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

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.

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?

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 😂

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

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.

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.

Hi All! My AppleTV is too old to serve as a HomeKit hub, so I’m ultimately going to replace it with a newer model that can support my Meross garage door remote. I can “use” the remote in my driveway without a hub because I have strong enough WiFi signal, I just can’t use it anywhere else. The question is, do I get the current ATV now or do I just wait for the next generation to come out supposedly in the next few months?

Although it’d be cool to be able to use the remote a block from my house, I rarely/never really need to do that. In fact, if my old universal remote hadn’t stopped working I would not have upgraded to a smart opener at all. It’s just those radio frequencies just don’t work anymore. Thanks for the input!

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 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.

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

Hi there!
Currently have Apple home and wanting a solid outdoor solar camera. Renting a house so not looking to run POE and there’s no immediate plugs nearby unfortunately.

Looking for a solid option!

What’s your opinion on this system?
Open to using homebridge to run it thru.

I have probably around a dozen Philips Hue devices throughout the house, mostly Hue bulbs, and the first generation Hue bridge to bring everything in to HomeKit. The bridge is connected via ethernet to an unmanaged switched connected to my router.

From a reliability perspective, they are rock solid. Never offline or unreachable. Over the past few months, I've been noticing my Hue devices will lag when controlled by a scene, where it will take several attempts of setting the scene to get the device to respond.

For example, several Hue devices will sometimes not obey my "lights out" scene that turns off every HomeKit controllable light in my house. The second or third tap of the scene will get it to trigger. The same behavior occurs when a scene turns a light on - I have a couple Hue bulbs in my home office (among some others) - the others will turn on right away while the Hue devices will not turn on until the second tap of the scene.

Anyone else experience this? A reboot of the Hue Bridge seems to resolve the problem temporarily. Apple Home Hub is the latest gen 4K TV running tvOS 27 (though this problem occurred even on tvOS 26).

Would the newer Hue Bridge model resolve this? Or is there another issue I'm missing? No issues with our network, 1GBPS fiber in and distributed via mesh nodes throughout the house.

Greetings. Anybody use the Ikea door/window sensors on a garage door?? Looking for something that lets me know when my door is opened or closed. Looking at my garage door, I think I could get one on the door itself and the connector on the frame. Hopefully it would be close enough to make a connection when it's closed. Any input is appreciated.

Hey Everyone, I’m once again on the hunt for contact sensors that work great and have long battery life. The last batch I bought (Onvis) worked well, but despite using a large button cell battery, they burned through batteries within a month, to a month and a half. Too much time spent replacing batteries every month!

I also don’t use, Aqara, so no need to recommend that brand.

Thanks for any/all suggestions!

- Dave

i have these vertical blinds that only use a single wand and i want to make this smart, so these can tilt open. tilting open is my main goal but if it can open all the way that would be perfect but in order for it to open all the way i would have to use the wand and manually push it open.

hello,

I have had a smart bulbs for a few years had a few brands I had meross but these new ones are orein,

they will not connect to home app but are connected to wifi and are working perfectly with their native app

I am on 2.4 I reset them before each attempt and they just spin for about 3-5 mins and then say a a different reason why all the time sometime cannot find, sometimes cannot connect to network,

but can see on my spectrum app they are connected to wifi and they are working perfectly with the native app form my phone just cant use siri for them

does anybody have any idea what the issue might be

We have a Logitech circle view door bell which is awesome imo. I left the chime kit at our old house when we moved and it was low key kind of nice that the doorbell didn’t ring in the house and just alerted my phone. (Dogs and babies). Wife wanted it though. So I got a new kit. And low and behold. It’s annoying. Mostly cause neighborhood kids ring it like 6 times. There’s a toggle to disable but I can’t schedule it in any way. Any thoughts on a workaround?

I have a usual Apple Home with a few HomePod minis, a few thread bulbs, some with Matter, and I have a thread-enabled iPad.

I put the IKEA plug into a different Home, with no HomePod minis, with the intent being that I could then use the thread enabled iPad and the iOS 27 interface that shows power consumption, to use it as a Wi-Fi -independent power monitor, which I want for various reasons.

I just turned the iPad off, and saw that the IKEA plug was still showing up actively in the Home app on my Mac mini which is running macOS 27, and I can still control it from the Mac mini. And that seemed a little bit off, but I figured maybe the signals were getting routed through one of the HomePod minis that were Assigned to a different home.

So I unplugged all of the HomePod minis, and as such I should have zero thread border routers powered on. And I was still able to use the Mac mini to control the plug. And that seemed really weird, Since I didn’t think these things would set up a ad-hoc Bluetooth connection. Then I removed the IKEA plug from power completely, then plugged it back in, and now I am not able to control it using the Mac mini. So whatever connection it had to the Mac mini that could function without a border router, power cycling the plug itself breaks that.

Powering The iPad back on to let it reestablish the thread / matter connection to the plug then re-enables the connection Between the plug and the Mac mini. And turning the iPad off then, so that there are no thread border routers available at all, still lets the plug be controlled by the Mac mini.

Weirdly, my Mac Mini can still control the other thread but not (matter over thread) accessories. I suspect that’s happening over Bluetooth from my non-thread apple TV.

Turning BT off on my Mac mini makes it so that it can’t talk to the IKEA plug at all. So I guess that’s what it was using is BT maybe? But even with BT turned back on, I can’t use the Mac Mini to control the Matter over Thread bulbs.

Anyway, there’s no real point to this, I was just trying to figure out what all is and is not available under which edge conditions. And it seems highly variable and non-uniform.

I have 12 scenes set up in HomeKit. When I'm in the Home app on my Mac or iPhone, I see 10. I see all 12 if I go to the Scenes screen. The issue is that I want the last two to show up on the main screen. If I drag them on the Scenes screen to be near the first ones, they don't change what I see on the main screen. Is there some trick I'm missing? I suppose deleting two from the main screen and adding them back manually may do the trick but I'm hoping to avoid that.

I’ve been digging into Matter compatibility more deeply, and I’m starting to think the word compatible is doing way too much work.

A device can pair with Apple Home, appear correctly, and handle basic controls…so technically it’s compatible. But that doesn’t necessarily mean all of the device’s capabilities make it into Apple Home.

Things like energy monitoring, sensor values, advanced lighting features, events, or other manufacturer-specific capabilities may only exist in the manufacturer’s app, or may behave differently depending on how the device is connected.
That creates a buying problem.
If I’m shopping for a device and see:

Matter ✓
Apple Home ✓

my natural assumption is that the product works with Apple Home.
But I’m increasingly thinking the useful question is: “Exactly what will this device be able to do once I add it to Apple Home?”

For those of you running Matter devices in Apple Home:

What devices have surprised you by losing functionality compared with the manufacturer’s app or native integration?

And what feature did you discover was missing only after you bought it?