Apple tees up a redesigned Home app for iOS 16

Apple is giving its Home app a much-needed makeover for iOS 16, adding rooms to the main Home interface as well as adding multi-camera views and new navigation options, including categories for climate, lights, and security.

Apple revealed the redesigned Home app on Monday during its Worldwide Developers Conference, where it also promised a coming update that will add support for Matter, the long-awaited, ecosystem-uniting smart home standard.

Rather than jumbling your favorite HomeKit devices and scenes on the main Home screen, the redesigned Home app brings rooms to the main Home tab, letting you scroll from room to room, giving you a quick overview of each room’s devices and its status.

Also redesigned is the overview section at the top of the Home tab, which now includes categories such as Climate, Lights, Water, Speakers and TVs, and Security. The Climate button, for example, shows you the range of room temperatures in your home, while the Lights button tells you how many smart lights are on, and the Security button details how many smart locks are secured. 

Apple

Tapping one of the category buttons lets you see all related devices in your home, organized by room. You can also scroll through categories on the Home tab.

Also coming to the main Home tab is a multi-camera view that can display up to four cameras at once, and you can swipe to see more camera views. Live camera feeds will also appear in the Security category.

Besides rooms and categories, device tiles in the Home app have gotten a refresh, with Apple saying that the new tiles are “more visually recognizable through shape and color.”

Finally, the new Home app will take advantage of iOS 16’s new lock screen widgets, allowing you to see an overview of your HomeKit devices straight from the lock screen.

Apple

Apple’s iOS 16 update is slated to arrive this fall.

Meanwhile, Apple reiterated its support for Matter, the upcoming (but twice-delayed) smart home standard that’s designed to make different smart home platforms such as Alexa, Google Home, and HomeKit play nice with each other.

Apple says that support for Matter, which is expected to debut this fall, will arrive in an update to iOS 16.