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HomeKit in iOS 18 Includes Guest Access, Hands-Free Unlock, Electricity Usage Integration and More

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HomeKit and the Home app weren't focused on much during Apple's WWDC keynote, but there are several new features that are coming in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.

home-app-ios-18-features.jpg

With Customize Access, you can manage how and when people can access your HomeKit devices like garage openers, alarm systems, and door locks. You can create guest schedules and specific accessories that your guests can use, limiting times that your home is accessible. A home hub is required for this feature.

You can enable Express Mode for unlocking door locks automatically as you approach with an iPhone or an Apple Watch, so you don't need to tap your device to the lock to get it to open. You'll need an iPhone or Apple Watch with an Ultra Wideband chip for this to work, along with an Ultra Wideband lock.

Later this year, Apple plans to add support for robot vacuum cleaners. The Home app will support the core functionality of robot vacuums, like power control, cleaning mode, vacuum, mop, and charge status. The vacuums can also be used in automations and scenes, and respond to Siri requests.

Apple is adding electricity usage integration into the Home app, but it's only available to select Pacific Gas and Electric Company customers in the United States to begin. With this feature, users can see their home electricity usage from the Home app, along with rate plan.

Electricity usage integration is coming later in 2024, and Apple also plans to add other providers in the future.

Article Link: HomeKit in iOS 18 Includes Guest Access, Hands-Free Unlock, Electricity Usage Integration and More
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/06/10/ios-18-homekit-features/
When will HomeKit add the option for when I say "My bedroom", it can differentiate between the different bedrooms in the house?

Parents: "My bedroom" = Master bedroom
Child 1: "My bedroom" = Child 1's bedroom
Child 2: "My bedroom" = Child 2's bedroom
etc.

Example: "Turn [my] bedroom lights off." and it knows exactly which bedroom I'm referencing.
 
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So can I limit what my kids have access to? I haven’t given them HomeKit access yet because I know they’ll end up doing something stupid like opening and closing the garage door on accident, including when I’m unloading the car and the trunk is up. Or unlocking our door from control center when we’re out of town. Or messing with our bedroom lights or sprinklers.
 
Ok, this is good stuff! I would love to have my door open when I approach it! Is this feature available in the 1st beta?
 
xizdun said:
When will HomeKit add the option for when I say "My bedroom", it can differentiate between the different bedrooms in the house?

Parents: "My bedroom" = Master bedroom
Child 1: "My bedroom" = Child 1's bedroom
Child 2: "My bedroom" = Child 2's bedroom
etc.

Example: "Turn [my] bedroom lights off." and it knows exactly which bedroom I'm referencing.
Click to expand...
I thought that’s why they gave the option of creating rooms with any name you want. Name a room Timmy or Sally, whatever, add devices. “Hey Siri, turn the lights on in Timmy‘s room.”, they turn on.

If not, https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/how-to-set-up-homepod-multi-user-voice-recognition/, may work if you have HomePods. First option seems easier to me though.
 
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Robot vacuum support will be great! I am in the supported PG&E region, and it’s pretty cool to be able to see my home energy usage. I signed into my account and verified it’s my account. I see my energy usage going back to January 2022, and as recent as yesterday’s usage. The electricity rate tile is stuck on “loading rate data”. Will I do much with this data? I don’t really know, but if my data is being collected anyway I might as well have access to it.
 
Let me guess any smart lock out today lacks UWB. Guess that means Schlage will come out Encode Plus Max Ultra Pro lock.
 
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This looks bad!

Where the heck is home key sharing? You know… the feature they announced a few YEARS back?!

Got the Schlage locks specifically for that reason.

Sidenote: I want to deliver my condolences to anyone with a Vision Pro. I mean… what have they been doing? Just because they started WWDC with VisionOS, does not mean it was not basically skipped over.

Back to the topic…

HomeKit should not be this hard! Unless they don’t really care to support it anyways.

I have a feeling Steve would be cutting the fat off these lines.

We need more competition. Google and Amazon are no-go’s for me any my home.

