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Make HomePod Alert You to Smoke Alarms

This has worked 3x for us. One time was my water heater trying to tell me something wasn't right. But since you can "listen in" when it happens, I was able to confirm that it wasn't smoke alarm. And since it was the basement homepod that "heard" it, I knew what it was.

One time, it was just a false alarm from a reasonably new smoke alarm. (It's been replaced.)

One time though, I was at work when I got the alert. I remote-listened in and heard the smoke alarm. I had my neighbor go over and see if she smelled smoke. She did and called the fire department. We had a dog and a cat, so this was really really important to get ahead of. It turned out that my wife had been toasting a bagel when her ride showed up early and she forgot about the bagel. The toaster oven failed to turn off and maybe would have actually started a house fire if this had not been caught. (Maybe it would have just stayed in the toaster oven.. never will be sure.) But I highly recommend turning this feature on.

Another thing I like to point out is that we have number pad deadbolts. If it weren't for that (or smart locks) the FD would have had to break in. In the end, no harm was done, and we bought our local FD a gift card to a local meat shop.
 
FWIW, for the people that are saying they tested it and it hasn't worked, I think the alarm has to be sounding for a bit (30 seconds.... a minute??) before it will alert you. I don't think just hitting the "test" button on a smoke alarm will trigger it.
 
brett_x said:
FWIW, for the people that are saying they tested it and it hasn't worked, I think the alarm has to be sounding for a bit (30 seconds.... a minute??) before it will alert you. I don't think just hitting the "test" button on a smoke alarm will trigger it.
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BigBlur said:
Yes, it detected the alarm going off on my UPS a few months ago.

How long are you running the alarm for? In my testing, the alarm needs to be going for at least 30 seconds before my HomePod mini alerts me.
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Finally got it to work. Turned it off/on, ran a test on YouTube and at about 45 seconds it shot me an alert. Success!
 
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jbachandouris said:
Well maybe I’d try that if the Network error went away. They both (2) let me play music through them but can’t even access temperature.

Tried factory resetting and repairing. Deleted home and all devices. Created new home and re added them. Apple TV has no problem and it’s connected to the exact same network.
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I recently saw the network error on my original HomePods. It was weird because the HomePods could play music, start timers, report weather, etc. I just couldn't control them in the Home app's device panel (although I could mess with the device settings(?)). Also I have a few HomePod minis that were fine the entire time fwiw.

So I tried fiddling with the HomePods wifi settings (which were fine to begin with as far as I could see), to no avail. The problem went away for me when I changed the home hub to a different device than the "automatic selection" setting was choosing (an Apple TV 4th gen, running tvOS 26.2).

Turning off "automatic selection" in Home Settings -> Home Hubs & Bridges revealed a list of devices that could act as active hubs. From there I selected one of my HomePod minis and the network errors disappeared. I figured I must have jostled it enough to fix it and re-enabled the automatic selection setting. Shortly after that the network errors reappeared on the HomePod OGs. All was fine after manually setting the active hub once again.
 
TFrank2 said:
I’ve had this enabled for ages and tried to test it a few times to no avail. Anyone here have any luck with it?
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I would never rely on Apple for something as important as a smoke alarm. Their software is ridden with bugs and we have no idea if there is actually anybody testing and fixing bugs in this area.
 
Great feature since google killed Nest.

Anyone have experience with other wired and wireless systems that work with HomeKit or Homebridge.
 
Worked for me last night, had a smoke alarm go off while making my blow torch naan - my partner and I both got an alert to advise we had a smoke alarm heard via HomePod. First time this has worked for us, did not even know was a feature
 
Are these article generated by AI just to fill some gaps because there is no 26.3 yet available and can’t do 12 articles about what’s new and then 15 articles about “one day with 26.3, two days with 26.3”?

The feature has been available for years, also on first generation HomePod.
I had it enabled for years and it gave me a notification once. Consider that I trigger the smoke alarm at least once a week because it’s right where my kitchen is and just toasting a slice of bread triggers it.

So it’s another Apple style feature that doesn’t work.
 
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TFrank2 said:
I’ve had this enabled for ages and tried to test it a few times to no avail. Anyone here have any luck with it?
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Yes, it works but doesn't discriminate perfectly... We were away and started receiving alarm warnings, causing us to freak out. My wife's son was home, maybe. We called him, but nothing initially. We finally got him. He was oblivious — just watching TV — and we were in disbelief that nothing was happening. It happened again, sending another alert, and it turned out that the HomePod was detecting the alarm in some sci-fi movie soundtrack. So after freaking out, we had a good laugh!
 
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nt5672 said:
I would never rely on Apple for something as important as a smoke alarm. Their software is ridden with bugs and we have no idea if there is actually anybody testing and fixing bugs in this area.
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Same, more of a nice to have for me. My Nest & security system are the primary alert methods
 
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Anytime I’ve tested any of my smoke detectors (various makes and models as they’ve all been periodically changed over the years) this feature has never, ever worked
 
I’ve had to disable this on all but one of my HomePods.

My home alarm beeps for 30 seconds (even when enabled via HomeKit) when setting it for “Away” and sets off the detector.

I’d be less annoyed if my home alarm wasn’t integrated with HK, but HK literally knows I just enabled my alarm so why can’t I disable the listening for 30 seconds every time the alarm is set to “away?”
 
I honestly don't use my HomePod mini for music. But this feature is why I still have it in my house, and it beats having to purchased additional sensors for smoke detector notifications. It works since I have triggers the alarm making steaks.
 
Unintentionally found this feature. We were out and got an alert that there was an alarm in the house. We didn’t even know this feature existed. Turned out it was our fridge door that was open and beeping so we turned around and came home to close it. Pretty cool feature.
 
xboxphanatic said:
I was glad it ended up being a false alarm, but it made me thankful for the feature in the event of a real emergency.
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Apple warns that the feature should not be relied upon "in circumstances where users may be harmed or injured," or in "high-risk or emergency situation."
 
podycust said:
It’s been available on HomePods for years dunno why suddenly Mac rumors are posting it like it’s something new I turned it on years ago
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It requires the new home architecture, I just updated and it prompted me with the feature. I have an og HomePod tho so the article seems to be wrong which devices it supports
 
letsGoOn2 said:
I recently saw the network error on my original HomePods. It was weird because the HomePods could play music, start timers, report weather, etc. I just couldn't control them in the Home app's device panel (although I could mess with the device settings(?)). Also I have a few HomePod minis that were fine the entire time fwiw.

So I tried fiddling with the HomePods wifi settings (which were fine to begin with as far as I could see), to no avail. The problem went away for me when I changed the home hub to a different device than the "automatic selection" setting was choosing (an Apple TV 4th gen, running tvOS 26.2).

Turning off "automatic selection" in Home Settings -> Home Hubs & Bridges revealed a list of devices that could act as active hubs. From there I selected one of my HomePod minis and the network errors disappeared. I figured I must have jostled it enough to fix it and re-enabled the automatic selection setting. Shortly after that the network errors reappeared on the HomePod OGs. All was fine after manually setting the active hub once again.
Click to expand...
Did nothing. Just tried. Temperature feature works but still network error.
 
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