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Homey user guide

A concise guide to setting up Homey and using inventory, item ingestion, meal planning, shopping, lists, and notifications.

This guide describes the main workflows available in the current Homey application without documenting every field or Android system prompt.

Set up the home

On first launch, choose a flat or villa and then select the configuration that most closely resembles the household. Homey creates an initial set of locations from that template. Use Locations to expand the hierarchy, enter a location, and adjust it as the real home changes.

The Home dashboard becomes useful as content is added. It highlights the next planned meal, items expiring today, active lists, and shortcuts for adding items, opening locations, shopping, and ingestion.

Organise locations and inventory

A location can contain both items and more specific sub-locations, such as Kitchen, Pantry, and Top Shelf. Open a location to search its items, filter by category, inspect or edit an item, and move between list and optional spatial-grid presentations.

Use the grid when physical placement matters. Items without a grid position remain available as unassigned items rather than disappearing from the location. Expiry information on grocery items drives the Expiring Items view and notification features.

Add and import items

Homey’s Add Items area offers three entry paths:

Quick Add

Enter an item manually and reuse learned suggestions for common item details and locations.

Scan Receipt

Grant camera access and capture receipt text using on-device OCR.

Import PDF

Select a supported PDF invoice, including the implemented BigBasket invoice flow, for local extraction.

Receipt and invoice results enter a review session before they change the inventory. Confirm or configure recognized items, skip unwanted rows, and add the confirmed set when the review is complete. An unfinished review can be reopened from Recent Scans.

Plan meals and shopping

Use Recipes to create recipes with ingredients and preparation steps. The Menu Planner places meals into the planning calendar and can start from an existing recipe.

The Shopping List can contain entries derived from planning and inventory as well as custom items you add directly. Mark entries purchased as you shop, edit or remove custom entries, and clear completed purchases when appropriate.

Use routines, tasks, and checklists

Homey separates three related kinds of list:

Routines

Repeatable work that can have a recurrence and optional start time.

Tasks

Regular or on-demand work with one or more actions.

Checklists

Reusable ordered collections, such as weekly groceries or packing lists.

The Today screen brings together currently active lists and their completion progress. Each list can be opened for its items and edited later.

Configure reminders

Settings controls local notification behavior for:

  • snack and expiry nudges;

  • weekend shopping reminders;

  • final-call alerts for items expiring within 24 hours;

  • quiet hours; and

  • vacation mode, which suppresses lifestyle nudges while retaining urgent final calls.

Android may ask for camera, notification, or scheduling permissions when the corresponding feature needs them.

For details about locally stored household information, receipt processing, PDF imports, ML Kit diagnostics, backups, and deletion, see Privacy policy.