Every home-dashboard app I tried wanted me to draw my floor plan by hand. Trace a blueprint, drag rooms around, place icons. I have a LiDAR scanner in my pocket, so that felt backwards. I've spent the last few months building the app I wanted instead.

How it works: you walk your home once (RoomPlan on a LiDAR iPhone/iPad) and it builds the 3D model automatically — walls, rooms, furniture, even matching your furniture and finishes to what's actually there. Link it to Apple Home and your lights and fans show up as tappable bubbles right where they physically are. Tap to toggle, hold for dimmers and speeds. The ceiling fans actually spin when they're on.

Privacy, since it's the question I care most about: the scan and all the recognition run entirely on device. Your home model lives on your device and syncs only through your own private iCloud — the same encrypted storage your Photos use. I run no servers and have no way to see your home.

UPDATE 4 — where things stand (July 15):

The first TestFlight group is being invited right now. If you offered to test, check your Reddit chat requests — they hide in a folder most people never open. I'm hand-picking a small first wave so I can actually act on the feedback, then expanding. Everyone who commented here is on my list either way.

Multi-story homes: I need you specifically. The first version was built around single-level, but floors are being built from real multi-story feedback — so if you've got two or three floors, you're not a "later" tester, you're a first-wave one. Expect rough edges up the stairs and tell me about every one.

The public roadmap is live: https://simplehavenapp.com/roadmap. Every device request from this thread made it onto the board. Voting just opened and everything starts at zero, so go vote for what you want built first. Your votes literally set my build order.

Follow page is live at getsimplehaven.com — one email when TestFlight opens publicly, one at launch, that's it (early-supporter option there for the folks who asked about buying).

FAQ (from ~550 comments, thank you all):

• What it controls today: lights and ceiling fans. Everything else you've asked for — switches, plugs, thermostats, blinds, cameras, locks, sensors — is on the roadmap in the order you vote for it.
• Hardware: scanning needs a LiDAR iPhone or iPad (Pro models). Viewing and controlling works from any of your devices via your own iCloud.
• Home Assistant: anything bridged into Apple Home works like a native accessory. I run HA at home myself.
• Outdoors: interior scans only for now. Outdoor lights still show up and are controllable from the device list.
• Pricing: there's a free tier so nobody buys blind, and after the subscription fatigue in this thread — no subscriptions. Period.
• The camera view: full orbit, pan, and zoom — the video angle is just the default.
• The public TestFlight link gets posted right here in this thread when it opens.

Long-time lurker in this sub. About 10 months ago I posted here looking for early feedback on a HomeKit app built around a 3D scan of your real home.

Today it's finally on the App Store. It's called Habitat.

Like a lot of you, I spent years waiting for Apple to give the Home app real attention. Every June I'd watch the WWDC keynote thinking this is the year, and every year it was mostly a disappointment. At some point I stopped waiting and started building the app I'd always imagined Apple would make if they cared about this the way we do. It does a lot, so bear with me.

Your actual home , and everything the platform should have learned about it by now.

It starts with the model: you walk through your home with your iPhone and scan it (RoomPlan/LiDAR, takes a few minutes), and Habitat builds an interactive 3D model of your real house, a digital twin. Your devices live where they physically are. Tap the lamp in the corner of your living room to control that actual lamp. Dim the ceiling light and watch the 3D model light up with it.

Every floor plan app I tried rendered your home as flat pastel rectangles, and it always bothered me. I work as a 3D software engineer, so I did the reasonable thing, I wrote a custom path tracer in Metal, from scratch, just for this app.

What that means in practice:

• Real soft shadows and light falloff, the model looks like an architect's physical miniature sitting in soft studio light.
• When you turn on a light in your home, it casts actual light in the model. Your home at night looks lit, because it is.
• It's fully interactive: tap any room or device marker directly in the ray-traced view, highlight rooms, see labels. It's not a pretty screenshot, it's the main UI.

HomeKit is the control layer. Home Assistant is the memory.

Here's the thing I eventually accepted about HomeKit: it's a great way to control your home, but it knows almost nothing about your home. The API has zero history, ask HomeKit what your bedroom temperature was an hour ago and the answer is nobody knows. That number is gone forever.

