Update your Home app today or you may lose access to your smart home devices.

Ensuring HomeKit compatibility for smart home products is now very much easier to achieve. Apple has agreed to accept Matter certification for all new devices, without requiring additional testing before granting the Works With Apple Home badge.…

It feels like the year has flown by—just yesterday, we were looking forward to 2024, and now, we are gearing up for the holiday season. For many of us, Christmas brings a chance to add extra magic to our homes. My first foray into HomeKit was automating…

HomeKit accessories are always near the top of my holiday wishlist every year. I love making my home as smart...

HomeKit, Apple’s smart home framework, is great most of the time, and awfully frustrating when things go wrong. This new iOS app wants to change that. more…

HomeKit Library for the Arduino-ESP32. Contribute to HomeSpan/HomeSpan development by creating an account on GitHub.

Apple released iOS 18.4 to everyone this week, and it comes with a big upgrade to the Home app. With iOS 18.4, users can now add robot vacuums to HomeKit for the first time thanks to the Matter smart home standard. Here are the best robot vacuums compatible with HomeKit in iOS 18.4… more…

Crafting a smart home ecosystem can be tricky. There are a lot of product categories, and it can be hard to know which ones to prioritize. Here are some of my go-to smart home recommendations for outfitting your smart home setup … and they all integrate with Apple’s HomeKit platform. more…

Video doorbells are one of the most popular ways to start building a smart home, and Apple users have a great option that works with HomeKit Secure Video. The takes that foundation and adds even more. It records in 2K (not supported by iCloud), supports HomeKit Secure Video, and doubles as a smart home hub with Matter and Zigbee built in. more…

The fifth tvOS 26 beta changed several "HomeKit" references to "Apple Home" in the Settings app on all Apple TV models compatible with the update. For example, Israeli website The Verifier reported that the "AirPlay and HomeKit" menu on the Apple TV is now labeled "AirPlay and Apple Home." MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris spotted other examples, such as the one below. Before:Your Apple TV won't connect with iCloud and HomeKit until you add a new default user.After:Your Apple TV won't connect with iCloud and Apple Home until you add a new default user.As a refresher, Apple Home refers to Apple's overall smart home app and ecosystem, whereas HomeKit has been the name of the company's underlying smart home accessory framework since 2014. Of the two names, HomeKit sounds more technical. Does this serve as evidence that Apple is slowly phasing out its HomeKit brand in favor of Apple Home, or did Apple simply realize that Apple Home was the better wording in these instances? It could be the latter, but it would not be surprising if Apple eventually did retire the HomeKit name in favor of the more generic Apple Home for both its smart home app and framework, especially as the company prepares to launch an all-new home hub. For now, there are still plenty of references to both HomeKit and Apple Home across Apple's website and software platforms. One day, though, perhaps the HomeKit name could be folded into Apple Home entirely for streamlined branding.Related Roundup: Apple TVTag: HomeKitBuyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)Related Forum: Apple TV and Home Theater This article, "tvOS 26 Changes 'HomeKit' References to 'Apple Home' in Settings App" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums

HomePass is a must-have app for HomeKit and Matter users, making it easy to keep track of all your accessories. This week, developer Aaron Pearce has unveiled HomePass 2, a complete rewrite of the app that adds several excellent new features for HomeKit…