HomeKit unlock command opens door

The current way of utilizing the unlock method to open the door allows for remote opening via a HomeKit Hub. Changing the behavior prevents that function and forces users to buy a Nuki bridge. I was very happy to see that the current HomeKit way allowed me to ditch the bridge and still have the functionality. Unlocking the door remotely doesn’t make sense to me, but opening it does.
For example if I want to let someone enter the house while I’m at work, I can unlock in the home app or any other HomeKit app and let the person enter the house, but unlocking the lock would be absolutely useless.

I agree that apple should provide an improvement to locks for the European market and door latches, but removing the ability to open the door via HomeKit would make me sad since I would have to re-buy the bridge which I previously owned just for the now unnecessary homebridge plugin.

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@Juergen I have finally found the time to log a Feature Request, please see Make HomeKit/Nuki mapping selectable to enable users to trigger the “Unlock” command to the Nuki Smart Lock 2.0 instead of triggering the “Open Door” command for details.

@baze I hear you as well, and have taken into account your requirements as well - enabling the user to select the preferred HomeKit/Nuki mapping would enable everyone to use both HomeKit, as well as the Nuki App, as preferred.

I think an implementation just like the one in homebridge-nuki plugin would be perfect; see: https://github.com/lukasroegner/homebridge-nuki

unlatchFromLockedToUnlocked : If set to true, the door is unlatched when you switch from “locked” to “unlocked” in the Home app. If set to false, the door is just unlocked when you switch from “locked” to “unlocked” in the Home app. (only for SmartLock)

unlatchFromUnlockedToUnlocked : If set to true, the door is unlatched when you switch from “unlocked” to “unlocked” [1] in the Home app (this move is valid and works in the Home app, just hold down the switch, swipe it to “locked” and then “unlocked” without releasing your finger - do not release the finger until you reached the “unlocked” position again). If set to false, nothing is done when you switch from “unlocked” to “unlocked” in the Home app. [2] (only for SmartLock)

unlatchLock : If set to true, a second lock switch is exposed for unlatching the smart lock. (only for SmartLock)

[1] Also works with Siri, you can ask to unlock devices that are already unlocked.

[2] If you use this mode of operation, the separate unlatchLock is not really necessary. Use unlatchFromLockedToUnlocked: true , unlatchFromUnlockedToUnlocked: true and unlatchLock: false to mimic the HomeKit behavior of the lock.

Thank you in advance.
Regards.

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Thank you for the hint, @Locutus73!
The readme at github actually sounds very promising and could indeed help to deliver exactly the requested functionality.

@Juergen, could you please have a look into this to check if the Nuki team can implement this feature request accordingly? From an external perspective, I assume that the required effort should be rather small, especially given the information which @Locutus73 thankfully provided.

So far, unfortunately I still have to keep the HomeKit functionality for my Nuki Smart Lock 2.0 disabled, because the unintended opening (!) of the main door, which can be triggered unintentionally, poses a real security threat. As the HomeKit functionality was the main reason for us to upgrade to version 2.0, this is still a bummer.

Thank you in advance for looking into this topic again!

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@thore @Locutus73 This doesnt make sense either and is as insecure as the current solution as automations may trigger an unlock twice and so the door will be open, too. Only solution is the workaround both hombridge-nukio and homebridge-nuki use and expose a second lock for unlatching. Only this allows you to use the locks in automations and manual triggers securely.

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Replied here: Make HomeKit/Nuki mapping selectable to enable users to trigger the “Unlock” command to the Nuki Smart Lock 2.0 instead of triggering the “Open Door” command
Basically what is proposed here is actually homebridge-nuki implementation with both “double unlock to unlatch” and a secondary “unlatch lock”, each with an enable/disable option.

Regards.

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Hi, I agree with the fact that the current implementation with Homekit opening the door instead of just unlocking the door is dangerous. I voted for the feature request by @thore and will have to deactivate Homekit until this is fixed. Please make this happen! Thank you!

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I agree that the homebridge implementation would be awesome. Lock / Unlock would just behave as expected and if I really want to OPEN the door I would do unlock after unlock again.

Perfect solution would be if apple provided another button / state / action for locks… secure/unsecure state and forceOpen action or something like that that is represented as a button when the lock supports the function

Hello guys :blush:

What does it look like in 2021? Did unlocking in Homekit still mean opening?

Thanks for answer.

Have a wonderful time!

The HomeKit Standard did not change and still offers only “unlocked” and “locked” states and “unlock” and “lock” actions.