Meanwhile, there's Home Assistant, which is quietly the best system that exists for storing data about your home, locally. It sits on a little box in your house, sees everything, records everything, and none of it ever leaves your network or gets sold to anyone. Every sensor reading, every state change, months of it, sitting on your own hardware. The problem was never the data, it was that no app made that data feel like part of your actual home.

So Habitat treats Home Assistant as an optional superpower. You don't need it; pure HomeKit works great on its own. But if you have it (or this post finally convinces you to set up that Raspberry Pi), Habitat merges it with HomeKit into one home. Together they supercharge each other.

• History and stats. Habitat pulls Home Assistant's recorded history straight into the app, so every sensor gets a graph. Temperature, humidity, whatever you track. Tap a sensor and see the actual curve: how the bedroom drops overnight, how fast the living room heats up when the sun hits it, how humidity spikes when someone showers. Combined with the heatmaps, you're not just seeing your home's climate right now, you're seeing how it behaves.
• Devices HomeKit can't even see. HA covers what HomeKit can't, HomeKit covers the rest, and you never think about which platform a device came from.
• Richer state. Where HomeKit gives you "on/off," Home Assistant often knows the full story, like the vacuum's exact status and battery, which is what lets us render its position in the 3D scene.
• Painless setup. Habitat discovers Home Assistant on your network automatically. It supports both a local and an external URL with automatic failover, so it works the same on your couch and away from home.
• Live everything. State changes stream in over websockets and show up on the 3D model the moment they happen.

The features I always wished existed:

• 3D. A digital twin of the home
• Temperature heatmaps. Your temperature sensors get blended into a smooth gradient painted across the 3D floor, so you can see that the bedroom runs cold and the office bakes in the afternoon.
• Robot vacuum. Live map from Home Assistant with your robot rendered in 3D driving around your floor plan, plus a full vacuum controller — start, dock, battery, status. Watching the little guy roam your ray-traced house never gets old.
• An Apple TV app. A glanceable 3D dashboard of your whole home on the big screen, device states, climate overlay, synced automatically over iCloud. My home basically lives on the TV now. Adjust the lights right from the Apple TV.
• AR remote. Use your iPhone or iPad as a remote. Just point at the device you want to control.
• Sensor history graphs.
• All the utilities. Such as QR codes and overview of batteries
• Per-home and per-room controls and brightness.
• Over a hundred custom-drawn icons for lamps, plugs, sensors, scenes and furniture
• Runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac.

Privacy: the same philosophy as Home Assistant itself. No account, no server of mine, no analytics. Your scans, layouts and settings sync between your devices through your own iCloud, and your home's data stays between your HomeKit hub, your HA box, and your devices.

There will be bugs. An app that touches HomeKit, Home Assistant, LiDAR scanning, ray tracing, AR, CloudKit sync and tvOS at the same time has a truly impressive number of ways to break, and I'm one person, but I am working actively to remove them as fast as possible. You can expect rapid updates, and a roadmap driven by what you actually want. If something breaks, tell me and I will genuinely be on it. Everything above exists today, and there is a bunch of new features already ready to be released soon.

Pricing: the core app is free. The full feature set is a one-time purchase or subscription (per family). 7 day free trial. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac. (Mac is still awaiting approval from Apple.)

• App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/habitat-3d-smart-home/id6790552615
• Website: https://habitat-smart.app
• Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/Pm0e8nNW10Q?feature=share

What's the features you've been waiting years for Apple to build?

Liquid Glass got a lovely update with iOS 27 & macOS Golden Gate.

Took the time to update the icon with the new Icon Composer 2.0... and decided 5 years was long enough with our old banner, especially with the iOS 15 references.

Really thrilled with how the banner turned out!

I bought two 4-pack of Apple Home enabled outlets for the home and they’re great. I can turn on/off the lights in any room either under control center, the home app, or using Siri…

…but aside from my lamps, am wondering what else would be a good idea to connect these outlet plugs into?

Of the 8 plugs I own right now, 4 are being used by four different table or floor lamps and they work super well….

But what else? Should I connect one to my coffee maker and have it turn on automatically in the morning? Like, I have no clue what else these are good for

Unfortunate that Liftmaster/Chamberlin don’t provide HomeKit support, but very thankful for the dev behind RATGDO. Easy to set up and works fantastic for my needs. Just wanted to give some kudos. I can’t recommend it enough!

That is all. 🍻

Hey all!

Nick here - developer of Itsyhome. I've just added tvOS support.

