Apple Preparing to Re-Release Revamped HomeKit Architecture That Was Removed From iOS 16.2

[twistedpixel8]

Today [Apple Maps is] (IMHO) a better experience than Google maps that’s just cluttered with “infomercials”.

I would politely disagree. Their search is horrendous. I can literally ask for [shop] on [street name] and it’s like “here’s some places I found 250 miles away, is this what you meant?”

Sometimes I’m typing in the search and the autocomplete gets the right thing but I type the next letter accidentally and it changes to something completely different even though both things had the letter I typed next 🥴

Also quite often the labels for places just aren’t there. None of them.

It also frequently tries to send me some weird way and when I go the way I know, the ETA drops by a few minutes. Useless.

Sometimes I select a place I want to go and tap “go” and - I’m not kidding - it sends me somewhere completely different.

I really don’t know why I continue to use it. Maybe because it’s more convenient in CarPlay and the voice isn’t horrendous.

 

[GabooN]

I would politely disagree. Their search is horrendous. I can literally ask for [shop] on [street name] and it’s like “here’s some places I found 250 miles away, is this what you meant?”

Sometimes I’m typing in the search and the autocomplete gets the right thing but I type the next letter accidentally and it changes to something completely different even though both things had the letter I typed next 🥴

Also quite often the labels for places just aren’t there. None of them.

It also frequently tries to send me some weird way and when I go the way I know, the ETA drops by a few minutes. Useless.

Sometimes I select a place I want to go and tap “go” and - I’m not kidding - it sends me somewhere completely different.

I really don’t know why I continue to use it. Maybe because it’s more convenient in CarPlay and the voice isn’t horrendous.

I wonder if this is a bit of case-by-case depending on location. Here in Windsor, Ontario area, and even as I've traveled between Windsor and Toronto where my family is, I've not had issues for a long time. I do like the ease of use with CarPlay, Calendar, etc... compared to third party.

 

[Razorpit]

These people are rarely early adopters with several dozens of smart devices.

It is absolutely not “there” yet for the masses.

But it can absolutely be “there” for the moderately tech savvy.

I love my smart home, but I’m sure as shirt not gonna set one up for my family. Maybe in 5-8y when there’s a consumer plug-and-play system that’s reliable out of the box.

I agree 100%, however we all know that's not what they tell you at the Apple store. 😂

 

[Razorpit]

I would politely disagree. Their search is horrendous. I can literally ask for [shop] on [street name] and it’s like “here’s some places I found 250 miles away, is this what you meant?”

Sometimes I’m typing in the search and the autocomplete gets the right thing but I type the next letter accidentally and it changes to something completely different even though both things had the letter I typed next 🥴

Also quite often the labels for places just aren’t there. None of them.

It also frequently tries to send me some weird way and when I go the way I know, the ETA drops by a few minutes. Useless.

Sometimes I select a place I want to go and tap “go” and - I’m not kidding - it sends me somewhere completely different.

I really don’t know why I continue to use it. Maybe because it’s more convenient in CarPlay and the voice isn’t horrendous.

I've had several of the issues you mentioned but not all of them. The routing is generally pretty good in my area of the States, to the point of "Why is it telling me to go that way?" only to find out there was construction/accident on the way I thought best. Then there are times where I enter the name of a business and it gives me directions to a similarly named business 1,100 miles away or sometimes in Europe. 😂

Something has happened to auto correct a few months back. I know I'm not the best typer in the world, but it at times has become unusable.

 

[ninecows]

I would politely disagree. Their search is horrendous. I can literally ask for [shop] on [street name] and it’s like “here’s some places I found 250 miles away, is this what you meant?”

Sometimes I’m typing in the search and the autocomplete gets the right thing but I type the next letter accidentally and it changes to something completely different even though both things had the letter I typed next 🥴

Also quite often the labels for places just aren’t there. None of them.

It also frequently tries to send me some weird way and when I go the way I know, the ETA drops by a few minutes. Useless.

Sometimes I select a place I want to go and tap “go” and - I’m not kidding - it sends me somewhere completely different.

I really don’t know why I continue to use it. Maybe because it’s more convenient in CarPlay and the voice isn’t horrendous.

Not gonna turn this into a map discussion, but I guess it’s locations and case dependent. Google maps where I am is cluttered with adds for shops that I don’t want. I just want to find an address and I’m mostly walking. In Google maps I will accidentally hit some shop while navigating the map and it will take up the screen. And it will use a lot of screen estate on showing things I don’t need. But that’s not to say that Apple Maps isn’t worse for you 😊

 

[valkraider]

Did HomeKit fail as a whole? Barely anybody supports it, it's all just Alexa and Google Home.

I am not sure what you mean by this.

I don't own a single Alexa or Google piece of hardware and have lots of HomeKit devices.

