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HomeKit HomeKit and any OS 26. What is new?

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phillyman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 17, 2008
203
114
Hi All,

Just curious, I’ve done some basic searches but I haven’t been able to see the keynote. Was anything announced for HomeKit? The only thing I saw was that they would update threads protocol (I think 1.4?) for thread supported devices. But did they announce anything else?

I mean last year all they really added (that I can remember) was maybe robot vacuum support? HomeKit is buggy and my basic setup for mostly thermostats and lights still struggles.

Did they decide to hold back stuff for their rumored HomePod/iMac G4 lookalike device?

Or did I miss something?
Philly

Edit: changed "added" to "announced" to be more precise
 
Last edited:
phillyman said:
Hi All,

Just curious, I’ve done some basic searches but I haven’t been able to see the keynote. Was anything announced for HomeKit? The only thing I saw was that they would update threads protocol (I think 1.4?) for thread supported devices. But did they announce anything else?

I mean last year all they really added (that I can remember) was maybe robot vacuum support? HomeKit is buggy and my basic setup for mostly thermostats and lights still struggles.

Did they decide to hold back stuff for their rumored HomePod/iMac G4 lookalike device?

Or did I miss something?
Philly

Edit: changed "added" to "announced" to be more precise
Click to expand...
The word HomeKit or Apple Home wasn’t even mentioned in the Keynote lol. Apparently there’s something being added to save on electricity (see link below) and a Redditor found that if an accessory goes “No Response” the accessory tile will show for how long the accessory has not been responding. Other than that, can’t find anything else.

9to5mac.com

Apple enables smart home apps to cut your electricity bills - 9to5Mac

A new Apple framework makes it easy for developers of smart home apps to help cut your electricity bills. While...
9to5mac.com 9to5mac.com
 
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Itinj24 said:
The word HomeKit or Apple Home wasn’t even mentioned in the Keynote lol. Apparently there’s something being added to save on electricity (see link below) and a Redditor found that if an accessory goes “No Response” the accessory tile will show for how long the accessory has not been responding. Other than that, can’t find anything else.

9to5mac.com

Apple enables smart home apps to cut your electricity bills - 9to5Mac

A new Apple framework makes it easy for developers of smart home apps to help cut your electricity bills. While...
9to5mac.com 9to5mac.com
Click to expand...
thank you for info. I find it surprising considering how smart homes were a big deal a few years ago. But for most adopters it can be buggy from time to time. When it works its awesome but reliability is the name of the game
 
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phillyman said:
thank you for info. I find it surprising considering how smart homes were a big deal a few years ago. But for most adopters it can be buggy from time to time. When it works its awesome but reliability is the name of the game
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, it seems that the smart home is taking a back seat to AI now. Every year, less and less is being mentioned for HomeKit and this year it was zilch. I only watch the KeyNote live for HomeKit stuff so needless to say, I was extremely disappointed in that aspect. It’s not like HomeKit is running at peak performance. Plenty of room for improvement there. I can think of 100 things off the top of my head that could be added to improve the user experience… pull down to refresh, new accessory icons, new categories (like major appliances that were introduced with Matter 1.3 other than just robot vacs), more granular guest and resident permissions, more robust automations without having to to leverage Shortcuts, 2K or 4K video streaming/recording (c’mon Apple, it’s 2025 FFS lol), etc…

I too am hoping that when they’re ready to announce the rumored HomePad, it comes with a dedicated KeyNote carrying some vast upgrades and improvements to the Apple Home. Throw in the AirPod Pro 3 and AirTag 2 into that KeyNote too.
 
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Oh I fully agree and am in the same boat. Some of them are just head scratchers. When they introduced guests I was like perfect. Give guest access that is time limited AND only on local network ... DONE .. Now when I have guests I have to give them resident access so they can change thermostat or do basic light functions. AND YES I know they can just use the switch but by the same token why NOT offer some of these functionalities. The dropped connections etc could use improvements and like you said hundreds more.'

Like you I hope that the rumors of an emphasis for smart homes is true and they will get into when they show off their new hardware that should help "relaunch" homekit/home.

Until then, we hope for the best,
Philly
 
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