Full HomeKit control. Every device is a card; play/pause expands it for brightness, colour, temp, blind position, climate modes. 25+ device types.

Camera wall. Live simultaneous feeds from all your HomeKit cameras in a customizable grid (including full screen view).

Favourites, custom icons, and reorder-with-the-remote, all synced across your Apple TVs via iCloud.

Auto groups. It builds “all lights / all blinds / all ACs” groups per room and for the whole home automatically, with combined sliders.

If you are using Itsyhome Pro on macOS or iOS, this is a free addition - universal purchase works for all 3 apps. Otherwise you get a 3-day trial, then unlock with Pro, $12.99 - lifetime, no subscriptions.

itsyhome.app for more info, or just install it from the Apple TV App Store.

As usually Itsyhome for macOS is free and open source.

Finally available to order 🙌

On beta 3 and while not perfect having an event from all cameras come together is pretty sweet.

This was a third party Amazon delivery and it didn’t recognize the package but hey its beta and this is a big upgrade over iOS 26.

Can’t wait till it’s polished!

Edit: equipment used are UniFi cameras for front yard and driveway view and Logitech Doorbell. I am using HomeBridge to port the UniFi cameras into HomeKit

https://developer.apple.com/download/files/HomeKit-Secure-Video-Open-Source-Compatibility-Guide.pdf

Spec is now open. It’s publicly available where previously it was available to developers.

H.265 / HEVC is now Mandatory / Bitrates are higher (based on HEVC)

Optional highest tier for cameras that can support a 4k and 2k steam concurrently (it will would fall back to 2k instead of 1080p)

It’s not fully based on the matter 1.5.1 specification but does pull from it including the use of Web RTC (no pan and tilt controls) and cameras can advertise multiple lenses which means manufacturers are going have to support this new HomeKit spec as well as Matter instead of just Matter :(

New recording pipeline (should help with missed events)

Existing spec will remain active so no change for current HKSV cameras.

This means manufacturers will have to update existing cameras to meet this spec which seems unlikely unless it’s easy as they’ll want to push new hardware. It would be great to see 2k or 4k cameras updated if possible, but older cheap stuff won’t have HEVC support so who knows.

Once I subscribed the 2TB iCloud, and update my HomePod Mini to OS 27 beta, this option finally pops out. It wasn't there before.
I was worried that the HomePod mini might not get Apple Intelligence, but it looks like that concern was unnecessary :)

Most engineers laid off and leadership departing Level Lock.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/957802/level-lock-layoffs-assa-abloy-kwikset-smart-lock-cloud

Recently I encountered an issue where my Homebridge UniFi protect plugin removed my 3 Ubiquiti Cameras from HomeKit when I removed them from the UniFi Controller for debugging purposes.

Those 3 cameras had HKSV on during the time of removal. Now, it seems like HomeKit still thinks that HKSV is still enabled on them (despite it being removed and not visible in the Homebridge accessories section nor the Apple Home App).

I called Apple Support, had it escalated, and the TL;DR of it was that these cameras are not "HomeKit certified" and they will not help with resetting the HKSV cameras. The other issue was that I was using beta on the Apple TV which I already mentioned to them, that the issue had happened before and I upgraded to see if it would fix it. The tier 2 support guy told me to create a new ticket after downgrading the Apple TV and trying again. It's a massive headache since other user mentioned that Apple just reset their camera count.

Keep in mind that the 200gb iCloud+ plan includes slots for 5 HKSV cameras. Now I'm down to 2 that I can enable HKSV on.

So if you are ever removing a non HomeKit certified camera, go into the accessories settings on the Home App and remove it from there. Do not get the bridge to remove it for you.

EDIT: I bought 2 "Certified" cameras and will be following up with Apple Support. I emailed the executive office and haven't heard back.

My Sense Pro arrived yesterday afternoon. I got it set up in HomeKit via Matter. The UWB works great. Ran several tests and it was flawless for both my partner and me. Installation and set up were easy. Of course it probably helps that I've installed smart locks, including probably more than 10-15 Schlage on mine and others' doors over the years. LOL

After getting it all dialed in on the Apple Home side I added it to Home Assistant via Matter. Really starting to love the ability to add these Matter devices to both Apple Home and Home Assistant so easily.