Therefore also the “mapping” that Nuki does, did not change.
A manual override of the mapped function is still not possible within the Nuki settings.
The Homebridge plugins offer custom functionality (i.e. expose a second lock for the latch) and thus more flexibility which Nuki itself can not provide due to Apples strict certification guidelines.

So basically no change.

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@Juergen Hi Jurgen,

so as per your last reply, if:

Why is nuki then not mapped to the “unlock” action? On doors with latch, that means exactly that - unlock command, not open door command. Doors with latch have different commands for lock, unlock and open door, as confirmed by Stephan above. If what you are saying is that nuki is mapped to “open door” on “unlock” action, why is the mapping not “unlock” to “unlock”?

To me, this sounds like a bug on Nuki side and I can’t believe this is still an issue 3 years later? It’s exposing the lock in an unpredictable way and is, as multiple people stated, dangerous. When using HomeKit remotely, one could open their home door while on vacation overseas by simply tapping on the nuki icon by mistake.

This is simply not true. Apple provides only two states, yes, but you introduced the mapping, which is what is causing issues, not HomeKit.

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Because people with a latch would not be able to enter the building anymore, which is the primary use case of mounting a Smart Lock at all.

If you don‘t need the unlatch function you can simply change the door configuration in the Smart Lock administration which will also change the HomeKit mapping.

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It is an restriction by apple. Apple only has „unlock“ which in Apple/USA terms is to have your home unsafe as usually you can open the door from outside if not locked. Same is now for nuki when using a latch :man_shrugging:t3:

That’s my whole point - it should be configurable. As a user, I should be able to specify if pressing the button in homekit opens the door or just unlocks it. Problem solved, will work for any combination of latch/handle.

There is no restriction. Apple exposes two states, locked and unlocked. You are misinterpreting the second state. In other words, it could also be on and off. As a user, I want to be able to specify what ON and OFF does, when I press that button in homekit. And to me unlock != open the door.

Again, allowing homekit to open the door wide open remotely, without any check and confirmation is A HUGE SECURITY ISSUE. You can accidentally tap on the button in homekit and it will open the door to your house, no questions asked, even if you are 1000 kilometers away. Are you really defending this functionality as correct?

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Yes. Its with any App that can open the door. You can even accedently hit unlatch in the nuki app.
As @Juergen said, just configure the door to not use unlatch and you cannot unlatch it accedently in homekit or nuki app. It makes no sense to me to have a different setting between nuki app and homekit.
You could move the lock tile is in an extra room in homekit to avoid your issue.

I signed up just to voice the need to be able to configure what the HomeKit action does.

It is extremely easy to hit the HomeKit button once to open the door from 1000 km away with no way of closing it again. If you’re in the Nuki app, you have to do this with intention. It is at least significantly less likely you do this accidentally. It’s a valid point, but not good enough.

I would like to be able to unlock and lock the door remotely, at least having the choice for which one is used means everyone is happy :man_shrugging:

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No, you can’t. The app has a setting where it will ask to confirm whether you really want to open the door if you are far away. So the developers thought about this in the app itself, but dropped the ball in homekit. Why?

It makes perfect sense. Why it wouldn’t? It will cover both latch and non-latch users.

This is not a solution, I cannot turn of the latch setting in the app, since I have latch on the door. I want nuki to open the door for me, but not accidentally when accessing homekit remotely.

Now this is just coming up with ridiculous workaround for a feature that is missing. Again, why are you defending this, I don’t understand?

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Because this feature request only exists because homekit lacks of a state to pull the latch. Thus the actual problem is homekit, not nuki.

From a developer point of view they would now need to make a workaround that also doesnt even handle all cases needed. Because of this, as a product developer, I would not implement it. As simple as that.

Now, since I am the developer of the first homebridge plugin homebridge-nukiio since the beginning of nuki I am quite aware of all the needs. But the lack in homekit is the main problem. In my plugin I therefore add two locks for a single Nuki, one for alway pulling the latch (can be disabled) and one for only unlocking the door.

Only this way you can currently match all needs. Thats why I not use Nuki Homekit Implementation but my plugin :man_shrugging:t3:

So you just confirmed everything I said - current Homekit integration, as done by Nuki, is useless. And, even though there might be some limitations by homekit, Nuki devs could make it work - as you, said, they could expose two locks for single Nuki. Or have a setting in the Nuki app and control the action directly in the lock, as I suggested. They just decided not to do anything about it, and that is the fact.