If you're the proud owner of a smart home powered by Apple's HomeKit system, you're going to like what the upcoming iOS 18 iPhone software update has to offer. Ignore Apple Intelligence and all the other big features announced earlier this week — the biggest improvement for you is one that has so far avoided the limelight entirely.
The new feature is a simple option hidden within the Home app that will allow people to choose their own home hub. Whether that's a HomePod or an Apple TV 4K, it's up to you. But once you choose a preferred hub that's the one that will be used from there on out.
That's a bigger deal than you might think, too. I've already written about the problems that HomeKit can cause when allowed to choose its own home hub — normally brought about by the system choosing a HomePod in a far-flung corner of the home on a flakey Wi-Fi signal. But soon, HomeKit will have to do as it's told.
Now that's smart
The problem normally rears its head when people have multiple devices that can act as a home hub. One could be an Apple TV 4K box that's wired into the network and would, for obvious reasons, be the preferred choice. But as mentioned, HomeKit has a habit of choosing the other device which, more often than not, is on a poor connection and can't always be reached.
That causes issues in a variety of ways, and can often manifest itself in terms of automations not firing properly or smart home accessories not behaving as expected. But with iOS 18, set to launch this fall, you'll be able to tell HomeKit to always default to the Apple TV and its nice, fast Ethernet connection as spotted by HomeKit fans on Reddit.
I think people will be surprised just how many smart home gremlins this will address and iOS 18 can't come soon enough.
