iOS has supported the concept of “Shortcuts” for nearly 5 years or so now. Adding shortcuts to your iOS app is really easy: Apple Developer Documentation
Use cases:
- As a user, I would like to be able to say “Hey Siri, unlock my front door” and have the U-tec app unlock my front door.
- As a user, I would like to be able to say “Hey Siri, lock my garage door” and have the U-tec app lock my garage door.
Key points here are the fact that I have multiple U-tec locks and would like to be able to distinguish between them, and I’d like to be able to call out “Lock” and “Unlock” explicitly (versus toggling the lock state).
I have this support for many of my other home smart devices (switch controls, light controls, etc) from a competitor. You don’t need to support HomeKit to support Siri Shortcuts. The big win is that the Shortcuts are supported by HomePods in your home too.