Cameras, Door & Window sensors, Leak detectors, Home HVAC devices & sensors, garage doors, TVs, Doorbells, window blinds, a variety of different lighting systems, a variety of smart plugs and outlets, and of course Apple devices like HomePods, AppleTV, Macs, iPhones, iPads and watches.

Additionally, I don't have any, but there are also smart locks, smart lawn sprinkler systems, plumbing devices, thermostats/weather stations, smart safes, robot vacuums, etc etc.

And this is all before we consider that Matter should open up a ton more devices.

All this said - the "Home app" sucks and is not at all what I would expect from Apple around any of this. It is clumsy and inefficient, leaves no room for customization, and is unreliable.

The reality is that these are not geeky toys. People *live* in homes. All kinds of people. They need to work well, they need to work right, they need to be easy, and there are no two alike.

And for crying out loud - if the stuff is going to crash all the time, can we at least get an iCloud backup capability so that we can backup our accessories and automations to avoid the dreaded "delete and recreate home" which if you have more than 3 accessories is a tedious and difficult process (for me I have to get out ladders and actually open up walls).

 

[twistedpixel8]

I've had several of the issues you mentioned but not all of them. The routing is generally pretty good in my area of the States, to the point of "Why is it telling me to go that way?" only to find out there was construction/accident on the way I thought best. Then there are times where I enter the name of a business and it gives me directions to a similarly named business 1,100 miles away or sometimes in Europe. 😂

Something has happened to auto correct a few months back. I know I'm not the best typer in the world, but it at times has become unusable.

Ok, I’ll give you the accident avoidance and semi-real-time heavy traffic analysis stuff works very well.

But yeah getting results for the same continent is usually quite important 🤣

 

[valkraider]

I am not sure how the maps debate showed up in a HomeKit thread, but…

All of a sudden tonight Siri stopped working with any of my lights.

They still work fine via the Home app, but Siri just keeps saying they are not responding or she couldn’t hear back from them…

I have been on the “ungraded” architecture since the earliest days of 16.2 (although the upgrade was miserable and broken and caused us a lot of trouble). Things had been working mostly fine until tonight.

 

[tobybrut]

I wonder if this is a bit of case-by-case depending on location. Here in Windsor, Ontario area, and even as I've traveled between Windsor and Toronto where my family is, I've not had issues for a long time. I do like the ease of use with CarPlay, Calendar, etc... compared to third party.

It’s probably location. I haven’t had a single issue with Apple Maps in years. Many years ago, it had troubles with a place being on an exact location and would direct me to a place a block or two away, forcing me to do multiple U-turns to find it, but in the last few years, there hasn’t been a single hiccup. Apple Maps is solid for me.

Here’s why I deleted Google Maps and every other Google app on my phone. I haven’t used the app in years but had it installed on my phone. I didn’t realize it had location tracking turned on even though I haven’t used it. I got an email a couple weeks ago detailing every location I’d been in the last two years even though I hadn’t used a single Google app, including maps and roads traveled, plus addresses of many, many stops. This is how much Google knows about you just by downloading their app and logging in once in many years. I’m still not sure how Google tracked me when the app hasn’t been in my phone’s memory since I installed it.

 

[valkraider]

I’m still not sure how Google tracked me when the app hasn’t been in my phone’s memory since I installed it.

Google updated all of their apps and services to use the root domain "Google.com" - so if you have ever enabled location data for one of them you have now enabled it for all of them. So if you say "yes" to location for Google Maps, you are also giving location permission to YouTube, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Translate, etc etc etc.

Also - kind of getting back to the HomeKit topic: Nest is also Google, as is Fitbit, Pixel, Chromecast, and Chromebook - and there are a *lot* of Google products tracking a *lot* of data and integrating it all together...

 

[tobybrut]

Google updated all of their apps and services to use the root domain "Google.com" - so if you have ever enabled location data for one of them you have now enabled it for all of them. So if you say "yes" to location for Google Maps, you are also giving location permission to YouTube, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Translate, etc etc etc.

Also - kind of getting back to the HomeKit topic: Nest is also Google, as is Fitbit, Pixel, Chromecast, and Chromebook - and there are a *lot* of Google products tracking a *lot* of data and integrating it all together...

I only use one of any of those apps/devices you mentioned, YouTube. Who knew a video app would track everywhere you go, including roads taken? The email didn’t just show places visited. It shows blue lines along every road I ever traveled on. YouTube isn’t even listed under location services. I would think that’s a violation of Apple’s rules. This shows us just how little privacy any of us have, even when we actively try to stop them from knowing. They get you somehow.

So much for using HomeKit. Hopefully this upgrade along with Matter support will make HomeKit a much better service.

 

[decypher44]

I just purchased a pair of HomePod minis today and am having problems finishing setup. They are stuck on “Configuring”, and specifically “Calibrating” when looking into further.

I’ve spent 3 hours on the phone with two support techs, and neither one can figure it out. One of the techs admitted that she is aware of several issues with both the new architecture for Home, as well as 16.3. She is supposed to follow up with me tomorrow.

