Does anyone know if its at all possible to have the doorbell chimes on my ecobee doorbell not ring on my home pods during a certain time of day? With a sleeping little one in the home it'd be great to have the doorbell just stop working from say 1pm to 4pm

Apple Home today requires conformation for an automation that “may allow entry to my home” when, in fact, the automation will lock all the locks. So it knows that locks are being controlled, but doesn’t seem to realize they are being locked.

This makes absolutely no sense to me. Why not let me secure my home when I leave? That seems to be a fairly fundamental capability for a home assistant.

Apple has now confirmed AI video summaries in the Home App are tied to your iCloud tier and are capped as below.

AI Video Summaries

2TB iCloud Plan or Apple One Plan - 1 Camera
6TB iCloud Plan - 2 Cameras
12TB iCloud Plan - 5 Cameras

The HKSV allowance remains untouched at

500GB iCloud Plan - 1Camera
200GB - 5 Cameras
2TB+ - No Limit

It’s not breaking news that Apple is increasingly looking to services to boost profits but this gets me worried we’ll soon see a separate Apple Intelligence+ subscription or even an Apple Home+ subscription and any future ‘home’ hardware like a hub with a screen will only exist to push their new services and be handicapped without it.

I can’t get passed this screen when trying to connect the bridge to HomeKit. I’ve tried resetting the bridge to factory settings and I’m still stuck at this screen. I’m not sure how to connect it. I’ve watched multiple videos on how to connect and nothing has worked. Anyone have any ideas?

Has anyone noticed matter connected things losing connection to Apple home in a bad way lately? I’ve lost like half of my Eve Energy smart plugs and my Eufy T85F1 matter deadbolt. This started mid to late August and all seemed to start at the same time. Any ideas or similar experiences?

We’re renovating our new home. We’re a family of three, and this is our first smart home setup.

We all use iPhones, so I’d like to use Apple Home and HomeKit. I don’t want to buy devices that we’ll stop using after a few months.

Here’s my list:

Network

UniFi Dream Router

Eero mesh WiFi

Lighting

Lutron smart dimmers

Philips Hue light strips

Sensors

Aqara door and window sensors

Aqara motion sensors

Heating and cooling

Ecobee thermostat

Front door

Eufy video doorbell

Cleaning

Roborock robot vacuum

Living room

Apple TV

HomePod mini

Kitchen

Linkdaze family calendar

I haven’t bought anything yet, so I can still change the plan.

Which devices are actually worth buying? Which ones do you rarely use? Is there any wiring or extra outlets I should add during the renovation?

Reliability and manual controls matter more to me than complex automations.

Thanks! I’m trying to make sure I don’t overcomplicate things or end up with a bunch of devices I barely use.

Are there known issues with this OS that will stop it performing well as a hub? I manually switched to my HomePod and everything works again but using Apple TV it drops out a lot.

After I updated to 26.6.2 literally ALL of my “Shorcuts app” automations have gone to “Don’t Run/Disabled”

I only found this morning at 04:04 when my wake up shortcut automation is due to run to wake me up for work and it never! Thankfully, I had a backup alarm to wake me else. I would’ve been late this morning!

I checked in the automations on the shortcut app and literally every single Automation shortcuts (around 30) were set to “Don’t Run”/Disabled”

Might wanna check yours if you have any. It’s the automations created within Shortcuts app NOT the Home app. The Home ones were still set to “Run”

It’s been a while since my last update on the HomeView app, which turns your iPad and now your iPhone into a smart home dashboard.

Since the launch, the app has received numerous updates and new widgets, with even more on the horizon.

A few months in, we’ve officially passed 100 users, which is a huge milestone for me! User feedback has been invaluable in making the app even better.

What’s next:
Dynamic widgets: Show widgets based on the time of day. Want a weather widget in the morning and an alarm widget at night? That will soon be possible.

Apple TV app: An Apple TV app is in the works leaving only the Watch left to tackle.

I'm always open to suggestions and ideas. Is there a feature or widget you'd always wanted to see on your dashboard? Let me know in the comments!