Apple and their OEMs can’t even deliver a decent HKSV Doorbell! 🤬 2k+ Resolution HKSV video… where is it?

This should be a clear indication on where things stand with Apple and HK.

—

Two down votes?? 😂🤣. I only expressed the truth of things that can’t be debated.

1. HKSV Doorbells = Suck

2. Homekey Sharing keys without giving the whole home access. = DOA (We were shown to be able to text keys)

3. VisionOS got boned, and in fact, possibly the worst WWDC across the board in years.

Less time showing the campus, jumping out of planes, and trying to be cool please. This activity was called “Smoke and Mirrors” in the past.

4. As far as the comment about Steve, I highly doubt he would be cool with the antics and half baked products under the current umbrella.

Seriously no excuse for the state of HK at this point.

91 devices here

I would LOVE to hear a defense for this.
 
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Electricity usage integration for only specific suppliers is a terrible idea. Surely they realise it's impossible for them to manually integrate each supplier in the world? Support for some open data format that everyone can support is surely a far better idea?
 
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Now, if it would only differentiate negative (below freezing) temperatures from positive ones..
“Hey siri, what’s the temperature outside?”
“It’s 7.2 degrees!”

I’ll tell you, -7.2℃ is pretty far from 7.2℃. But to Siri/Homekit, they’re the same.
 
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sgreen314 said:
I thought that’s why they gave the option of creating rooms with any name you want. Name a room Timmy or Sally, whatever, add devices. “Hey Siri, turn the lights on in Timmy‘s room.”, they turn on.

If not, https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/how-to-set-up-homepod-multi-user-voice-recognition/, may work if you have HomePods. First option seems easier to me though.
Click to expand...
I think the OP is asking about context-aware requests, so it know's that if Sally says 'my room', it mean's Sally's room, whereas if Timmy says 'my room' it means his room. It makes for more natural commands.
 
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Nevermind locks, get the UWB & AI activated on the HomePods and make it contextually aware. Can't count the number of times I'll be in the living room watching something & I'll say something like, Hey Siri play.... meaning for the Apple TV I'm watching, the phones pick it up & start playing music through the phone, or Siri turn something off & it doesn't know the only thing that's on.

I'm hoping there's more updates to Home than this.
 
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McScooby said:
Nevermind locks, get the UWB & AI activated on the HomePods and make it contextually aware. Can't count the number of times I'll be in the living room watching something & I'll say something like, Hey Siri play.... meaning for the Apple TV I'm watching, the phones pick it up & start playing music through the phone, or Siri turn something off & it doesn't know the only thing that's on.

I'm hoping there's more updates to Home than this.
Click to expand...

It’s really disappointing. I personally need to stop waiting for improvements and putting any more funds into this platform until proven otherwise.
 
My stairs are right inside my front door. So are we saying that every time I run upstairs or downstairs my front door is going to unlock?

Or if I’m out mowing the front lawn the door will unlock when I approach? Too much automation.

Personally, I love express mode triggered by just waving my Apple Watch near my front door lock. I can do it with full hands. Super easy but still intentional.
 
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NightFox said:
I think the OP is asking about context-aware requests, so it know's that if Sally says 'my room', it mean's Sally's room, whereas if Timmy says 'my room' it means his room. It makes for more natural commands.
Click to expand...
Yes, and that’s why I put a link to information about the voice recognition on HomePods. “may“ was the operative word in that conditional sentence. As I don’t have multiple people with me to test it out right now, I wouldn’t personally know.

The Apple webpage regarding this particular feature lists some things you can do with it alongside “Personal Requests”: but also just notes “and from other apps you’ve installed that work with Siri”. HomeKit?? Differentiating by different “my’s”?? Who knows!!

Hence, offering the easier option of just naming every bedroom to a particular person. Other than that, if the “Personal Requests” function doesn’t work for this particular use case, submit feedback to Apple requesting that initial feature.

Now, if OP was having his children use his iPhone, and expecting his personal iPhone to differentiate the different “my’s” for HomeKit requests, well that’s a whole different can of worms!
 
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