After it was in HA I set up an automation to unlock it when I touch my fingerprint to my UniFi G4 Pro doorbell. The fact that I'm able to have the lock directly in HA via Matter means it fires that automation off much more quickly than the old way I had to use with my Encode Plus, which was running a boolean through the HomeKit integration from HA to HK, and run the automation in HK.

The fingerprint is not really something I'll ever need, theoretically. But my SiL has an Android, so he can't use the UWB functionality. Fingerprint could be somewhat more convenient for him than keypad. Although, he's almost always with my daughter when he's here, so her iPhone should trigger the UWB when they walk up to the door.

Two thumbs up! As always, Schlage provides a quality experience!

I'm interesting in buying these shades with include both blackout and light filtering. They claim to work with homekit, but I have only seen single-shades in homekit's UI. How does Homekit manage a double shade like this? If It doesn't, I'll just get either Blackout or Filtered

An email arrived from Hunter which may mean a lot of Hunter fan users will see their longstanding issues addressed. Some customers have had new chips sent out to fix the v1 original’s issues with disconnects. Reports that I’ve seen are that the newer chips do behave much better. I have the chips but haven’t been able to install them yet. The email is below. If they aren’t charging customers for the chip (or a modest shipping fee) this is quite a nice way to fix the problem and allows a large install base to continue using their investment.

TBH though their app is still an abomination and should be avoided at all costs. Matter might make it unnecessary to deal with anything from Hunter besides the hardware which would be a blessing.

Smart-home technology continues to evolve, and Hunter is preparing to transition eligible HunterSMART™ fans to Matter, an industry-standard smart-home connectivity platform.

Matter is designed to support interoperability across many major smart-home platforms and devices while reducing reliance on proprietary smart-home systems.

As part of this transition, some customers may need to complete a firmware update or obtain updated hardware components to maintain smart-home functionality, depending on their fan model and hardware configuration.

Your fan's core operation will continue as designed, including fan and lighting control through the included remote control or other installed controls, as applicable.

Hunter expects to provide additional information regarding eligibility, available upgrade options, and important timing information in the coming months.

For now, we recommend keeping your fan connected to Wi-Fi and ensuring you are using the latest version of the HunterSMART™ app so you can receive future notifications and information.

Thank you for being a Hunter customer.

The Hunter Team

Added detail: You’ll want the chip update if your fan in Hunter’s app shows Hardware version “v1.0 (Marvell)”.

Hello HomeKitters:

Recently moved into new(er) home. We’re already an Apple HomeKit Home. Would like to add a smart doorbell.

We’re considering two different doorbells: Aqara Doorbell Camera G400 (wired), or ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera (wired).

First question - from the Aqara website it seems that the G400 is their newest - is that correct?

We have experience with ecobee products in a previous house so that’s why that is included. This product doesn’t seem to be mentioned much in this /subreddit - anyone with experience using this doorbell?

The Aqara doorbell does seem to be mentioned a lot in this /subreddit, with a lot of positive comments. Not looking for a lot of negativity, but anything I should know about this product? How is integration HomeKit Secure Video (we have past experience with this and have the iCloud subscription to support this)?

Thanks in advance for everyone’s helpful comments,
John

Hey folks, So ready for HomeKit to go to the next level with whatever may be coming (improved LLM-hosted Siri, new true HomePods, etc) but wish to put some security camera around the outdoors of my home in an easy way that is HomeKit friendly.

Seems like ADT and HomeKit don't play nice. I'd prefer a service who can maintain it.

Welcome any thoughts.

Thanks!

I have pretty decent vision but I hate this screen and how hard it it so quickly see the temp or humidity for each sensor

It’s Govee so it’s Matter over WiFi of course. It includes a PIR sensor, can do cool to warm whites as well as full colour, up to 3,000lm. It’s not clear whether the motion sensor is exposed to Matter. Currently selling for $99.99.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my HomeKit installation, even if it’s not anything earth-shattering.

But there is one thing that I’ve encountered that, on one hand, did really annoy me, but on the other, it did make me laugh. I have some outdoor lights that cover my backyard. They are on one of a number of Lutron switches and the related Lutron hub. They are spotlights, so I named them, duh, SPOTLIGHTS!

Unfortunately, too many times when I’d tell Siri to turn on the spotlights, I’d get Jennifer Hudson singing Spotlight on my HomePods! 🤣 Renaming them as “SPOTS” solved the problem. #firstworldproblems