriving home without HomePod/AppleTV/iPad. The steps were a bit complicated.

This time, with iOS ≥ 13.1 (note that it is only available after 13.1), the built-in “Shortcuts” app (if you can’t find it, please download it from the Store) supports automation. If IFTTT and Mi Home smart devices are used, there’s no need to use third-party apps anymore!

p.s. If you have HomePod, Apple TV, or iPad, you don’t need to read this article; you can directly set the device as the home hub!

Achieved Effect

You will receive a shortcut execution notification when entering or leaving the set area, and it will automatically execute upon clicking.

How to Use

1. First, open the Mi Home app

Switch to “My” -> “Smart”

Here, it is assumed that you have already added the device to Mi Home.

Select “Manual Execution”

Here, let me mention why not directly use Mi Home’s “Leave or Arrive at a Place”. First, GPS used in mainland China has deviations which Xiaomi has not corrected. Second, it can only set locations with landmarks on the map, and there are few Taiwan landmarks on the mainland Gaode map.

Scroll down to the “Smart Devices” section, add the devices and actions to be operated

Click “Continue to Add” to add all the devices to be operated

For example, in the “Leave Home” mode, I want to turn off the fan and lights and turn on the camera when leaving home.

Click the top right “Save” and enter the name of this smart operation

Return to the list, click “Add to Siri”

Click “Add to Siri” next to the smart operation you want to add

Input “Command when calling Siri” -> “Add to Siri”

Note! The command must not conflict with built-in iOS commands!

2. Open the “Siri Shortcuts” APP

Switch to the “Automation” tab and click the “+” in the upper right corner

If there is no “Automation” tab, please check if your iOS version is higher than 13.1.

Select “Create Personal Automation”

Choose the type “Arrive” or “Leave”

Set “Location”

Search for a location or use the current location, click “Done”

You can set the time range for automatic execution at the bottom, click “Next” in the upper right corner

Since leaving home and arriving home are events that need to be detected all day long, we won’t set a time range for execution here!

Click “Add Action”

Select “Scripting”

Scroll to the “Shortcuts” section, select “Run Shortcut”

Click the “Shortcut” section

Find the “Command when calling Siri” set in Mi Home “Add to Siri”, and select it

Click “Done” in the upper right corner

The newly added automation will appear on the home page!

Done!

Actual Execution Result

When leaving or entering the set address range, the phone or Apple Watch will receive a notification to execute the shortcut, and you can click to execute!

1. There is a 100-meter error in the GPS sensing range

2. The so-called “automation” is just an automatic notification for you to press execute, it does not really execute actions in the background

To solve the above two pain points, you can only do what was mentioned at the beginning of the article, buy a HomePod or find an Apple TV/iPad as the home hub.

On iPhone:

Execution notification

Click to “Execute”

Please note that it will require unlocking the phone first.

Execution failure will also provide feedback!

Sometimes Mi Home device network issues will cause execution failure.

On Apple Watch:

Click to execute

Unlike the native IFTTT app, the strength lies in its ability to execute notifications on the watch. (IFTTT is purely a notification, you still need to take out your phone to execute)

Besides that

Using Siri to Execute

Since the Mi Home smart operation scenario has been added to Siri, you can also call Siri to perform actions!

One step closer to a smart life!

Using 'Shortcuts' Automation with Mi Home Smart Home on iOS ≥ 13.1