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HomePod 16.3 Software Beta Adds Humidity and Temperature Sensing to HomePod mini, Find My, Audio Tuning and More

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Apple today released a new HomePod 16.3 software beta, which will accompany the iOS 16.3, iPadOS 16.3, tvOS 16.3, watchOS 9.3, and macOS Ventura 12.3 releases. The update adds support for the new HomePod and HomePod mini features that were announced today alongside the surprise introduction of the second-generation HomePod.

HomePodandMini-feature-green.jpg

Installing the 16.3 HomePod software adds support for temperature and humidity sensing, both on the HomePod mini and on the second-generation HomePod.

As we highlighted this morning, the HomePod mini has a dormant temperature and humidity sensor that Apple is finally activating, allowing temperature and humidity settings to be used for home automation and device activation purposes.

Ambient sounds have been remastered to be more immersive and can be added to scenes, automations, and alarms in the Home app, and recurring Home automations can be set up using Siri commands. Apple has also added a unique confirmation tone that will play when smart home requests are enacted for accessories that are located in a different room or that do not show a visible change. Find My integration for HomePod also lets you ask Siri for the location of friends and family.

For the first and second-generation larger HomePod models, optimized audio tuning provides improved clarity for spoken content like podcasts and audiobooks, and on the first-generation HomePod, there are updated volume controls for more granular adjustments at lower volumes. Apple's full release notes for the update are below.
HomePod software version 16.3 includes support for new features for your HomePod. This update also includes bug fixes and stability improvements.

- Temperature and humidity sensing measures your indoor climate with HomePod (2nd generation) and HomePod mini
- Remastered ambient sounds are more immersive and can now be added to scenes, automations, and alarms in the Home app
- Find My on HomePod now enables you to ask Siri for the location of friends and family, if they have shared it with you Recurring Home automations can be set up using just your voice
- Siri confirmation tone will now play to indicate when smart home requests are completed for accessories that may not visibly show a change or are located in a different room
- Audio tuning optimizes spoken content such as podcasts for even greater clarity on HomePod (2nd generation) and HomePod (1st generation)
- Updated volume controls on HomePod (1st generation) give you more granular adjustments at lower volumes
Click to expand...
The HomePod 16.3 update is set to be released to the public sometime next week, and it will be able to be installed on HomePods using devices that are running iOS 16.3, iPadOS 16.3, or macOS Ventura 13.2. The updates will bring new features to existing HomePods, and enable features for the second-generation HomePod that launches on February 3.

Article Link: HomePod 16.3 Software Beta Adds Humidity and Temperature Sensing to HomePod mini, Find My, Audio Tuning and More
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/18/homepod-16-3-software-beta/
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Reactions: amartinez1660
Cool, I'm excited for the humidity and temperature sensing additions to my minis.

Used to have baseboard heating so I could use Siri to see and adjust the temperature, now I moved somewhere with central heating so it's no longer smart, but still nonetheless a cool stat to see.

Humidity will be cool for plants I guess? Now I'm going to be annoyed until I find ways to use both sensors in my HomePods haha
 
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Reactions: _Spinn_, compwiz1202, Apple247 and 6 others
This all sounds great. Looking forward to picking one up on what will hopefully be frequent sales.

Also I hope they allow you to just see the temperature. I would also love to see third party app support so I can use Audible and Overcast.

If they get this right I can see myself picking up more Minis for more rooms.
 
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I wonder why it laid dormant for so long... I'm struggling to think of a reason why this might have been hard to implement. Maybe they just forgot the hardware was there?
 
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Analog Kid said:
I wonder why it laid dormant for so long... I'm struggling to think of a reason why this might have been hard to implement. Maybe they just forgot the hardware was there?
Click to expand...
Probably has to do with support for THREAD / MATTER. No point in knowing what the temperature and humidity is if you can't set an action to actually do something with that information. Now with most smart devices conforming to THREAD / MATTER, anything can talk and control anything
 
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Reactions: centauratlas, amartinez1660 and Amadeus71
Thank goodness we well finally be able to control ambient sounds from scenes! That’s worth the update alone…. Especially if HomeKit works, wait..?
 
jozero said:
Probably has to do with support for THREAD / MATTER. No point in knowing what the temperature and humidity is if you can't set an action to actually do something with that information. Now with most smart devices conforming to THREAD / MATTER, anything can talk and control anything
Click to expand...
Maybe, but I have other temp and humidity sensors that worked before thread support…
 
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Just ordered two! Woot, have been waiting for them to bring back the original, ordered a few minis in between that time that I’ll place around the house at this point. Can’t wait to hear what the new ones sound like.

Just wondering where we can see the new sensors in HomePod mini as I’ve updated to 16.3 now for all of them but I’m not seeing any humidity info in individual rooms.

Edit: Showed up after a while, apparently after updating they need a while to calibrate the sensors.
 
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MacRumors said:
Apple has also added a unique confirmation tone that will play when smart home requests are enacted for accessories that are located in a different room or that do not show a visible change
Click to expand...
So every time an automation runs it will make a sound?? Without a home log, good luck figuring out what it is
 
I'm looking forward to knowing the humidity in rooms where I have HomePod minis. It would be terrific if this information could be used to inform the humidistat in my ecobee. In the future, It would be amazing if Apple produced a HomePod as a room sensor for not just temperature and humidity, but motion.

I would love to simplify my smart home with combining more into singular, always-on devices like a light switch. I imagine in the future, with Matter all of this tech could be integrated into switches. How amazing would it be if motion, occupancy, temperature, light, and humidity were in a switch that had Siri built into it? This was what ecobee tried to accomplish with the Switch+ and it's Alexa intergration, but they never were able to activate the temperature sensors in them due to the heat of the device throwing off the readings.
 
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Reactions: ConcernedCitizen
That’s so cool, I don’t use my HomePod mini often but it’s a cool little gadget to just have there do I can tell Siri to do things

It’s a surprisingly decent speaker too but alas I’m never alone so I really have to go for headphones 90% of the time
 
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Reactions: Apple247
I installed the 16.3 RC on my HomePod mini and I’m not seeing a temperature anywhere from it.
 
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