If you control your smart home with the iPad, you have to accept some compromises after installing iOS 16.
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Will you soon need an Apple TV to control your smart home?
©Apple
With the introduction of iOS 16 in the fall, Apple is planning many new functions for its mobile devices. But in the case of the iPad, buyers also lose an important smart home function. The function called “Home Hub” for the iPad with iOS 16 should be omitted. Anyone who has previously controlled Apple Homekit devices with their Apple tablet can no longer do so after the update to iOS 16 or iPadOS.
Only Apple TV or HomePod
The planned deletion was discovered by the iOS developer
Steve Moser
. Meanwhile, Apple has also officially confirmed the planned switch. For example, the iOS 16 preview page states that sharing a home and receiving home notifications requires a home hub. Only an Apple TV or a HomePod could do this. The iPad is no longer used as a control center.
Planning your own Matter app?
It remains unclear why Apple is eliminating the iPad as the control center for the smart home. One reason could be the introduction of Matter with iOS 16. This manufacturer-independent standard ensures that smart home products from Apple, IKEA, Huawei, Google or Samsung can be networked with each other. However, this should no longer work with the Apple HomeApp. Instead, Apple could plan to introduce a corresponding Matter app. This means that not only Apple products can be controlled, but also devices from other manufacturers that also use Matter. iOS 16 release is scheduled for September 2022. In the following article we explain which innovations are planned for iPad OS 16.
iPadOS 16: Four features for a new tablet experience
