Apple has put a renewed emphasis on HomeKit this 12 months with iOS 16, bringing a totally redesigned Dwelling app forward of the looming Matter commonplace launch. One key side of HomeKit is having a house hub, which permits for options like out-of-home management, automations, and extra.
Apple has historically allowed HomePod, Apple TV, and iPad gadgets to function house hubs. With the discharge of iOS and iPadOS 16 this 12 months, nonetheless, iPads will not be supported as house hubs.
Apple’s web site signifies that the brand new Dwelling app and related options in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 require a house hub, together with sharing a house and receiving Dwelling notifications. Together with this, Apple can also be clarifying what counts as a house hub, saying: “Solely Apple TV and HomePod are supported as house hubs.”
This implies, in an effort to use HomeKit options like management whereas out of your house, sharing Dwelling entry, and establishing automations, you’ll have to have a HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV on your house community (by way of Tech Crtr).
Apple hasn’t supplied a proof for this variation, however it shouldn’t come as an excessive amount of of a shock for individuals who have tried to rely solely on an iPad to function their HomeKit house hub. The concept of a HomeKit hub is that it’s at all times on and at all times related to your house web.
In actuality, this isn’t the case for almost all iPad customers on the market. iPads depart the home similar to iPhones do they usually aren’t at all times related to energy like an Apple TV or HomePod is. For these causes, utilizing an Apple TV or HomePod as a HomeKit hub is a much more dependable expertise than utilizing an iPad.
Extra on HomeKit in iOS 16
The headlining HomeKit change in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 is an all-new Dwelling app, which includes a design that’s simpler to navigate, arrange, and management. This features a new “whole-house view” that reveals your whole rooms and equipment on a single web page.
Apple additionally continues to put the groundwork for Matter, the upcoming cross-platform good house commonplace:
Matter is a brand new good house connectivity commonplace that can allow suitable equipment to work collectively seamlessly, throughout platforms. Matter will let you select from much more suitable good house equipment and management them with the Dwelling app and Siri on Apple gadgets.
Apple says that Matter help is coming “later this 12 months.”
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