With iOS 16.4 in 2023, Apple introduced a new architecture for its Home system, prompting users to upgrade in the Home app. The new version of the Home architecture requires an Apple TV or a HomePod—but not the previously supported iPad—to act as a home hub to control accessories remotely, share control with others, and automate accessories.
The multi-year grace period is now over, with support for the previous version of Apple Home ending on 10 February 2026. If you haven’t upgraded yet, you may be prompted to update or be automatically upgraded. Remember that if you’ve been using an iPad as a home hub, you’ll need an Apple TV or HomePod instead. Devices that aren’t using at least iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, macOS 13.1 Ventura, tvOS 16.2, or watchOS 9.2 will lose access to the updated home until you upgrade their operating systems. If you experience any problems after upgrading, try restarting all your home hubs.
The original and current Home upgrade notices
I can’t remember exactly when I approved the upgrade, but I didn’t notice any change in how HomeKit works for us. Apple now says the new Home architecture is required to support guest access, robot vacuum cleaners, and Activity History in the Home app.
I never saw a reason to use Home (even though I have TV), but it seems the change was more about increasing sales of the TV and Home Pod. When there are millions if not billions of iPads in use, why restrict their usage this way?
Please stop with the broken-record interpretation of everything being a money grab by Apple.
The new Home architecture was a low-level technical change with the only downside being that the iPad no longer being supported as a hub. Since iPads are not always on, like the Apple TV and HomePod, they didn’t make much sense as hubs anyway.
Apple clearly telegraphed the move and gave users more over two years to tap a button that make no noticeable difference in the everyday usage for most users while opening up future development paths.
I’m confused as to what this means. HomeKit resides on the devices I own, right? It—very specifically—does not depend on Apple servers to work. So what does this involve?
I think that’s correct, and also the reason why the transition took so long. A centralized server could act as a “translator” between different versions of HomeKit, without that all the devices you own need to be on the same version so Apple needed to provide people time to upgrade older devices.
If you have an older device (like an iPhone 7) that can’t update to a recent version of iOS, that will now be cut off - the Home app will no longer work.
Why? How? I’m still confused. Does Apple reach into my phone (certainly that’s possible, but not how HomeKit is advertised to work) and turn it off? Do we not know? Part of the reason I’ve been a huge HomeKit advocate is that, unlike other systems (like Google and Amazon), HomeKit is not at all dependent on Apple’s servers to operate, and will keep working even if Apple goes out of business. If that’s not the case, or if Apple can reach into my phone and futz with HomeKit in other ways than me updating the software—that’s a problem, and I’d like to know about it.
And, indeed, my iPhone 5S seems to still be able to access HomeKit just as well as it could before.
Right. HomeKit is a set of APIs, and the OSes (MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS) are removing support for the older API versions. This was announced a few years ago.
Sort of. If you’re using (for example) an Apple TV as your HomeKit hub, the next firmware update pushed into that ATV will lose the old API, this breaking devices that can’t run the new one.
If all your devices are so old that they can’t be upgraded, I suppose you won’t be affected. But that is unlikely to be the case for most people.
Okay, that would have been my original assumption, but the way these emails have been worded isn’t “Older devices will no longer be able to access HomeKit once you update your newer devices,” but “HomeKit will stop working on older devices on this date,” which was extremely concerning, not because I’m so attached to older devices (though I sort of am), but because a huge part of what I had thought was the superiority of HomeKit was that Apple couldn’t do that sort of thing. It’s creepy enough that Apple just knows that I am running older devices (though really not that surprising) and emails me about it.
Really just curiosity on my part, as I have no “Home…” devices, but when @ace posted this article, I went to my Apple TV to see what sort of “hub-like” settings might be there. To my surprise, there is no Home app on the TV, nor could I figure out how to get it from the Apple Store. So in the event I get a HomePod, for example, how does the ATV function as the “hub” to which it connects?
The original and current Home upgrade notices
