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Install HKI 7

Requirements

  • Android 12 or newer (minSdk 31). On Android 12 the language picker in HKI 7's own settings is the only way to change language, because Android had no system-level per-app language screen before Android 13. Everything else behaves the same.
  • A Home Assistant instance you can reach from the phone — on the local network, at a remote URL, or through Home Assistant Cloud (Nabu Casa).
  • Google Play Services if you want geofence-based presence, Google Drive backups, or in-app updates. The app runs without them; those specific features do not.
  • Wear OS 3 or newer for the watch app, and a car or head unit supporting Android Auto — both optional, and neither changes anything about the phone app. See Android Auto and Wear OS.

Family sharing has one extra requirement — the HKI 7 Cloud integration on your Home Assistant. See Family sharing.

Where to get it

HKI 7 is published on Google Play as HKI 7 (com.jimz011apps.hki7). Installing from Play is what makes in-app updates work, including the family "please update" prompt described in Family sharing.

The Wear OS app is delivered from the same listing, so installing on the phone offers it for a paired watch.

It is also the only way to get Android Auto — see the warning below.

The community source is on GitHub under MPL-2.0. Open the project in a recent Android Studio and run the app configuration, or from a terminal:

./gradlew assembleDebug

The debug APK lands in app/build/outputs/apk/debug/. See Contributing for the full development setup.

Sideloaded builds and updates

A copy that did not come from the Play Store cannot use Play's in-app update flow. If your family admin requires a minimum version, you will get an explanation and a way past the prompt for that session rather than a working update button.

Sideloaded builds cannot use Android Auto

Android Auto only surfaces apps like this one when they were installed from Google Play, and its "Unknown sources" developer option does not cover them. A build from source works normally on the phone and on a watch, but the car screen will never appear. Nothing in the app can change that.

The watch app has no such restriction — ./gradlew :wear:assembleDebug and install it as usual.

Try it without a server

You do not need a Home Assistant instance to look around. On the welcome screen, choose Try the demo home — no server needed.

The demo runs entirely on the device against an in-memory sample house. Everything else in the app behaves normally: dashboards auto-generate, states update in real time, and service calls appear to work. Nothing is sent anywhere, because there is nowhere to send it.

To leave the demo, open Settings › Connection and add a real Home Assistant instance.

What happens on first launch

HKI 7 stores nothing about you before you tell it something. On first launch it:

  • Reads no location, contacts, or accounts.
  • Asks for no permissions until the permissions step, which you can skip entirely.
  • Creates no server registration until you have signed in and named the device.

The details of what the app collects and where it goes are in the Privacy policy.