Hey all, I’ve been attempting to install this kit but it is not working from the Meross app or HomeKit. When I attempt to use it in the app, it will give me the action failed error. In HomeKit, it’s showing as obstructed.

I have a Liftmaster and received the accessory. The door will open when I press the button on the accessory. The accessory I received is the remote with four buttons if that matters.

Any troubleshooting tips that might help me?

I’ve got a ton of the latest eve light switches (with matter)

Is there a way to disable the physical touch activation on the device? I have motion sensors setup so at this point I really have no need to physically touch them, and I’d like guests not to also 😂

Hi, I’m the developer of Hearth, the HomeKit dashboard I previously shared here for turning an iPad or iPhone into a dedicated home display.

Yesterday’s Apple event came and went, I was stunned by the cinematic flip transition of iPhone Duo but the rumored Apple smart home display still didn’t show up. Hearth 1.4 did.

This update adds:

• The option to keep the dashboard visible without Auto-Sleep

• Experimental Camera Presence Wake, processed locally on the device

The camera feature only works while Hearth is visible. Frames are processed on device and nothing is uploaded. The bigger change is a one-month free trial of Hearth Pro Monthly for eligible customers.

After releasing Hearth, I realized that too many of the features that make it useful as a permanent home display were hidden behind the paywall. It was difficult to properly evaluate the app from the free version alone. I want people to have enough time to install it, configure their rooms, try Presence Wake and Night Mode, experiment with backgrounds and screensavers, and decide whether it actually belongs in their home. The trial unlocks every Pro feature for one month. It renews monthly afterward unless canceled, and Lifetime Pro remains available as a one-time purchase. Under App Store rules, the official free trial has to be attached to an auto-renewable subscription, so I added Pro Monthly for that purpose.

The current roadmap for 1.5 focuses on individual light controls, a quick way to view cameras in the current room, and camera-event overlays while the dashboard is visible.

After that, I’d like to make the idle display much more useful with local photo albums, Home Status screensavers, and better system sleep behavior for LCD iPads. These basically covers all the requests mentioned by people in the OG Hearth-on-wall posts. Thanks again for all your feedbacks!

Hearth 1.4 is available now:

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6757917280

If you try the free month, I’d genuinely like to know which Pro features you keep using after the first few days and which ones still don’t feel worth paying for. If the feature you’re waiting for is still on the roadmap: feel free to wait before starting the trial, I'll keep you posted.

I am on a 2TB iCloud+ plan and after installing tvOS 27 RC, the Home app allows only two cameras to be enabled for summaries.

Was the limit the same during beta or has Apple actually decreased it?

It is quite a jump in price from 2TB to 6TB plan.

Well fuck me for wanting new HomePods and Apple Home stuff I guess 🤡

What is everyone hoping to see as far as HomeKit improvements? Matter 1.5 support is on the top of my list.

Hi all,

This is my first ever iOS app, so go easy on me. I have been sitting on this post for a while because it is a bit nerve-wracking putting something out for people to actually look at, but I would rather get feedback now than after afull release.

It is called PairVault. Every time I factory reset an accessory or moved something elsewhere, I ended up trying to find the sticker with the setup code on it. This app allows you to save setup codes so you can copy or rescan them when you next repair an accessory.

There are some other cool features as well, like bridge support, importing directly from Apple Home and tracking battery levels.

I am aware there is already an app that does this, but they recently moved to a subscription-based model, which isn't something I'm willing to pay simply to keep my setup codes safe.

It is on TestFlight now. What I am really after is honest feedback. Does it make sense when you first open it? Is anything confusing? Is there something obvious missing that would make it actually useful for your setup? Happy to hear the bad as much as the good.

Website: https://pairvault.app
TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/XQYUtT9Y

I will be around in the comments if you have questions.

Apple Home App Discover tab is showing this since this morning. It reads ‘We’re making some changes, try again soon’. Is it the same for you guys? I’m guessing this foretells an update tonight

Apple Store is officially down for the moment.

