I love all of the connected devices in my home. There’s just one problem: Most of them don’t talk to each other, or to one particular app for that matter. I like being able to dim the lights, turn the temperature down, and lock the door when I’m getting ready for bed, but there’s no easy way to do that in one fell swoop. That might change in the fall, though, when Apple releases iOS 8, and with it a feature called HomeKit.

Announced at WWDC on Monday, HomeKit will enable home automation devices to pair with the iPhone so you can control all of your connected devices from your mobile device. The way I see it, this could turn the iPhone into a universal hub of sorts—one that truly brings the home automation industry into the mainstream.

There’s no doubt that the smart home market has been heating up (and cooling down, thanks to the arrival of connected air conditioners) in the last couple of years. The Nest Thermostat($215.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), for instance, became big enough to attract attention from the likes of Google, which purchased the company for $3.2 billion earlier this year.

But there still isn’t a connected thermostat in every household, and I’ve seen more Roombas in friend’s apartments than connected light bulbs. Part of the reason for this is that many connected devices are still relatively new and relatively pricey. But perhaps even more important is that people need to see a reason to buy these devices over their traditional counterparts in the first place. Of course, the number one reason should be that connected home devices will make your life easier, but in many instances, it can seem like precisely the opposite.

Want to lock the doors, turn off the lights, and turn on the air conditioning for instance? No problem. But you’ll have to use three separate apps for that, which isn’t much more convenient than just getting up and doing it by hand.

Companies like Revolv, SmartThings, and Staples are trying to address this issue, with hubs that provide the ability to control multiple devices from a single app. The problem is, these hubs are yet another device you need to buy and set up, and different hubs offer support for different platforms, so you might not be able to control all of the connected devices in your home though just one source.

One Device To Control Them All
Apple didn’t release a ton of information about HomeKit yesterday, but from what senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said, it sounds like Cupertino is hoping to bridge the compatibility gap: “There are great apps and devices on the market, but we thought we could bring some rationality to this.”

The first step towards this rational approach is the ability to use your iPhone as a controller for all of your connected devices, which would negate the need for an additional hub. While the iPhone already serves as a controller for a number of connected devices via apps, it sounds like HomeKit will happen on the OS level. That means you’ll simply be able to tell Siri to turn off the lights.

And rather than needing to cycle through multiple apps to control every connected device you own, you’ll be able to group devices, so when you’re ready to go to bed, HomeKit will make sure the door is locked, the lights are off, and the air conditioner is set to low (if that’s what you’ve programmed it to do). That’s the type of simple control that will make the benefits of home automation appealing to a wider audience.

Of course, Apple will need the support of popular connected device makers if it wants HomeKit to succeed, and it already has a number on board. The company announced partnerships with connected device makers like Philips (light bulbs) and Schlage (smart locks), as well as chip companies such as Broadcomm, Marvell, and Texas Instruments. Chip companies in particular will be instrumental in helping create a common protocol that will allow connected devices to work exclusively with your iPhone.

There are still plenty of questions left to be answered. A number of connected devices don’t work over Wi-Fi, so it’ll be interesting to see how (and if) Apple plans to support them. And it’s unclear if certain devices will still require a dedicated hub to collect and monitor data continually (particularly in the case where Wi-Fi isn’t used). And of course, this solution leaves Android users (as well as anyone else without an iPhone) out in the cold.

Still, HomeKit looks like a step in the right direction. If Apple can use the iPhone as a tool to simply unite and control multiple connected devices, it could be just the push the home automation industry really needs to break through to the mainstream. For now, though, some IFTTT recipes and a bunch of apps will have to suffice. 

For PCMag’s first take on the Apple announcements, check out the video below.