How Do I Receive Sensor Notifications From My Lyric Alarm System in Apple HomeKit?

You can receive sensor notifications from your Lyric Alarm System in Apple HomeKit by enrolling the sensor with your Lyric System and then enabling notifications for that sensor within HomeKit. The sensor must have a certain Response Type for Apple HomeKit to provide notifications.

If you want to receive HomeKit alerts regarding a specific sensor, it must have a Response Type of Entry/Exit 1, Entry/Exit 2, Perimeter, Interior Follower or Interior w/ Delay. Additionally, sensors that cause an audible system alarm can appear as a General Lyric System Alert in HomeKit. Sensors that provide a trouble condition cannot appear as HomeKit notifications.

Remember, you will need a compatible HomeKit Hub if you want to receive HomeKit notifications remotely. You can use an iPad, Apple TV or Apple HomePod as a HomeKit Hub. If you have not paired your Lyric System with HomeKit yet, please follow this FAQ.

Additionally, HomeKit will not provide alerts for system tamper, low battery, power loss troubles and sensor tamper, low battery and loss of supervision troubles. You can only receive these alerts through Total Connect 2.0. That is why we recommend keeping Total Connect 2.0 even if you have Apple HomeKit. You can learn more about the differences between Apple HomeKit and Total Connect 2.0 by reading this helpful FAQ.

To start receiving sensor notifications from your Lyric Alarm System in Apple HomeKit, complete the following steps:

1. Enroll the sensor. You must enroll the sensor to the Lyric System before it can send HomeKit notifications. If you need help programming a new sensor, please review this FAQ. Remember, you will only receive specific sensor alerts for sensors with a Response Type of Entry/Exit 1, Entry/Exit 2, Perimeter, Interior Follower and Interior w/ Delay. Additionally, you can receive General Lyric System Alerts for any sensor that causes audible system alarms.

2. Send invites. Open HomeKit on your iOS device. The first thing you will do in HomeKit is send invites to anyone you want to receive notifications. Not everyone you invite has to receive every notification type. You can actually configure who will receive specific notifications in the next step. If you have previously added the necessary recipients, you can skip this step.

Start by pressing the small picture of the house in the upper-left corner. Then press the orange Invite link under People. Then press the circle with the plus (+) sign, and choose the invite recipients from your contacts list. In our example, we added a user named "Test Test". Press the Send Invite button when finished. The recipient must accept the invitation to start receiving notifications.

3. Configure notifications. From the main HomeKit screen, you should notice that the sensor you added in Step 1 appears on the screen. If you press and hold that button, you can configure the HomeKit settings for that sensor by choosing the Settings button at the bottom.

For our example, we are using a contact sensor called "Main". Please note that the Device Type is not included in this naming. Only the Zone Descriptors are used in the name. In other words, while our Lyric System recognizes this sensor as "Main Door", HomeKit only sees it as "Main. Also note that sensors set to provide General Lyric System Alerts, meaning sensors that cause an audible alarm, but are not one of the zone types that will cause specific alerts, will have their notifications collectively configured by adjusting the settings for the Lyric accessory itself.

From this menu, you can configure various settings for the sensor. This includes setting the Room to associate with the sensor and setting the type of sensor. To adjust the notification settings, scroll down to Status and Notifications, and click on that option. On the following screen, make sure 'Include in Status' and 'Allow Notifications' are both enabled. You can also set who will receive the notifications and provide any time restrictions as to when notifications are sent out. You can then back out and exit HomeKit when finished.

4. Test the notification. If necessary, put your system on Test Mode with the central monitoring station. Activate the sensor, and make sure you receive the proper notification. The picture below shows what a HomeKit notification looks like on an iPad. Note how the Zone Descriptor "Main" is specifically listed. The notification is at the top of the screen.