What you need to know
- RoomMe app has been updated to support Siri, Alexa, and Google integration.
- Status reports can be summoned via voice to report on whos in your home.
- Siri Shortcuts support can trigger personal scenes manually.
First announced back at CES 2020, Intellithings has released an update to its RoomMe Personal Location Sensor app to add support for Siri Shortcuts, giving owners of the company's smart home accessory a way to activate "charms" via voice manually. RoomMe's charms are essentially smart home automations, that can set specific lighting levels, or play a favorite playlist automatically based on who has entered the room.
For Apple iPhone users, RoomMe now also supports Siri Shortcuts. With this functionality enabled, RoomMe users can create a shortcut to have Siri manually execute a RoomMe charm on demand. Operation of RoomMe charms via Siri Shortcuts gives users the flexibility to take advantage of their pre-defined room settings and manually adjust connected smart home devices in a room with a simple voice command and without the need to walk into that room.
The RoomMe Personal Location Sensor is a ceiling mounted accessory that communicates directly to phones within a household using Bluetooth Low Energy to determine when to activate charms. Priorities can be established in order to avoid changing the tunes when everyone is within a room, and the system currently works with popular smart home accessories like Philips Hue light bulbs, and platforms, such as Apple's HomeKit.
In addition to Siri Shortcuts, the latest app update has introduced a status report feature that can be summoned via Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri, which lets users know which rooms are occupied around the home. The status report includes details such as who is in the room, and how long they have been there on demand. Support for Logitech's Harmony Hub and Insteon's home automation hub has also been added.
Version 1.5 of the RoomMe app is now available to download, and the complete list of updates includes the following:
- Voice Assistant Integration - RoomMe now works with Alexa / Siri and Google Assistant to enable you to ask your voice assistant who's a home and get room-by-room report about who's in the room and how long he or she has been there. Please refer to the FAQ on our web site to learn how to enable voice assistant integration.
- Added support for Logitech Harmony - RoomMe can now run Logitech Harmony activities Based on room occupancy.
- Added support for Insteon Hubs - RoomMe can now control Insteon devices connected to an Insteon Hub.
- Siri Shortcuts (iOS only) - You can now create Siri shortcuts to ask Siri to manually activate RoomMe charms.
- RoomMe Sensor FW v2.3 - The firmware is required for Samsung Watch support. Please update to this firmware via the RoomMe app by going to Settings -> Sensors, connecting to each of the sensors and hitting the update button.
It's personal
The RoomMe Personal Location Sensor works with your family's phone to determine who is entering and leaving certain areas. This allows personal automations, such as turning on a favorite playlist, or setting the lights, to spring to life automatically.
