Andrew O'Hara
Apple's HomeKit got a dedicated section of the WWDC keynote. With iOS 15 installed on our test device, we walk you through all of the new features you can expect to see in the fall.
Siri improvements
Be still our hearts. Apple has finally delivered one of the most oft-asked requests for HomeKit control. That would be the ability to ask Siri to control devices in the future. With this update, you can ask Siri to control your accessories at a certain time.
Here are a few examples. You can ask Siri to turn off the bedroom lights in 45 minutes. You could ask Siri to turn on the kitchen lights in 20 minutes. Or perhaps tell Siri to turn off your living room TV when you leave.
This affords much more natural conversation with Siri and will be a massive step in improving usability. We've yearned for this feature year after year and it is finally a possibility with iOS 15.
HomeKey
Apple released an updated version of CarKey at WWDC '21, but Apple also brought HomeKit to the Wallet app. With a supported HomeKit lock, you will be able to approach your door and use a virtual key in the Wallet app to unlock your door.
By moving your house key to your Wallet alongside your credit cards, loyalty cards, car keys, and ID, HomeKey keeps all your essentials in one place. You also won't have to open the Home app or ask Siri to unlock your door for you. It will appear on your lock screen like other Wallet passes, and you can authenticate and unlock your door seamlessly.
This feature is also coming to Apple Watch with watchOS 8.
HomeKit Secure Video
With iOS 15, Users can expect their HomeKit camera to identify not only people, vehicles, and animals, but now packages too.
HomeKit Secure Video gets a boost with iOS 15 thanks in part to the introduction of iCloud+. There are a few features baked into iCloud+. While it retains the same price tag as before, users on the 2TB plan are bumped from five HomeKit Secure Video cameras to unlimited.
Siri-enabled accessories
For the first time, Siri will be available on a non-Apple device. Apple is allowing HomeKit device manufacturers to create Siri-enabled devices. Users will still need to have a HomePod or HomePod mini in their home but otherwise can communicate with Siri through these third-party devices.
Ecobee was the first company to pledge support with a firmware update rolling out later this year to the Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control.
Apple Watch
Apple's Home app for Apple Watch has often appeared like an afterthought. It only displayed your favorite items and wasn't great to navigate. Thanks to iOS 15 and watchOS 8, users will now get a full-featured Apple Watch app for their HomeKit accessories.
The Intercom button is right at the top to quickly communicate with anyone in the home. Below that button is a series of status buttons to let you know the status of various sensors. Then Apple will intelligently, via machine learning, populate a series of scenes and devices it thinks you may need. Following that are all of the rooms in your home.
Each room will have its sensors atop the view and all the individual devices for you to control. Users can view cameras and can use two-way audio on those that support it — right from Apple Watch.
Apple TV
For Apple TV, Apple added improvements to HomeKit cameras. All cameras can be viewed at once in a grid view, allowing an encompassing glance at your home. When viewing a specific camera, you can toggle accessories on or off.
If you are looking at your porch camera and see someone approaching, you could turn on the lights for them as one example.
Matter
Project Connected Home over IP — officially renamed Matter — will be fully supported with iOS 15. Apple has more to share as far as the development of these devices, but it looks promising.
Apple says any device certified to work with Matter will be available right within the Home app and controlled via Siri. Over time, this should spur a greater number of supported smart home devices for HomeKit users.
Coming this fall
Apple is set to release iOS 15 to the masses this fall as a free software update for iPhone users. The changes in HomeKit represent just a small subset of countless new features that will be making their debut.
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7 Comments
"Hands"...or "Hands on"...? Asking for a friend.
Will HomeKit Secure Video support a daily review? The one feature I use all the time with my CircleView 2 cameras is what’s called a “Daily Brief.” It takes snippets of the major motion events of a particular time period and compresses them into a one minute video. It catches, for example, critters that visit my back yard at night and then I use the timestamp from the review to view the actual recording for a more detailed look. Without the Daily Review, I would have to manually scan all the nights events to catch any action. It now is the main reason (since now HSV will allow unlimited cameras with the 2TB plan) I have not switched my Circle Views to HSV.
Will cellular enabled Apple Watch’s using Family Setup finally get a functional HomeKit App? Right now my son can’t do anything with our HomeKit devices because he doesn’t have an iPhone, just the cellular Apple Watch.
HSV is pretty useless with battery powered cameras like the eufy system. It just sucks the life out of them. I tried with HSV then had to give up and reverted to the native eufy app.