Make YOUR HOME EVEN SMARTER

IOS ’S HOME APP offers the extra flexibility necessary for a smart home to be convenient for your whole family. It takes the existing ability to trigger automations based on when your location changes, a time of day occurs, an accessory is controlled, or a sensor detects something, and adds more detailed time constraints plus the potential to track all family members coming and going.

For example, the expanded range of conditions that can trigger automations enables you to turn on your heating only if someone is home and the time is between 5 PM and midnight.

Bear in mind that automating HomeKit accessories and scenes requires a device that can act as a home hub. Today, that’s either an iPad or an Apple TV model that runs tvOS (starting with the 4th-generation models introduced in 2015); later in the year you’ll be able to use Apple’s HomePod speaker for this purpose, too. Instructions for setting up a HomeKit hub are at bit.ly/hubsetup, which we expect Apple will have updated to reflect iOS 11 and tvOS 11 by the time you read this.