#Home control iphone software#

Today, there are fewer than 1,000 HomeKit-compatible devices. When Matter arrives later this year, many more devices will be able to work in HomeKit. The old Home app (on an iPhone SE) and the new Home app (on an iPhone 13).Īll this effort is clearly motivated by the impending launch of Matter, the new smart home standard developed by Apple along with Google, Amazon, Samsung SmartThings, and many others.

#Home control iphone software#

Which is to say, it’s a software design that looks good and works well that’s not something I could say about the old Home app. While on the surface, the redesign is mainly aesthetic (Pretty icons! Redesigned buttons! New wallpaper!), it’s Apple’s aesthetic. I’ve been testing the new Home app on an iPhone 13 since the iOS 16 public beta was released on July 11th (it’s also coming to the iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch).

It feels like Apple is finally taking its little smart home project seriously. But with iOS 16 arriving this fall, the app is getting a ground-up redesign. Even when the Home app finally arrived with iOS 10 in 2016, it rarely saw any significant updates, and progress felt painfully slow. Apple didn’t want to make an app to control its HomeKit home automation software framework it didn’t release one until two years after HomeKit launched. Apple’s Home app has always felt like an afterthought.