In 2022, Apple announced a “new Home architecture” for its smart home ecosystem, designed to boost performance, reliability, and compatibility with a wider range of accessories. While the update was largely seamless for most when it functioned correctly, early adopters who tried switching during the initial rollout in iOS 16.2 encountered issues like slow or unresponsive devices, leading Apple to halt the transition and later reintroduce it with iOS 16.4. Now, if you delayed adopting the new architecture due to those initial problems or any other reason, Apple is making the switch mandatory starting today.

Andrew Cunningham for Ars Technica:
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You’ll need to update to the new Home architecture if you want to continue using the Home app, and older iOS and macOS versions that don’t support the new architecture will no longer be able to control your smart home devices. The old version of the Home app and the old Home/HomeKit architecture are no longer supported.

If you’re like me, you hit an “upgrade” button in your Home app years ago and then mostly forgot about it — if you open the Home app on a modern iPhone, iPad, or Mac and don’t see an update prompt, it means you’re already using the updated architecture and don’t need to worry about it.

For those who haven’t upgraded, Apple’s support document outlines what you need to do: Make sure every device you plan to use the Home app on is running a supported operating system (“iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, macOS 13.1, tvOS 16.2, or watchOS 9.2 or later”), open the Home app, and tap the update prompt. Apple says that some users “may be automatically upgraded to the latest version of Apple Home,” but it didn’t specify under what circumstances an automatic switch will happen.

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MacDailyNews Note: You can set up a home hub to control your smart home accessories while you’re away from home, share control of your accessories with others, and automate your accessories to do what you want, when you want. You must set up a home hub to add Matter accessories to the Home app. Thread-enabled Matter accessories require a Thread-enabled home hub, such as HomePod mini or Apple TV 4K (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Ethernet, or a supported third-party border router. More info here.

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