Apple's Airport Express reappears in Home app in iOS 12 beta

The Home app is once more spotting the AirPort Express in iOS 12, raising the hopes for devotees of the now cancelled hardware.

AppleInsider was able to verify the appearance of the 2012 redesign of the AirPort Express in the Home app after three attempts. However, when tapped, the device is not added as a HomeKit peripheral — but visibly fails unlike the first time around.

The last update to the AirPort express was in December 2017, for the KRACK exploits from earlier in the year. AirPlay 2 wasn't in testing at the time, with the AirPort patch happening well after the first round of testing of the technology, and before the abortive second round with the iOS 11.3 betas prior to its removal very near the end of the cycle. The update prior to the KRACK fix to the AirPort Express was delivered in December 2016.

The appearance of the device in the iOS 12 beta is the second time that it has appeared as a possible HomeKit accessory and AirPlay 2 target, and done nothing when selected. It was pulled about two weeks after the first iOS 11.4 beta.

Since that appearance, Apple has killed off the AirPort line in its entirety.

At present, again, the appearance of the old hardware appears to be nothing more than an aberration of the testing process — but the fact that it appears at all rekindles the old mystery. It is obviously related somehow to the device's AirPlay functionality, as the the AirPort Express has been a playback target for some time, since when it was originally called AirTunes.

Once again, other AirPlay-compatible devices were tested after the re-appearance, with none appearing in the Home application.

21 Comments

macxpress 5910 comments · 16 Years

About 6 years ago

Don't get your hopes up....

Mike Wuerthele 6901 comments · 8 Years

macxpress said:

Don't get your hopes up....

I'm not holding my breath.

libertyandfree 189 comments · 11 Years

Seems strange that Apple would abandon the WiFi home router market when it‘s entering a new phase of expensive mutisite transmitters which requires little user configuration. I would think Apple could take a huge chunk of this market. I have an AirPort Extreme and it’s the best WiFi router I have ever owned.

racerhomie3 1264 comments · 7 Years

libertyandfree said:

Seems strange that Apple would abandon the WiFi home router market when it‘s entering a new phase of expensive mutisite transmitters which requires little user configuration. I would think Apple could take a huge chunk of this market. I have an AirPort Extreme and it’s the best WiFi router I have ever owned.

They can never take a huge chunk of the market.Most people don’t even know routers exist. They either use one given to them by their Internet provider or buy a cheap one which is worked $10-$15 .

ted13 65 comments · 22 Years

racerhomie3 said:

libertyandfree said:

Seems strange that Apple would abandon the WiFi home router market when it‘s entering a new phase of expensive mutisite transmitters which requires little user configuration. I would think Apple could take a huge chunk of this market. I have an AirPort Extreme and it’s the best WiFi router I have ever owned.

They can never take a huge chunk of the market.Most people don’t even know routers exist. They either use one given to them by their Internet provider or buy a cheap one which is worked $10-$15 .

This is true, but nonetheless Apple’s decision doesn’t make sense: why would they be heavily emphasizing their security, and then dropping the one consistently secure and regularly updated for security router out there, and pretty much guaranteeing that all their customers will end up with far more vulnerable routers, many of them a complete pain to use, etc. etc.

And even so, they could upgrade the existing AirPort Express to AirPlay 2 - giving their most loyal customers something that no other vendor supports: a realiable wireless audio feed that can be connected to practically any receiver in existence via a TOSLink cable...