Apple may have pumped the brakes on its new Home architecture

It will improve your HomeKit performance, Apple said. The Home app will become much snappier, it said. 

But the move to Apple’s new Home architecture has proved to be a headache for many HomeKit users, and now Apple has apparently yanked the upgrade option.

Macrumors reported late Wednesday that the option to move to the new Home architecture, which arrived as part of Apple’s iOS 16.2 update earlier this month, has seemingly disappeared from the Software Update section of the Home app. 

Apple has yet to say anything publicly about the apparent change. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.

For now, that leaves HomeKit users who had yet to transition to the new Home architecture unable to do so. Likewise, there doesn’t appear to be a way for users who did make the move to roll back to the old architecture.

Apple hasn’t detailed much about what precise improvements are included in the new Home architecture, except to say that it’s “more reliable and efficient.”

But almost immediately upon the release of iOS 16.2, Apple Home users began reporting problems with their migration to the new architecture.

Some Home users on Reddit complained that their Apple home hubs stopped responding, while others said their HomeKit devices were stuck updating their status. Some also found that their family members couldn’t rejoin their Apple homes.

The upgrade to the new Home architecture was optional in iOS 16.2, and those who did want to perform the update had to ensure that their various home hub devices (such as Apple TVs, HomePods, and HomePod minis) were updated to the latest software first.

That requirement may have limited the fallout from problems with the new Home architecture, and if Apple did indeed remove the upgrade option, it was a wise move.

Still, a heads up about the developing Home situation would have been nice, too.