iPads would possibly lose their good residence hub skills in iOS 16

Apple will now not allow you to use an iPad as a house hub to manage HomeKit equipment beginning with iOS 16, MacRumors experiences. Textual content apparently present in iOS 16’s second developer beta by MacRumors contributing author Steve Moser spells out the change.

“A house hub is required to reap the benefits of options like receiving accent notifications and permitting different folks to manage your property,” textual content within the Residence app reportedly reads. “You will be unable to view shared properties till these properties are additionally upgraded to the most recent HomeKit. iPad will now not be supported as a house hub.”

If the change goes into impact because the discovered textual content suggests, it means you’ll want to make use of a HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV as your property hub whenever you improve to iOS 16. Apple didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. However as MacRumors factors out, the corporate’s iOS 16 preview webpage says that “solely Apple TV and HomePod are supported as residence hubs,” which to me signifies that Apple is certainly planning to take away assist for iPads.

Whereas the change may be disappointing, there may be some excellent news on the good residence entrance for iOS 16. The replace will embody an all-new Residence app with options like a brand new classes part and a redesigned residence tab. And a later iOS 16 replace will add assist for Matter, the brand new good residence connectivity normal with broad business assist that’s set to reach someday this fall. That upcoming Matter assist could present a clue as to why Apple is dropping iPad residence hub assist: whereas no iPads assist Thread, a sensible residence networking protocol utilized by Matter, the Apple TV 4K and the HomePod mini do.