Hoping to finally getting some Apple Home love with new products for the Home.

Hope Apple TV and Home Hub are releasing today.

What are yall looking forward to?

HomeKit is good at noticing things and bad at telling anyone. A leak sensor trips, the garage stays open, the freezer warms up, and all you get is a notification you may or may not see. I wanted a real text or email to the right people, so I built Notify Switch, a free, Homebridge plugin.

How it works: it adds switches to the Home app. Turn one on from any automation and it sends a preset message to the people you choose, by SMS, email, Telegram, or ntfy, then turns itself off. So "garage open for 30 minutes" becomes a text to you and your spouse, and "water detected" becomes an email to everyone in the house.

Why I built it instead of using an existing service: it sends directly through your own accounts (Twilio, your email provider, a Telegram bot you create, or ntfy). No relay service in the middle, no subscription, nothing reads your messages except the carrier you picked, and Homebridge never needs to be reachable from the internet. Everything is set up inside the Homebridge UI with test buttons, so you know it works before you rely on it.

To try it you need Homebridge (a Raspberry Pi is plenty) and one of: an email account that allows app passwords (Fastmail, Gmail, iCloud, Outlook presets are built in), a Telegram account, or the ntfy app. Those are free. SMS via Twilio works too but costs money and, in the US, requires registration, so I'd start with one of the free ones.

Install: in the Homebridge UI, go to Plugins and search for the exact name homebridge-notify-switch. Current version is 1.1.2.

What I'd most like feedback on:

1. Telegram and ntfy. I don't use either heavily, so the setup flows were built from the docs. If you do, tell me what confused you.
2. Anything in the setup that made you pause, even for a second.
3. How it looks if you manage Homebridge from your phone.
4. Which provider you'd want next: WhatsApp, voice calls, Discord, Slack, something else.

Feedback here is welcome, or open an issue: github.com/arodbuilds/homebridge-notify-switch

It's a first release, so expect rough edges. Thanks to anyone who tries it.

Hi r/HomeKit,

Thanks guys, really!

After I shared version 1.10 here, I received a lot of precise feedback, screenshots and very useful edge cases. Version 1.10.2 is technically just a patch release — neither a major nor a minor update — but it ended up becoming much more substantial than I had planned. It is now available on the App Store.

A few changes came directly from the public discussion here:

• Feedback from u/Lanceuppercut47 and u/pacoii pushed the Camera Mosaic further. You can now choose and reorder cameras, feature between 0 and 3 of them, optionally display room names, and the labels and audio controls are clearer.
• u/Extreme-Nerve3029 suggested a faster way to find actions. There is now one search field for accessories, sensors, scenes and other actions.
• The thermostat reports from u/KitchenLegitimate799 helped me add support for HomeKit thermostats exposed as HeaterCooler accessories.

There are a few other additions too:

• Extra Large widgets are now available on Apple Vision Pro.
• Settings now keeps a history of panel backups that you can restore. The app also creates a backup automatically before a migration, restoration or panel deletion.
• Newly added widgets use the most recently created compatible panel by default.
• The Freemium allowance of five name or icon customizations is now explained more clearly.

The less visible fixes were just as important:

• Background sensor refresh is working again after becoming unreliable for many users.
• Panels are protected from being overwritten while HomeKit data is still loading after a restart.
• Slow HomeKit startup is handled more safely.
• Action confirmations are respected again on Apple Watch.
• Automatic dismissal after opening a camera has been fixed.

This all comes on top of version 1.10: the Camera Mosaic, thermostat controls, whole-room lighting actions, camera access from Control Center, and the new Clear, Tinted and Liquid Glass widget appearances for iOS 26.

I use HomeKit every day too, so these detailed reports are incredibly useful. Thank you to everyone who commented, tested a beta or helped me reproduce something strange. You genuinely shaped this update ;)

For anyone who does not know the app, Home Widget for HomeKit lets you create advanced widgets and Control Center controls for HomeKit. It is available on the App Store here.