It’s been 8 hours now, and they haven’t budged. I can airplay music to them, but not as a stereo pair.

Anyone else going through the same thing? Anyone get it to work? So frustrating!!

 

[NightFox]

I just purchased a pair of HomePod minis today and am having problems finishing setup. They are stuck on “Configuring”, and specifically “Calibrating” when looking into further.

I’ve spent 3 hours on the phone with two support techs, and neither one can figure it out. One of the techs admitted that she is aware of several issues with both the new architecture for Home, as well as 16.3. She is supposed to follow up with me tomorrow.

It’s been 8 hours now, and they haven’t budged. I can airplay music to them, but not as a stereo pair.

Anyone else going through the same thing? Anyone get it to work? So frustrating!!

You'll get a better response to this if you start a new topic, as this thread is more specific to the new HomeKit architecture, which your HomePod Minis won't be running if they're new as it was previously withdrawn.

 

[decypher44]

You'll get a better response to this if you start a new topic, as this thread is more specific to the new HomeKit architecture, which your HomePod Minis won't be running if they're new as it was previously withdrawn.

I did. Just thought I’d also try here. Also, I have the new architecture, unfortunately. Thanks

 

[WannaGoMac]

I fixed home kit for my measly two lightbulbs, by deleting all automations. So they are voice activated lightbulbs that’s it.

It’s a shame, because in iOS 15 everything worked great. Since iOS 16 everything has been completely useless with automation for me.

Again, I have two measly Wi-Fi lightbulbs and ios 16 HomeKit can’t even deal with this.

 

[valkraider]

FFS, all of a sudden yesterday nearly everything in my house has stopped working.

I have not made a single change to anything.

Everything is running 16.3, and the home is on the new “upgraded” architecture since 16.2.

But it was all working great until yesterday.

Everything is not responding or taking minutes to respond, and not a single scene or automation will work.

 

[twistedpixel8]

FFS, all of a sudden yesterday nearly everything in my house has stopped working.

I have not made a single change to anything.

Everything is running 16.3, and the home is on the new “upgraded” architecture since 16.2.

But it was all working great until yesterday.

Everything is not responding or taking minutes to respond, and not a single scene or automation will work.

I assume you’ve rebooted EVERYTHING from your router(s) to your devices and finally your HomePods and AppleTVs?

 

[Morac]

I assume you’ve rebooted EVERYTHING from your router(s) to your devices and finally your HomePods and AppleTVs?

Yeah under the new HomeKit architecture the home hubs need at least weekly reboots.

 

[twistedpixel8]

Yeah under the new HomeKit architecture the home hubs need at least weekly reboots.

Backing up with Controller, nuking my setup (including factory resetting HomePods) solved that for me. Fresh setup has been live for 2 weeks now and everything is working fine. It’s still slow to get updates from devices (2 or 3 seconds showing “updating…”) but that just seems to be the new architecture if your hubs are HomePods. Also Siri on HomePod is still useless, it can’t fix that (I don’t even think Apple can fix that).

Automations now run when they’re meant to and if I edit them, the changes actually stick without having to reboot the pods.

I’m hoping it remains this solid. I’m terrified to update iOS again in case they break it again.

Also keep in mind that it’s worth removing all bridges and accessories from HomeKit manually *before* you delete the home, otherwise you will have to factory reset a lot of things that can’t be unpaired outside of HomeKit.

 

[twistedpixel8]

I agree 100%, however we all know that's not what they tell you at the Apple store. 😂

“It’s magical. You definitely won’t spend the rest of your life fighting with it to achieve the basic advertised functionality only for it to break again with the next iOS update.”

 

[valkraider]

I assume you’ve rebooted EVERYTHING from your router(s) to your devices and finally your HomePods and AppleTVs?

Some of my stuff is really hard to power cycle - it’s under a lot of AV cabinetry. I mean - you don’t usually design your whole system around needing to power-cycle your Apple TV.



But maybe I will once I get in there to do some other stuff…

 

[DaniMol]

I have about 80 HomeKit connected devices, controlled by 3 (ATV)hubs. Every iOS 16 update made devices disappear and made automations unreliable or broke them.

I was always the first to install new updates, but no I’m very, very hesitant to perform any new iOS/HomeKit updates.
Ever since iOS 13, but to much greater extent iOS 16, updates have ruined my HomeKit experience, without even updating to the new architecture.

Since I’ve figured out how to consistently have the same hub being the connected one (yes, apparently there is a way) HomeKit has been working stable and reliable for me.
For the foreseeable future I will stick to iOS 16.1.1

 

[Morac]

HomeKit works for me with the exception of HKSV recording. It will only record if I set it to always record and then reboot my hubs. If I set it to stream or off though, it will no longer work if set back to record. It’s been like that since 16.2.

I really hope 16.4 fixes that, but I’m assuming it won’t.