iOS 16 confirms the death of this iPad HomeKit feature

[iMore.com]

Code in iOS 16 has confirmed that the iPad will no longer be supported as a HomeKit hub.

Full story from the iMore Blog...

 

[Wotchered]

Code in iOS 16 has confirmed that the iPad will no longer be supported as a HomeKit hub.

Full story from the iMore Blog...

Thank goodness ! I had been living in fear of suddenly being in remote control of my fridge ! Or even worse, being suddenly shown pictures of it’s interior while reading. Mind you I’ve always wondered if the light was on …

 

[Annie_M]

I’m kind of bummed about this!

 

[Up_And_Away]

The iPad as a hub had some solid points against it. It is mobile and it frequently isn’t plugged into power. Just imho, if you really need a hub then an ATV or HomePod is kind of a must. But I see the purchase case for someone buying an iPad to act as a hub and home control touch panel. In theory Apple could (but I highly doubt it) make an IpadOS app that runs code to act as a hub.

 

[scruffypig]

The iPad as a hub had some solid points against it. It is mobile and it frequently isn’t plugged into power. Just imho, if you really need a hub then an ATV or HomePod is kind of a must. But I see the purchase case for someone buying an iPad to act as a hub and home control touch panel. In theory Apple could (but I highly doubt it) make an IpadOS app that runs code to act as a hub.

You can still use the Home app on iPad to control all your HomeKit devices and accessories. HomeKit Hub has nothing to do with any of that.

 

[Annie_M]

You can still use the Home app on iPad to control all your HomeKit devices and accessories. HomeKit Hub has nothing to do with any of that.

Hopefully, this will work for me! All I have are a couple of lamps, but using the Home app is so convenient!

 

[scruffypig]

Hopefully, this will work for me! All I have are a couple of lamps, but using the Home app is so convenient!

HomeKit Hub is just a dedicated central hub that all your HomeKit devices connect to, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, etc. It is different from the Home app that is used to control and setup the devices. If I go to the store and forget to turn off lights I can use the Home app on my iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch and turn off the lights or control my HomeKit devices and accessories, because the Home app is connecting to my HomeKit Hub, which is at home on my home network.

HomeKit Hub also allows for automations with HomeKit devices and accessories. Alternatively, I can set up an automation on my iPhone using the Home app on my phone to automatically turn off lights when I leave or turn them on when I arrive home. It uses the Geo-Fencing location of my phone to let the HomeKit Hub know I am home.

 

[Up_And_Away]

Apologies for making my reply confusing. I was waxing poetic (aka speaking of pie in the sky ) of an app for iPad to enable it to be a hub (as improbable as that is). This would be a purchase-use case of someone getting the iPad for dedicated home control touchpad — and in that instance you would want it to be the hub. I’ve never personally seen a private residence use an iPad that way, I’ve only seen it used as a dedicated touch panel in business conference rooms. Sometimes Wall mounted, detachable, fairly cool stuff from activating a laptop screen share connection, selecting what monitor or projector shows what image to dialing/connecting a teleconference to opening/closing shades. But that most definitely isn’t using HomeKit. But I always assumed there would be residentials heavily smart home integrated using an ipad as a dedicated HomeKit based touchpanel.

 

[Annie_M]

I just read an update about this in an article on Cult of Mac. Apparently, the Home Hubs will work on iPadOS 16. The article states that "After indicating iPad wouldn’t work at all as a Home Hub with iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, Apple has now said it will continue to function. But the tablet will work as it did before, without upcoming new functionality."